Mothagam Recipe – Vella kozhukattai

Mothagam – Kozhukattai is the highlight for Vinayagar Chaturthi festival, I still remember my childhood days where we get up early, get all dressed and carry a little manai to bring clay Pillayar home, all decorated with flowers & little paper umbrella….. back home amma making all the neivedhyam different type of kozhukatti, sundal with vadai payasam sapadu! Vella Kozhukattai is what we make at home for Pillayar Chaturthi with kadalaiparuppu and thengai pooranam. Today I’m going to share the Sweet pooranam made with coconut, jaggery and dal combination. Sweet pooranam is very versatile and can be used in many sweet preparations like… kozhukattai, modaks, puran poli, suzhiyan etc.  You can make this ahead of time and refrigerate to cut down on some time during busy festive routines. We make many different pooranams at home, sugar and coconut combination, pottukadalai and thengai, moong dal & thengai, sesame seeds filling… the list goes on and this one is my favorite 🙂

Some festive recipes to try…

1. Easy Kara Pidi Kozhukattai
2. Puran Poli
3. Sundal

Lets see how to make this Mothagam

To start with soak chana dal / kadalai paruppu for at least one hour. Pressure cook the soaked dal with water (just to immerse the dal) and cook up to 3 whistles. Once done, transfer the cooked dal to a colander and drain all the water.  Let it cool and stay for sometime to drain all the water.  Now using a mixer / blender grind to a fine paste/ powder or if you have a good masher , then try to mash as much as possible and keep this aside.  Now powder / grate the jaggery and keep aside. Grate fresh coconut, powder the cardamom and keep both aside too.

In a kadai or pan, add the mashed dal and powdered jaggery. Heat it over low flame and the jaggery will start to melt. Initially it will be slightly watery and then as you keep stirring, the water content will reduce and the dal will turn like a thick mass. Now add powdered cardamom and grated coconut to it and mix . Keep stirring until everything blends well and turn in to thick mixture. Stir until the mixture starts leaving the sides of the vessel. (it takes about 10 to 15 minutes) depending upon the water content in the mixture. Once done let cool completely and proceed with any recipe of your choice. They can go in as a stuffing for kozhukattai, puran poli, suzhiyan or just simply plain!

For dough making….

Keep the idiyappam flour ready in a bowl mixed with a pinch of salt.

Heat water in a pan along with a teaspoon of sesame oil.

Let this come to a rolling boil. Immediately switch off. (The water needs to boil, do not switch off before that)

Add water little by little to flour and mix. (Sometimes depending on the quality of flour it may drink more or less, so don’t pour all the water at once) The flour mixture will be very hot so use a wooden ladle or spatula to mix.

Let it rest for few minutes, then while its still warm, grease your hands with little oil/water and knead to a pliable dough.

Cover with a cloth and keep it ready.

Divide the pooranam into little balls and keep them ready. In India we get different style modak mould with which you can make the the outer cover.

First rub the mould with little oil and spread the dough as shown. (Use only less dough orelse your outer cover will be very dense).

Place some sweet pooranam inside and close the mould.

Once you close there will be gap on top, cover with some dough. (Its just my mould looked like this…., some will cover fully)

Open the mould and gently remove the kozhukattai.

Press to evenly cover the dough on top.

Make sure its sealed all over. Gently smoothen to shape. make sure there are no cracks in the dough otherwise the it will break while steaming.

Repeat the same for the rest of the dough and pooranam.

Now grease idli plates with some oil and place the kozhukatti and steam for 5-7 minutes over medium high flame. (make sure you add water to your idli cooker) 🙂

Once done the kozhukattai will look pale white & shinny, switch off and remove from the idli plate to cool.

Notes

1. Makes 15 medium size kozhukattias (approx)
2. The outer layer should be very thin to get soft kozhukattais. Too much dough for the outer cover will make them dense and hard.
3. The dough should be cooked properly otherwise the outer cover will crack and break.
4. Do not steam for more than 7 minutes, it will make the outer cover very rubbery.
5. You will either have extra poornam or stuffing depending on the shape of the kozhukattai.
6. Eat them warm or at room temperature. Reheating in microwave for few seconds will work but may turn the outer covering slightly rubbery.
7. Seal the cracks in the dough ortherwise it may break while steaming. A few may have cracks and might break, don’t panic…. its perfectly normal it happens for all first timers and practice will make it perfect!