VIRUNDHOMBAL

Chana dal modagam - traditional prasadam for Ganesh Chathurthi Pooja with chana dal, jaggery, coconut and rice flour. This modagam is a popular South Indian dessert that’s easy to make and healthy too. The filling (pooranam) inside the modagam is prepared with cooked chana dal, coconut and jaggery. How to prepare chana dal pooranam You need 3 basic ingredients to make this delicious poornam. Of course I like to eat this pooranam very much before filling in the modagam. So I always keep some pooranam to eat as it is. After offering to the God, we( me and my son) enjoy this pooranam. This is the same pooranam we prepare for sushiyam dessert for Diwali. The First thing you will want to pressure cook the chana dal. If you soak the dal for 30 to 45 minutes, then it will be perfect for mashing. Do not add more water for pressure cooking. Then mash the dals with a wooden spatula or a ladle. In a separate bowl, dissolve the jaggery with little water and keep it ready. The gra...

Samba Pacharisi Kozhukattai - prepared with red raw rice, jaggery and coconut. Anyone who wants a quick evening dessert without much effort should try this samba raw rice Kozhukattai. In our family, we call this kozhukattais as avarakkai kozhukattai because it looks like the vegetable avarakkai. The first step is to grind the samba raw rice flour.This samba raw rice is a medium grain rice which is purple in colour and wider in size. It is common in Tirunelveli and can be used in a variety of dishes like kozhukattai, puttu, sarkkarai pongal and aapam. In Tirunelveli, for Pongal festival we cook this rice in the pot and then offered to the God. Compared to other varieties of raw rice, this samba raw rice has a mild sweetness in it. During shasti fasting days, we eat this cooked samba rice along with freshly grated coconuts and jaggery. Whenever we visit Tirunelveli, we buy this rice and prepare the flour. To prepare this flour, just sun dry the rice for a few hours and then grind ...

Varagu Arisi Kozhukattai - super easy tiffin recipe with kodo millets also called as varagu arisi. No need for soaking and no other difficult preparation works needed for this dish. Many of us use millets as a substitute for rice. While millet flour is available in many super markets, you can easily make this at home using a mixer grinder. The kodo millets are roasted in a pan and then powdered nicely. Roasting the millets in a pan, brings a nice flavour and it gets powdered easily. Then we have to prepare the dough as we prepare for arisi upma. In this dish, I have not added onions and green chillies, you can include finely chopped onions and green chillies while tempering. For one part of millet flour add 2.5 cups of water. If you add too much of water, the dough will get soggy and it will be difficult to prepare kozhukattai. After preparing the dough, prepare small lemon sized  balls or oblong shaped balls and press it in the centre with your fingers and then steam coon t...

Paal Kozhukattai - our family favourite evening dessert. Paal Kozhukattai is an easy dessert made with just 4 ingredients. This paal kozhukattai is made with rice flour and then cooked in the milk. The kozhukattais are then sweetened with sugar and to add some extra flavours grated coconuts and a teaspoon of cardamom powder are added. So good when it's served hot.

Sweet Pidi Kozhukkatai - a classic prasadam recipe for pooja made with raw rice, jaggery, coconut, moong dal and black sesame seeds. This Pidi Kozhukkatai is a popular kozhukattai dish with different variations, although the most common method is prepared with the freshly prepared homemade rice flour as we do for maa vilakku. As I said in my previous posts, the coconut adds a great flavour to the jaggery based desserts.

Puzhungal arisi (boiled rice) kozhukattais are one of the most popular evening snacks in Tirunelveli. We can prepare this kozhukattai either by grinding the rice or by using good quality rice flour. Kozhukattais prepared by grinding the rice are softer than the kozhukattais made with rice flour. If you plan to make kozhukattais with rice flour, use hot water for kneading the dough so your kozhukattais will be soft and easy to cook. If possible, choose fresh curry leaves and fresh coconuts for this kozhukattai. For most of the kozhukattais we use fresh coconuts which adds an exotic taste to it. If you use coconuts which have water content fry them along with the sauted ingredients and then add the ground rice batter. If it has less water content, you can add the coconuts in the end. Making kozhukattai is one of the interesting part in this dish. You can make medium balls or after preparing oblong shaped balls a slight press is made in the centre to prepare kozhukattai. Now let...

Ragi flour kozhukkatai(Dumplings) This ragi flour kozhukattai is easy to prepare and makes a healthy snack for kids and also for their snacks box. And it's a great way to use up ragi flour and palm jaggery. Millets are highly nutritious, non-glutinous and not acid forming food. Hence they’re soothing and easy to digest. Make this different kozhukattai and serve to your family and stay healthy.