Ragi Banana Kozhukattai, a delicious and healthy snack made from finger millet and banana. It's one of the easiest snacks that you can make  for the evening time. 

I make this kozhukattai often for my kid's snack. He loves it so much. The banana adds the nice flavor to the kozhukattai. 

If you're making this kozhukattai for your little ones under 2 and you haven't introduced any sugar to them, then you can totally skip the jaggery and use a very well ripe banana alone. It still has enough sweetness and tastes awesome. I did the same before i had started the sugar for my kid. 

Flour 

In this recipe, i have used the combination of ragi and rice flour. Make sure that both the ragi and rice flour are very fine. 

Roasting the flours before making the kozhukattai enhances the flavor so i highly recommend to roast the flour for a couple of mins even if you have roasted packed flours.

Jaggery

As i said earlier, the jaggery is totally optional. You can skip it if you want very mild sweetness. 

Now, let's check out on how to make this delicious Ragi Banana Kozhukattai.

Ragi Banana Kozhukattai | Kezhvaragu Sweet Kozhukattai

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Ragi Banana Kozhukattai, Kezhvaragu Sweet Kozhukattai, Ragi Kozhukattai Ragi Banana Kozhukattai, a delicious and healthy snack made from the finger millet and banana.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Ragi flour - 1/4 cup

Rice flour - 1/4 cup

Banana - 1

Grated Coconut - 2 tbsp

Grated Jaggery - 2 tbsp*

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Ghee - 1 tsp

*Jaggery is optional so you can skip it if you want mild sweetness.

Procedure

Peel the banana and put it in a bowl and mashed it well. 

Next add coconut, jaggery and cardamom powder and mix it well & keep aside.

Then dry roast the ragi flour and rice flour until it's aromatic without changing its color and add it into the banana mixture and mix it well.

Next add the ghee and make a soft kozhukattai dough. 

Take a small portion of the kozhukattai dough and press in between your palm and finger. Place the kozhukattai in the greased steamer / idli plate(you can use ghee or sesame oil for greasing) and steam it for 8-10 mins in the medium flame.

Delicious and Healthy Ragi Banana Kozhukattai is ready to serve. For quick video recipe, check out here.

Related: How to make Ragi Dosai using Ragi Flour

Notes:

• Tastes great when it's warm.

Continue Reading »

Thengai Pidi Kozhukattai | Easy Kozhukattai Recipe

Thengai Pidi Kozhukattai, an easy to make delicious kozhukattai with wonderful coconut flavor. Honestly, this kozhukattai recipe is not a standalone one, we make this kozhukattai with the last batch of idiyappam dough whenever we make idiyappam at home. 

If you're from the southern parts of Tamilnadu or especially from the Tirunelveli state, you might know this habit of making kozhukattai with the last bits of idiyappam maavu(dough). When i was a kid, i absolutely loved this kozhukattai and even asked Amma to make a little extra of this kozhukattai.  

It doesn't need any fancy ingredients but the flavor and the taste are awesome especially when it's hot. 

In those days, people didn't like to waste anything, this kozhukattai is mainly made in order to avoid  throwing  away the last bits of idiyappam maavu which would be cold and hard to squeeze at the end. So people simply make these kozhukattai by adding some coconut and sugar for the sweet version or only coconut for the savoury version.

Though it's made with leftover idiyappam maavu, today i have shared the whole recipe from scratch. Instead of sugar, you can also add jaggery powder but i grew up eating these sugar kozhukattai so still i have been making it like that.

If you're looking for an easy evening snack then definitely give this kozhukattai a try. Now let's check out how to make this easiest and delicious kozhukattai. 

Thengai Pidi Kozhukattai

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 10 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Thengai Pidi Kozhukattai, Kozhukattai,Pidi Kozhukattai,Coconut Kozhukattai Thengai Pidi Kozhukattai, an easy to make delicious kozhukattai with wonderful coconut flavor.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Rice Flour - 1/2 cup

Water - 1/3 cup

Sesame oil - 1/4 tsp

Salt - a pinch

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup

Cardamom powder  - 1/4 tsp

Procedure

First take the rice flour in a bowl, add the salt and mix it well. Heat the water in a saucepan, when the water starts to boil, switch off the flame and add the sesame oil into it and then immediately pour the water into the rice little by little.

Mix it with a ladle vigorously.  Once the rice starts to form a dough, stop adding the water(depending on the quality of the rice flour, you may need little less or more of the water mentioned here) and cover it with a lid for 10 mins. When the rice is hot enough to touch, make a nice dough and add the remaining ingredients(sugar, grated coconut and cardamom powder) into it. 

Mix it all together and then pinch a small ball of dough and make the kozhuttai.

Place it on the oiled steamer/idli platter and steam it for 5-7 mins. 

Delicious and flavorful kozhukattai is ready.

Related: How to make Thengai Poorna Kozhukattai

Notes:

• You can make this kozhukttai without cardamom powder too.
• Don't over cook the kozhukattai otherwise it might be rubbery.
• Kozhukattai would be shiny when it's fully cooked.

Continue Reading »

Kara Pidi Kozhukattai | Kara Kozhukattai | Vinayagar Chathurthi Recipe

Kara Pidi Kozhukattai, a steamed savoury dumpling made from rice flour. I make them often at home as a snack for evening or as breakfast with some chutney and it's delicious in both ways.

 As vinayagar chathurthi is around the corner, I thought maybe this kozhukattai recipe would be useful for beginners who're looking for something easy without much effort. 

