Rava Laddoo

Hello everybody! Am still in "Holi" mode! While part of me misses all the fun and revelry associated with this festival in India, another part says "come on, you get to celebrate multiple times, so what if its on a smaller scale"!

The thing is, Holi fell on 27th March which was a working day. So hubby & kiddo went to work and school respectively. But then the little one had a half day and then we got to go for the Easter Egg Hunt along with a photo op with the Easter Bunny in our community. This was followed by a "mini" holi celebration of sorts with a few friends. Oh wait, there was also and accident involving a pointed pencil, an Easter egg and a rushed visit to the pediatrician to get a tiny hand bandaged (don't get me started on that!), but that was forgotten in the over all excitement of the day!

And tomorrow is another get together for some more color play followed by a potluck dinner - more masti, more magic!

Now, ghujia is a staple as far as holi is concerned for me. But since I had planned on making some for the weekend celebration, I wanted to make something else on the actual festival. The time constraint led me to think of making rava laddoos. To give it a "holi" feel, I added some food color and made tiny colorful laddoos! My little one got a real kick out of popping these small balls into his mouth :)

Generally I make these bigger, without food color. I also add some coconut and cashew nuts. But I was out of coconut and had no time to run a grocery errand. Also, couldn't add the nuts as my son is allergic to them and I had neither the time nor the patience to make two separate batches, one with and one without nuts, which is what I normally do. By all means, feel free to omit the food color and include the coconut and nuts, though to be honest, I did not really miss the coconut or the cashews!

Preparation & Cooking: 20 minutes (excluding 30 minutes cooling)       Makes: 30 approx.

Ingredients:
Semolina/Rava/Sooji - 1 cup
Sugar - ½ cup
Water - ¼ cup
Saffron Essence - ¼ teaspoon
Cardamom/Elaichi Powder - ¼ teaspoon
Maida/All Purpose Flour - 1 tablespoon
Ghee - 1 tablespoon
Food Color - As many as you want - a pinch of each

Method:

1. Roast semolina with ghee till it turns slightly golden brown and gives off a nice aroma.

2. Boil sugar, water and saffron essence till the sugar dissolves completely then add in the cardamom powder.

3. Gradually add in the semolina and the maida, stirring constantly till all the sugar syrup is absorbed, making sure there are no lumps. Switch off the flame, close and keep aside for about half an hour till the mixture is cooled and is relatively thicker and easier to shape into balls.

4. Separate the mixture into equal portions for the different colors, add a pinch of food color to each portion, knead and roll into smooth balls.

Voila! Colorful laddoos for a colorful festival!!

Tapioca Pudding

Whenever I order bubble tea, my son makes me filter out the tapioca pearls in there so he can eat them. He just loves them. I don't have easy access to those big tapioca pearls, so I thought why not buy the tiny ones and make some tapioca pudding for him.

Now, all the pudding recipes I looked at had eggs in them, but I wanted to make an eggless version. Whenever I look for eggless cake recipes, people usually use condensed milk to make them. So, I decided to do the same for this pudding as well. I just adjusted the quantity of milk used accordingly and completely did away with sugar as I used sweetened condensed milk.

As far as flavors go,  I did add some cardamom powder as that is a standard spice used when making the similar Indian version of this pudding - Sabudana Kheer! I thought a little  saffron would team up beautifully with the cardamom. But ofcourse I couldn't  just stop myself there. I thought about what else I could add. All the standard pudding recipes had vanilla essence, so I added a bit of that as well. Then I remembered that I had some coconut pineapple ice cream in my freezer. Coconut would definitely blend in with all the other flavors and pineapple would add a nice touch - so thats it, I added a scoop of the ice cream as well!

The end result was this gooey delicious mouthful of flavors that I simply loved! Well, the little one whom I actually made it for decided he did not want to eat it. "Amma, I want the big brown chewy pearls - not this!" was his explanation for not trying it! All I said was, his loss, my gain. Of course I'll be hunting a chinese grocery store close by to buy his "big brown chewy pearls" but I sure am glad I made this and will probably make it again as dessert when I have guests over next.

