Vennai Puttu For ICC January.

Iam participating in Indian Cooking challenge after a long time , so glad I did. Srivalli chose this months recipe as Vennai Puttu, a delicacy from Tamilnadu with the suggestion from Priya. So we had two recipes from Priya and Nirmala. 'Vennai' in tamil means Butter, so I guess the name of this dish resonates the texture of this sweet as it is melt in the mouth buttery, but as for the word puttu goes I have no clue :).

I have very vague memories of my grandmother making this for breakfast during summer vacation. She used to prepare the rice batter by personally grinding the rice with a massive hand stone grinder (Aatukal in tamil), make the porridge in the night and allow it to cool in individual cups or sometimes she puts them in empty coconut shells. Then in the morning we all would have our own pudding bowls, topped with extra ghee and freshly grated coconut.

I never knew the recipe till now, as my mother never made it but as soon as Srivalli announced this as the challenge all these memories came flashing through my mind.

I followed the exact measurements as per Nirmala. This sweet is meant to be mildly sweet 
as it is sometimes taken with fresh shredded coconut, so I did'nt add any extra jaggery. I also used some moulds to make it interesting for my kid.

Ingredients

1 cup raw rice 

2 cups water

1/2 cup jaggery

1/2 tsp cardomom powder

1/4 cup channa dhal

1/4 cup broken cashews

ghee as required

Method:

Soak the rice overnight or for minimum of 3 hours.

 Soak the channa dhal for 1 hour and cook in hot water for 20 mins.It should hold it shape and not mushy.

Melt the jaggery in about 1/4 cup of water.Filter and keep aside.

Grind the rice  to a smooth paste like Idli batter.

In a thick bottomed vessel boil the water. Keep the heat in medium.

 Add the rice flour batter to the boiling water, keep stirring continuously to avoid lumps.

Once the rice flour is cooked and turns thicker add the melted jaggery and mix well to combine.I have to warn you its get kind of messy at this stage :)

 Keep stiring till the mixture leaves the side of the pan. At this stage add the cooked channa dhal, fried cashews and 2 tsps of ghee.

 Mix well and the pour to the greased plate or moulds

Allow it to cool or set for 2 - 3 hours.

Then gently scrape the sides of the plate with a blunt knife and turn over. Serve with freshly grated coconut on top.

Notes:

Stiring is very important and its better to use a non stick pan. But its okay to have very small lumps of rice flour tastes like palkozhukattai (kind of ).
I added the coconut to the bottom of the greased mould before adding the sweet, so that when inverting it comes out beautifully on the top.