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.
Panai Olai Kozhukattai
5
servings15
minutes15
minutesThis dish is specially prepared for Thirukarthigai Day (Karthigai Deepam festival) in the districts of Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin in southern part of Tamil Nadu state in India.
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
Ten der palm leaves – 10 to 15
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 consistency. 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.
Notes
- 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.