Brown Rice Grits Steamed Kolakatte (Kozhukatte) / Brown Rice Grits Steamed Dumplings Recipe

Brown Rice Grits Steamed Kolakatte (Kozhukatte) / Brown Rice Grits Steamed Dumplings

Kozhukatte is an authentic Tamil Nadu recipe, adopted in Karnataka as an evening snack or a breakfast dish in many Brahmin household like ours, who did a lot of touring and staying in different parts of South India.
My grandmother prepared this dish very often with a coconut chutney and Idli powder/pudi as a side. I have altered the authentic recipe that uses regular white rice grits to brown rice grits.

Ingredients

1 cup Brown Rice Grits
1/4 cup grated fresh coconut
2 cups water
1 cup boiling water (optional)
2 tbsp extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil
3/4 tsp black mustard seeds
1/8 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp urad dal, washed and split black gram lentil
1 tsp channa dal, washed and split bengal gram lentil
1/8 tsp hing, Asafetida
4 curry leaves (optional)
4 dreied chillies broken into 1 inch pieces (optional)
Salt to taste


Method

1. Dry roast the brown rice grits in a frying pan for a couple of minutes (this step is optional, I would like to dry roast it as my brown rice grits were a little old and not freshly brought from store).

2. Place the frying pan in a medium heat with 2 tbsp of coconut and once it is hot (not smoking hot), add the mustard seeds and let it sputter. Then, cumin seeds, black gram and bengal gram lentils and fry until golden brown and add red chiles until they roast a little and then hing.

3. Soon after the hing is added mix in the coconut shreds and water along with the salt, to taste. Curry leaves could be torn and added at this time (although optional as it might get in the way while eating the dumplings, some might not like to chew the fibrous leaf).

4. Once the water reaches the boiling point add the brown rice grits and combine throughly and making sure no lumps are formed. Add boiling water incase your grits dough is too dry. It should look like Uppit / Upma consistency.

5. Mix and combine the dough and keep it to cool completely.

6. Make golf sized balls / elongated balls from the dough and keep aside the dumplings.

7. Heat a steamer/pressure cooker without the weight or an Idli cooker with some water at the bottom and place all the dumplings and steam cook for 15 minutes.

8. Serve hot brown rice grits steamed dumplings with a dollop of ghee along with a chutney of your choice/idli powder in sesame oil on the side. Enjoy as a breakfast or as an evening snack.

Kadalekalu Hittu Payasa Recipe / Kala Channa Besan Payasa Recipe

Kadalekalu Hittu Payasa / Kala Channa Besan Payasa

Kadalekalu hittu / Kala Channa Besan Payasa is a new and easy sweet recipe that could be prepared on festivals and other special occasions in a jiffy. I experimented this recipe with Kaladale Kalu hittu instead of regular kadale hittu / Chickpea flour that was published in a South Indian cooking video blog. It came out perfect and tasty everytime I made it. My family loves this payasa recipe.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Kadale Kalu Hittu / Kala Channa Besan Flour
4 Tbsp Ghee / Clarified Butter
1/4 cup Almond Flour
1 cup Milk (boiled)
1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Cardamom Powder
2 Tbsp Mixed Nuts
2 tsp Dried Golden Raisins

Method

1. Place a thick bottom pan on a medium heat and add the flour and 3 Tbsp of ghee and fry untill the flour gives out a wonderful aroma and raw smell is gone.

2. Add Almond flour and fry along with the Kadale kalu flour for 5 more minutes.

3. Now mix the milk into the flour mixture and combine well to make sure no lumps are formed. Add more milk if you want a watery consistency.

4.  Add in sugar to the pan and mix well till all the sugar crystals are dissolved.

5. In a separate frying pan add the remaining 1 tbsp ghee and fry the mixed nuts on a medium heat untill they turn golden brown, than add in the raisins till they puff up a little bit.

6. Pour this nuts and raisins along with the ghee into the payasa pan and mix. Add the cardamom powder at this point and wait for the payasa to boil for a minute. Now hot payasa is ready to serve along with a dab of ghee on top. Cold payasa also tastes delicious.