Ingredients
- Rice flour – 2 cups
- Palm Jaggery or ordinary jaggery powdered – 1 cup
- Coconut gratings – 1/2 cup
- Cardamom Powder – 1/2 teaspoon
- Dry Ginger Powder (Sukku podi) – 1/2 teaspoon
- Tender palm leaves – 10 to 15 Nos (It is sold even in cities during Karthigai)
It is specially prepared for Thirukarthigai Day (Karthigai Deepam festival) in the districts of Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin.
Hand-ground raw rice flour is mixed with powdered ‘karuppatti’ (palm jaggery) and coconut gratings. This flour mixture is then stuffed in the tender palm leaves and cooked in steam for a while.
Now people started using rice flour and jaggery or sugar and making this Kozhukattai.
Directions
- Add half cup water to the jaggery powder and bring to boil. When it starts boiling, remove it and strain it.
- In a broad vessel put the rice flour, coconut gratings, ginger powder and cardamom powder. Mix it. Add the jaggery water and make a dough. If necessary add little hot water to get correct consistancy. The dough should be slightly looser than the chapati dough.
- Clean the palm leaves and cut the center portion about 4 to 5 inch long.
- Open the leaves and stuff the dough lengthwise and close the leaves. Tie with a thick thread. (You can use thinly cut palm leaves as thread). Finish all the dough like this.
Arrange it in a idli plate and steam it in the Idli vessel for fifteen to twenty minutes.- Remove and gently take out the kozhukattai from the leaves.
- Note: If you do not get Palm leaves, you can just take out a lemon size dough and press it with your fingers and make the Kozhukattai.
- You can dry fry a tablespoon of green gram dhal till it become light brown and add to the flour.
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