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.

Coconut rice - Easy Lunch box meal

Coconut Rice

Easy lunch or weeknight dinner recipe that could be made in a jiffy. Coconut rice is also made on festivals and other occasions served on plantain leaf as a side dish, mostly in South India. This makes a great lunch box meal along with urad dal happala (pappad) for kids too.

Ingredients

2 cups white rice
3 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup coconut milk, (optional, instead add 1/2 cup water)
1/4 cup freshly grated coconut
3 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 pinch of cumin seeds
1 tsp Urad dal
1 tsp Channa dal
8-10 dried red chillies
10-15 curry leaves torn into pieces
2 tbsp broken cashew nuts
Salt to taste

Method

1. Wash and drain white rice and add water and coconut milk (optional). Pressure cook untill well cooked as per your cooker settings. The dish tastes better when the rice grains are separate.

2. In a frying pan add coconut oil and place it on a medium flame, once hot add mustard seeds. After it sputters, add cumin seeds, urad dal, channa dal and fry until they turn golden brown. Add dried red chillies and fry for a few seconds. Now, to this add the cashew nuts and fry once they turn golden brown add curry leaves and grated coconut and mix well. Fry the mixture for a few minutes.

3. Meanwhile spread the rice on a wide pan or serving bowl and allow it to cool. Mix salt as per taste into the rice.

4. Now add coconut mixture to the rice and combine throughly. Add extra oil incase the rice feels dry. Serve hot with fried happala (pappad) or sandige.

Sihi Huggi / Sihi Pongal / Sweet Pongal - Authentic Madhwa Dessert Recipe

Sihi Huggi / Sihi Pongal / Sweet Lentils Rice / Split Mung Dal Rice

Sihi Huggi is made on Sankranthi festival. It is a classic recipe prepared on other special occasions in all Madhwa community during habba and haridina.

Ingredients

2 cups washed and drained rice
1/2 cup washed and drained Mung dal or split skinned Mung beans
1/2 cup ghee or clarified butter
3 cups of water
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp freshly grated coconut (blended in a mixer) or coconut milk, this ingredient is optional
1 cup powdered jaggery or brown sugar
1 tbsp chopped cashew nuts
1 tbsp chopped almonds
1 tbsp golden raisins
1/2 tsp saffron strands soaked in a tbsp of warm milk

Method

1. In a pot over medium heat add 1/4 cup ghee and add the rice and mung dal and fry until they give give out a fine aroma with golden color.

2. Add water and milk into the pot and place it in a pressure cooker and cook until 3 to 4 whistles and well cooked. We don't want the rice and dal to turn mushy. Alter the amount of water depending on your pressure cooker size and quantity.

3. Place the pot over medium heat and add jaggery. If your jaggery is dirty, in a separate pot add 2 tbsp of water and add the jaggery and melt it. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and collect the clean jaggery mixture and add it to the rice and dal pot. Or you could replace it with brown sugar. Mix throughly until the sugar crystals are melted.

4. Add coconut milk (optional) and combine well and cook for 5 to 10 minutes on low flame.

5. In a small frying pan add 2 tbsp of ghee and heat. Combine the nuts and add it to ghee and fry untill golden brown and later add raisins till they puff up a little. Pour this over the huggi pot and mix.

6. Add saffron and remaining ghee and mix throughly and cook 5 mins on a low flame. Now Sihi Huggi is ready to serve with a dollop of ghee on top. It tastes best when served hot.

Huggi / Khara Pongal / Spicy Lentil Rice / Spicy Split Mung Dal Rice

Huggi (Pronounced as "Hoo-Ggi") / Khara Pongal / Spicy Lentils Rice / Spicy Split Mung Dal Rice Recipe

Huggi (a kannada word meaning - fun and celebration time) is a very special dish prepared very commonly in most of the Brahmin households in South India. This is a staple main dish during Sankranthi, a festival of harvest celebrated every year on January 14th throughout South India. Also celebrated in other parts of India (with different names for the festival).
Huggi is prepared with freshly harvested rice, lentils and other spices grown by our farmers. Its a very special time in all the villages in India.

I make this one pot meal, which is a healthy and filling main course for weeknight dinner. Huggi could also be a great lunch box meal.

Ingredients

2 cups white rice, washed and soaked for 5-10 mins
1/2 cup split mung beans, washed and soaked for 5 mins (optionally replaced by whole mung beans when you don't find the split mung beans)
1/4 cup freshly grated coconut
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
8-10 whole black peppercorns, (optional)
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp hing or asafoetida
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 tbsp finely chopped green chillies (optional)
1 tbsp finely chopped curry leaves
1 tsp salt or to taste
4 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
1 tbsp cashew nuts, chopped
a pinch of mustard seeds
a pinch of hing or asafoetida

Method

1. In a rice cooker pot wash and soak the rice for 5-10 minutes.

2. Into the pot add the washed split mung beans, grated coconut, ground black pepper, black peppercorns, turmeric, cumin seeds, hing, grated ginger, chopped green chillies, curry leaves and 2 tbsp ghee.

3. Mix everything throughly and cook the rice on the white rice setting on your rice cooker.

4. Once the rice cooker indicates your rice is done. Bring the pot outside and give the rice a good mix, gently.

5. In case you are using a pressure cooker, mix everything and place the pot into the pressure cooker and wait for 5-8 whistles on the cooker (depends of your pressure cooker size/quantity),

6. Once the pressure is down open the pressure cooker and bring the pot outside and gently give the rice a good mix.

7. After the rice is ready. Heat a pan on and add 2 tbsp ghee and once ghee is hot add the cashew nut pieces. Fry until it turns pinkish brown. Now add a pinch of mustard seeds (wait for it to splutter) and then add hing.

8. Pour the above seasoning on top of the Huggi / Spicy Split Mung Dal Rice and mix gently. Serve the dish hot with a dollop of ghee and a side dish of sweet and sour gravy (called "Gojju" in Kannada) or with coconut chutney or as desired.