20 Aug 2014

Paal Kozhukattai - A Guest Post by Ree Kasirajh

It's guest post time again and this time I have Ree from Delectable Flavors. Ever since I visited Ree's blog, I have loved it! So much so that I enjoy visiting her blog often and reading her recipes. I love the detailed way in which she explains her recipes with equally detailed pictures.


Paal Kozhukattai



The first post that I read in her blog was the sizzling brownies. Whenever I visit a blog, I go hunting for the baked goodies and when I found this brownie, I was hooked on to her blog!
The variety of recipes in her blog is another thing that I love, like the aloe vera juice, ever since I saw that recipe I have been wanting to make it for my dad who loves aloe vera. I also love the healthy recipes in her blog, like the instant mudakathan keerai dosai, which I have been wanting to try. 
Having talked to Ree over the past few weeks, I have come to know her well and she is a lovely person to interact with down to earth and sincere and I am happy to have come across her.
I'm really glad she agreed to do a guest post for me and I simply love this recipe. I have never made paal kozhukattai and I'm glad she choose this recipe!
If you have not visited her space yet, do hop over to Delectable Flavours and enjoy!




A big hi to all the lovely readers of Full Scoops!!! 

I am Ree/ Sooriya Kasirajh from Delectable Flavours. I was surprised when Beulah wrote to me for a guest post, and very happily took up the opportunity to write the first guest post in one of my favorite blogger's blog

About Beulah and Fullscoops, first thing that attracted me was her blog name Full Scoops, insightful presentation, food styling, and most of all the scoops of amazing recipes she has. I love her eggless baking column. Beulah is very helpful, dedicated and a simple person. She is one of the constant supporter of my blog which kept me highly motivated. Few of my favourite dishes from her blog are Elaneer SouffleEggless Mango Mousse Cake and Black Forest Trifle

I very much enjoyed getting to know her and wanted to present a sweet and simple dish to a sweet and simple person, so made the most popular and my favourite dessert from chettinad cuisine "Paal Kozhukattai". Hope you enjoy reading it!!!

Paal Kozhukattai


Paal Kozhukattai is one of the popular sweets of chettinad. Its a authentic sweet dish made with rice dumplings soaked in a rich milk sweet sauce. It is very easy to prepare and tastes delicious. I remember as a kid how much I loved this sweet and used to wait when my mom prepares this. I keep asking her if it's ready and go around play and come back with the same question. Lol. I can always finish off my brother's share too!!! 


PAAL KOZHUKATTAI RECIPE
Recipe Category: Chettinad | Sweets
Preparation Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes Serves: 5 cup
Ingredients:

For the paal kozhukattai dough:
Rice Flour - 1 cup
Salt - less than a pinch
Water - 1/2 cup or as required

For the rice flour paste:
Rice Flour Dough - lemon sized
Salt - pinch
Water - 2 tbsp

For the jaggery syrup:
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Water - required to immerse broken jaggery

For the milk jaggery sauce:
Milk - 1 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Grated Coconut - 4 tbsp
Cardamom - 1, crushed


Paal Kozhukattai


Method of Preparation:

1. For the Rice Balls: Take rice flour in a mixing bowl, add less than a pinch of salt and mix well. Add water enough to form a smooth dough. (The dough should be able to roll into smooth small balls). Keep it aside covered to prevent drying. Reserve some lemon sized amount of rice flour dough separately for later use to prepare rice flour paste. 




2. Just work on small amount of dough into smooth small balls like seedai (your choice - you can make very small balls than shown in the picture or try cylindrical shape which is how traditionally we make it). Make balls out of the entire dough and keep ready. Boil milk and water in a heavy bottomed pan in HIGH, once it starts bubbling hot, add the rice balls, you must not add the entire balls at once, just add two by two as it starts sticking if you add at one shot. Give it a gentle stir. 



3. Once the rice balls are fully added, bring to SIMMER and close the pan with a lid and allow it to cook for 5-10 minutes. After 5 minutes, open and check if the rice ball is cooked and soft by cut opening a single rice ball to ensure its cooked perfectly. Also once its cooked, the rice balls will gradually come to a float on top. 



4. Meanwhile, prepare the Jaggery syrup, in a wide non stick pan add jaggery and immerse it with enough water to cover it and heat it until it bubbles up and dissolves completely.Turn off and let it cool. Strain it to remove any impurities and keep aside. 



5. In a small mixing bowl, take the lemon sized amount of rice flour dough, add pinch of salt and add water to make the dough into a smooth paste. Keep aside. Now,add the jaggery syrup and rice flour paste to the boiling milk.



6. Ensuring the rice balls are soft and cooked, add the grated coconut and cardamom. Give a gentle stir and allow for a single boil and switch off. Let it rest for 30 minutes before serving. 


Paal Kozhukattai


Notes:
  • The cooking time of rice balls vary depending on the rice flour you use. Generally store brought rice flours are cooked very fast in less than 5 minutes than the home made flours. So, its best to check the rice balls after 5 minutes. 
  • The shape can be either round or cylindrical, some prefer very small especially for kids. So make it according to your preference. 
  • Don't add the balls fully, as they tend to stick together. Also maintain the Heat High while dropping the rice balls and Simmer after that. 
  • You can also add coconut milk to the milk and water but its purely optional. We don't add coconut milk and still it tastes best. 
  • Freshly grated coconut must be used.
  • Amma makes it with sugar, but I avoid sugar as much as possible, so added jaggery syrup. If you want to use sugar instead of jaggery, just replace jaggery syrup with sugar. 
  • The rice flour paste added towards the end, makes it like a sauce, creamy and thick milk. So, the consistency can be adjusted to your preference with the quantity of rice flour paste. Some prefer thick and some prefer slightly thinner and runny. Resting time of 15-30 minutes helps the flavours to blend in and the sauce to set. 
  • Serve it warm or chilled. I love chilled better. Both tastes very good. 

Hope you enjoyed reading!!!



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16 comments:

  1. lovely pal kozhukattai :) always love it... :) good job gals :)))

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  2. wonderful guest post dear :) let me visit her place too :) i really like the presentation :)

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  3. Delicious guest post.. and superb pics..

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  4. wow such an delicious paal kozhukattai :) looks so very tempting dear :) love your presentation well done !!

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  5. That's such a delicious post by Ree....Lovely post ladies...

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  6. paal kozhukattai looks delicious and inviting..

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  7. love the presentation and step wise pictures there.yummy wonderful

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  8. Interesting to note a similar dessert we have over here too. I love the presence of the rice balls in the sweet liquid.

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  9. Hard to resist to this beautiful paal kozukattai, beautiful guest post by Ree,kudos to u both.

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  10. lovely guest post,looks yummy!

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  11. A perfect post...and a big hai..to Ree Kasirajh

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  12. Delicious paal Kozhukattai..

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  13. Thanks everyone...!!! I am grateful to you Beulah for giving me space to write in your blog!!! And I hope in future you will do a guest post for me:)

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