Sweet Kozhakatai or Kudumulu or Modhak:

Preparation time: 45 - 60 minutes

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

For Outer cover:

Rice flour -1 cup

Water - 1-1/4 cups

Salt – for taste

Vegetable oil or Ghee - 1-2 tsp (Ghee is preferred).

For the Jaggery Coconut filling

Fresh coconut, grated - 1 cup

Jaggery, - 3/4 cup powdered

Cardamom powder - Pinch (or as per taste)

Method

• Mash the jaggey into small pieces.
• Add jaggery and coconut together in a skillet.
• In low heat, saute until the jaggery melts and the mixture thickens.
• Add the cardamom to the mix and toss well.

Tip: 

If it does not thicken well, add a little rice flour along with little drops of ghee and cook further for few seconds until it thickens.

• While still warm, take a small piece of this filling (it will be sticky, you can grease your palms with ghee) and make a small ball.
• Repeat for all the filling
• Alternatively lets prepare the cover. There are two ways to go about this.

Method 1:

Traditionally raw rice is soaked for few hours; the water is drained very well and then ground into flour. This flour is used to make this recipe. For those short on time and looking for easier/quicker version, next method is for you.

Method 2:

I most often end up using this method since I find myself short on time to go about grinding the rice flour at home.

The quality of rice flour will vary and hence the amount of water used (instead of 1-1/4 cups) will vary. It might need more or less.

• Bring the recommended amount of water to boil along with salt.
• Take rice flour in other dry container and this boiled water.
• Grease your hands with Ghee and start kneading the dough.
• The idea is to make it into a smooth consistency like that of chapathi dough.
• The difference is that while chapathi dough will stretch, rice flour lacks the gluten and will not stretch
• Grease your palms well and break off a small piece from the dough. You should be able to rotate the dough into an extremely smooth ball
• Using your thumb and other fingers, make a small crater in the ball you made like an inverted cone.
• You should be using both your hands for this one
• Slowly rotate and go around making this crater until it looks little bigger, need to make sufficiently big enough to stuff the filling you made earlier.
• Place the filling into this crater.
• Slowly bring the ends together over the top of the filling
• Repeat with rest of the dough.
• Now steam them for about 10-15 minutes.

  

Tips 

1. If you find that this is too dry and not sticky, then add the additional boiled water you set aside, drop by drop, until it comes together.

      2. If you find this too sticky and not pliable, you can use additional few sprinkling of rice flour/maida (all purpose flour) until it does. Make sure too much flour is NOT added. The taste might get affected. That's why it’s preferable to go with less water and then added if needed than vice versa.