Aval Kozhukattai | Poha Kozhukattai

Hey all,

Have you ever observed your spirit during the festive season? I always feel excited and adrenaline rush during Festivals. Festivals bring happiness and positivity along with it. Meeting family members, relishing childhood memories, eating a lot of sweets and partying with cousins – Isn’t that fun? Life is such small pleasures. If you are searching for happiness in larger space, then you misunderstood life. It’s such pleasures that make life beautiful.

With Vinayakar Chaturthi around, I am all excited and experimenting all his favorites in my kitchen. So please bear with me, if I am overloading your feed with my posts.

Aval Kozhukattai | Poha Kozhukattai is prepared by steaming thick aval/poha/Beaten rice with spices. If you feel that kozhukattai can be prepared only with rice flour, then you should try this poha Kozhukattai. You will find it so exotic and tasty. It’s such an uncomplicated dumpling which can be prepared effortlessly with the common items available in your kitchen. Here it goes.

Ingredients

Outer Dough
- 1 cup Thick Poha/ Beaten Rice
- 1 cup Water
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 4 tablespoon Grated Coconut
To temper
- 1 tablespoon Cooking Oil
- 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon Urad dal
- 1 teaspoon Chana dal
- 2 Green Chilies, chopped
- Handful Curry leaves

Method:

Grind the thick poha coarsely in a mixer. Do not grind smoothly. Pulse once and let it be coarse. Set it aside.
Heat a small kadai in stove over medium flame.
Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and allow it to sizzle.
Add urad dal, chana dal, curry leaves and green chilies. Cook until the dal turns golden in color.
Add water to the mixture in the kadai and bring it to boil
Once it starts boiling, add grounded poha to the boiling water.
Reduce the flame and stir continuously to avoid lumps.
Cook until the poha is cooked and water is absorbed completely. Add grated coconut and fry it for a minute.
Season it with salt. There should be little moisture in the mixture. If the dough is too dry, you will not be able to make kozhukattai.
Add water in Idli cooker and bring it to boil. Grease Idli molds with oil.
Take a lemon sized ball of the dough in hand and form a cylindrically shaped one by pressing the dough with hand.
Place the kozhukattai in idli molds and steam it for about 8-10 minutes. Do not steam for a long time as it will make the kozhukattai hard.
Allow it cool for some time to avoid them from breaking down and then remove from the idli molds.
Serve it warmly with a spicy chutney of your choice or just serve it as such!