Enthaligai: PAAL KOZHUKATTAI (WITH JAGGERY)

With very few days left to start the New Year, when I recollect, I am not definitely not the same person as I was a year ago. Experiences have shaped myself as a better person. I have met my short term goals and working on achieving my long term objective. Am not sure what's in store for me for future but I hope with the experiences that I have cultivated I would be able to handle obstacles in a better way.

Moving on to today's dish, Paal Kozhukattai, it is a very popular Chettinad sweet made with rice flour which is cooked in jaggery or sugar added with milk/coconut milk. I like the one prepared with Jaggery. There are many variations to this and I was not getting the correct texture of this dish earlier. Whenever I add jaggery to the milk, it would start to curdle. Later checked with mom and got to know the right procedure of preparing this sweet. Prepared this many times in the recent times and has come out perfectly. This is a foolproof recipe and you would end up loving the final texture and taste of the dish.

INGREDIENTS:

Milk - 1 cup

Rice flour/Idiyappam flour - 1 cup

Thick coconut milk - 1 cup

Thin coconut milk - 1.5 cup

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp

Grated Jaggery - 1 cup

Salt - a pinch

Water - approximately 3/4 cup (for dough preparation) + 1 cup (added to thin coconut milk)

Grated coconut - 2 tsp

PREPARATION:

1. Boil milk and keep aside. Let it cool completely.

2. Grate the coconut and extract the first thick milk and second thin milk separately.

3. In a vessel, boil water, add a pinch of salt and oil to it. Take rice flour in a bowl, pour the boiled water, and mix well with a ladle. When it is warm, mix the dough well and make it smooth.

4. Take small portions from it and make tiny little balls of equal size as shown in picture.

5. Grate jaggery and keep it aside.

6. Now heat the thin coconut milk adding 1 cup of water to it. Once it starts boiling, gently drop the rice flour balls. Do not turn it with ladle immediately. After 2 minutes, turn it gently and drop the next kozhukkattai batch. Likewise, add all the kozhukkatai and let it boil in small to medium flame. After sometime, you would start seeing the rice flour balls floating at the top with mild change in color. If you see the picture, you could make out that the rice ball is cooked. Let it cook for 5 more minutes.

7. Add the grated jaggery slowly to the milk-rice ball mixture and stir well. In between, add a small tsp of rice flour and mix with water without any lumps. Add this to kozhukkattais and mix well. This is to done to bring the dish in thicker texture. Let it boil for 3 more minutes. Keep stirring in between.

8. Add the cooled milk slowly and stir well. The milk should be completely cold when you add to the hot kozhukktattis. Otherwise, it would start to curdle.

9. Add 2 tsp of grated coconut and elachi powder to the kozhukattais. After 3 minutes, switch off the flame and add thick coconut milk. Do not boil after adding the thick coconut milk.