So I made this yesterday just for the sake of posting here.Along with mothagam or sweet pidi kozhukattai, you can make this also as a prasadam for vinayagar on chaturthi day. Now let's move on to the recipe.

For more kozhukattai and sundal recipes, check out the full ganesh chathurthi collection here.

Kara Pidi Kozhukattai

Preparation Time : 15 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves :  4 
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Pidi Kozhukattai, Kara Pidi Kozhukattai, Kara Kozhukattai Kara Pidi Kozhukattai, a steamed savoury dumpling made from rice flour.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Rice flour - 1 cup
Water - 3/4 cup
Grated coconut - 2 tbsp
To Temper
Sesame oil - 1 tsp
Mustard and urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - few(finely chopped)
Red chili - 1(finely chopped)

Procedure

Heat a pan with oil and add all the ingredients listed under "To Temper" one by one and saute in oil for 30 secs.

Add the water & bring the water into boil. Switch off the flame.

Immediately add the rice flour and grated coconut and mix well with spatula and let it sit for 5 mins covered.

With your hand, gently mix the flour and make a dough. Pinch a small lemon size ball of dough and roll into ball.

Now gently press with your fingers to make the finger impression on the dough. Do the same for all the dough and place it on greased steamer/idly plate.

Steam it in the steamer for 8-10 mins. 

Tada, Quick and tasty Kozhukattai is ready to serve.

Related : How to make Sweet Ammini Kozhukattai 

Notes:

• Depends on the quality of rice flour, you may need more or less of water. So always keep extra hot water in hand, in case you needed, use it.
• Let the flour comes to hand bearable temperature before mix with your hands.
• Sesame oil gives great flavor to the kozhukattai.
• Chop curry leaves and red chili finely, so that they incorporate well with the dough.
• Once the kozhukattai is cooked, it became shiny on outside.
  

Continue Reading »

Karthigai Kozhukattai | Sweet Pidi Kozhukattai | Kozhukattai with Palm Jaggery

Sweet Pidi Kozhukattai, a steamed sweet made with rice flour and palm jaggery syrup.In our home, we make this kozhukattai on Karthigai deepam along with the Vilaku Kozhukattai (kozhukattai shaped as diya and we lit them on karthigai deepam along with other diya, will share that recipe later).

I have seen a lot of recipes for pidi kozhukattai in blogspere with jaggery. But in our home,we always use palm jaggery to make this kozhukattai and it gives that intense smell to the kozhukattai.

As all the ingredients are roasted well before using it here, it stays well for 2 days at room temperature. 

I have heard from Amma that in those days, aachi(my grandma) prepared this kozhukattai on Karthigai deepam in large batch and after 2 days days if anything was left, she put it in solavu/muram and kept it under sun shade on every morning for a few hours, that way it stay well for even a week to 10 days. Yep, that was before the refrigerator era in our household.  Ok, enough stories, now let's see the procedure of making these kozhukattai.

Sweet Pidi Kozhukattai

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Makes : 9 
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Sweet Pidi kozhukattai, Karupattai Kozhukattai, Karthigai Kozhukattai Sweet Pidi Kozhukattai, a steamed sweet made with rice flour and palm jaggery syrup.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Rice flour - 1/2 cup
Palm Jaggery/Karupatti - 1/2 cup
Cardamom - 2 crushed
Moong dal - 1 tbsp(optional)
Sesame seed - 1/2 tbsp
Coconut bits - 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp
Ghee - 1/4 tsp
Water - 2 tbsp

Procedure

Measure and take the flour in a bowl and then heat the pan & add moong dal, roast till nice aroma comes and the dal slightly changes its color by that time and add it into the flour.

In the same pan, add the sesame seed and roast till the sesame seeds starts to pop up and then add it into the flour. Now add ghee in the pan and melt it.

Add the coconut bits and roast till the coconuts bits becomes brown and add it into the flour.

In the same pan, add the karuppati & water and keep it in medium flame till the palm jaggery completely melts. Switch off the flame.

Now add the crushed cardamom into the rice flour and then filter the  palm jaggery syrup and add it into the flour.

Mix well with the flour and form a dough like texture. Now take a small lemon size of dough in your hand and press it with your fingers twice or thrice to form a shape as shown.

Place it in the greased idli plate(steamer plate), do the same for the remaining dough.

Steam it in the steamer for 10 mins in medium flame.

Tasty & healthy Pidi Kozhukattai is ready.

Related: How to make Kara Pidi Kozhukattai

Notes:

• Don't add more water than mentioned here for making syrup.
• After adding all the syrup, still you're not able to make dough and the flour looks like crumble, add little hot water to form a dough like texture.
• If the jaggery syrup is more diluted, then the kozhukattai won't be as sweet as we want.
• So always use less water of making syrup, if needed we can always add more hot water. But for the above quantity, the mentioned amount of palm jaggery & water is enough. No need for extra hot water. Again it depends on the rice flour quality.
• You can increase or decrease the amount of moong dal, sesame seed and coconut bits as per your liking.
• Moong dal , sesame seed & coconut bits gives great flavor and crunchiness to the Kozhukattai. But you can skip moong dal and sesame seeds if you're not a big fan of those. 
• I highly recommend to add the roasted coconut, it gives such a nice flavor to the kozhukattai and also enhance the taste a lot.
• It stays fresh for 2 days at room temperature.
• Once the kozhukattai is cooked, you can see the shiny texture on the top.
  

Continue Reading »