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Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Pal Koz(l)hukattai / Paal Kolukattai with Sugar

Like Everyone else in the Food blog world , I wanted my first post of the year to be a dessert or a sweet recipe. Hence this Palkoz(l)ukattai, a traditional Tamilian sweet/payasam  made with riceflour, sugar, milk and cardamom. I have already blogged about this one way back in 2006, but with jaggery instead of sugar. Its one of the popular posts in my blog to date


This is one of my favorite sweet and has loads of childhood memories attached with it. This is my Grandma's speciality and after her I dont remember anyone in  my maternal household making this nowadays.
Probably its time consuming and everyone gathers around in one place just for special occasions like weddings etc. In these days of fast travel, if at all we visit our native, its reach there by morning and start by night. Oh... how  I terribly miss my long summer holidays and endless chatting with cousins throughout the night.
Anyways traditionally this sweet is prepared by rolling the rice flour into small balls, first cooking them in boiling water, and then with milk and sugar. But I always use a shortcut method of directly pressing the prepared dough using a murruku press into the hot boiling water and then stir to break them.  Its a great way to involve the kids if you opt to make the kolukattai's the authentic way.

Ingredients:
1 cup Rice flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup milk
3 pods cardomom
4 cups of water
1 cup shredded coconut.


Method:
Crush the cardamoms to a fine powder.
Boil half cup of water with a pinch of salt
Add this boiling water to the rice flour and stir well with a wooden spoon, like you do for regular kollukattai or Idiyappam. Allow it to cool slightly.
At this stage you can proceed in two ways.
Boil 4 cups of water
Pinch the flour and roll into very tiny balls using your palm and put them in a plate or paper.Once all the dough is rolled, add them to the boiling water little by little. 
 (or)
Boil 4 cups of water in a thick bottomed vessel.
Place some prepared flour into the murruku press (with one hole) .
When the water is boiling , press the dough directly in it. Wait for a minute and then stir with a laddle gently to break into pieces. Wait for 2 minutes before doing the next batch.


Once the dough is all done, allow it to cook well in the water for about 5 mins.
Parallely warm a cup of milk in the saucepan.
Add the sugar, stir well and cook for another 5 mins. 
Now add the warm  milk and cardamom pods and give it a good stir.
 Boil for another 10 mins. Stir at intervals to avoid burning.
Finally add shredded coconut (fresh or desiccated) , mix well , cook for a minute and switch of the stove.
The payasam will become thick as it cools down.


Notes:
The water should be really really hot, boiling with bubbles  otherwise the koz(l)hukattai will not retain its shape and not cook properly. 


Variations:
Palkolukattai with Jaggery
There are lots of variations to this recipe.
1. You can add Jaggery instead of Sugar like here
2. Substitute milk with Coconut milk  or equal proportions of both.
3. Sometimes my Mom adds shredded lauki /surrakkai to the boiling water before adding the koz(l)ukkatai which also gives a delicate taste to this dish.


This recipe serves 5-6 people. This dish can easily be made ahead of time and refrigerated.Warm just before serving.




Sending this to the Food Pallette series - White held at Torview

17 comments:

  1. My all time fav sumi n kolukattai looks so inviting...

    Pongal Feast Event

    Kurinji

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  2. Wow..Looks yummy yumm Sumi..I have had this loong loong time ago..Nice post :-)

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  3. pal kozhukattai looks so yummy :) We call it thaaligalu paravannam in telugu. Used to love it loads :)

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  4. I luv it, ur post made me nostalgic...luv the jaggery version

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  5. wish i could have tasted this delicious dessert.
    Wish you and your family a very happy New Year.

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  6. Happy New Year.Very Inviting.

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  7. Time consuming but worth making on special occasion! Looks excellent!

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  8. Wat a droolworthy paal kozhukattais,soo creamy and tempting..

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  9. Looks delicious. I love to make them.

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  10. This sweet dish looks so tempting. Happy New Year!

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  11. creamy kozhukaatai looks very very inviting !! good one !!

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  12. I like them so much....

    HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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  13. delicious sweet thank you for linking

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  14. Looks tempting and delicious dear!

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  15. Hi Sumi... You kindled all my childhood memories... Even my grandma used to make this and it used to be a still more elaborate process.. which would consume half a day... We kids would be helping her to make the balls... Great one to start a new year with...

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  16. Looks yummy and well presented.Keep rocking.
    http://shanthisthaligai.blogspot.com/

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  17. this is one of my favs too! too much work to make it though. so i hardly ever try it.

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Thanks for dropping by.Your comments are very much valuable to me. Will reply to you guys as when time permits