The best thing about this was, I made it in the crockpot, so it did not require constant monitoring. I got done in about a couple of hours, the first hour of which was spent in getting my son back from school and running a couple of errands! Also, I did not soak the tapioca seeds before cooking, two hours in the crockpot got it perfectly cooked.

Feel free to experiment with other spices and flavors, but if you want a hassle free dessert - this one fits the bill!

Preparation & Cooking: 2 hours          Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

Small Pearl Tapioca Seeds - 3 tablespoons
Milk - 2 cups
Condensed Milk - 1 can
Salt - ¼ teaspoon
Cardamom (Elaichi) Powder - ¼ teaspoon
Saffron (Kesar) - a few strands
Vanilla Essence - 1 teaspoon
Coconut Pineapple Ice Cream - 1 scoop

Method:

1. In the crock pot combine tapioca seeds, milk and salt and cook on high for 1 hour.

2. Add in the condensed milk, cardamom powder, saffron strands and vanilla essence and cook for another 45 minutes.

3. Finally mix in the scoop of ice cream, cook for another 15 minutes and switch off the crockpot.

Serve hot or chilled...

Citrusy Fruit Cake

Yesterday was my little one's "star" or nakshatra birthday. Apart from his current favorite "poori-bhaaji" for dinner, I made some pineapple jello for desert. Just that simple meal was enough to send him into rapturous delight! I also wanted to bake a cake for him, but some unforeseen  circumstances came up and I couldn't do it. So, today I decided to make up for it by baking a cake.

Now, the problem with baking a nice rich moist creamy cake (drool drool) with a satiny layer of frosting (ooh I can almost taste it!) is, I am horrible at icing and my frosting is just about average. Not that it has ever stopped me from trying my hand at it! But this was a day later, so no point in "cutting the cake". Just not worth the effort for a mental promise! If I had told him about it, I would have gone the whole nine yards, but as luck would have it, he had no idea I was planning any such thing. Also, hubby and kiddo would just take one serving, who do you think would finish off the rest? But of course, yours truly. No thank you!

So I compromised and decided to make a fruit cake. I used condensed milk instead of sugar, so the taste is a tad on the mild side sweetness wise. But this works perfectly as an accompaniment to the evening tea/coffee. Hubby dearest loved it and ate a slice without any prodding where normally I would have to get all pouty and emotionally blackmail him to try it! And of course the chief guest - my "not so little anymore" boy liked it too. Infact he has made it very clear that's what he plans to carry for his snack to school tomorrow!

The mention of fruit cake brings back fond memories of Christmas back home in India. We had a lot of Christian friends. So in the days leading up to Christmas eve, we would have carolers coming over and singing at our house before moving on to other houses in the neighborhood.  And on the day of Christmas our friends would bring over these absolutely delicious fruit cakes and plum cakes as well as home made wine.

I have used imitation rum essence to capture the delicious flavors of those cakes from my childhood. No where near perfect, but will have to do for now :)

I have not used any nuts as my kid is allergic, but am sure some chopped pecans, walnuts and/or almonds would add to the taste.

My fruit cake has currants, cranberries and tutti fruitti. You could use raisins or any other dry fruits. Also, I have used chickoo essence and lemon extract apart from the imitation rum essence and the standard vanilla essence as I wanted to get a fruity flavor. The orange zest and cinnamon applesauce also add to the citrusy fruity taste. Feel free to change the essence to suit your taste and omit the zest as well as applesauce. But if you decide to leave out the applesauce, increase the butter by another tablespoon.

Preparation & Cooking: 1 hour and 15 minutes        

Ingredients:
Eggs - 4
Butter - 3 tablespoons
Condensed Milk - 1 can (14 oz)
All Purpose Flour (Maida) - 1 cup (sifted) + a little for dusting the cake pan
Baking Powder - 1½ teaspoon
Salt - a pinch
Cinnamon Apple Sauce - ¼ cup
Vanilla Essence - ¼ teaspoon
Chickoo Essence - ¼ teaspoon
Lemon Extract - ¼ teaspoon
Imitation Rum Essence - ¼ teaspoon
Currants - 2 tablespoons
Cranberries - 1 tablespoon
Tutti Fruitti - 2 tablespoons
Zest from one orange

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/ 175 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease a bundt cake pan with some butter and dust it lightly with some flour.
3. Beat together the eggs, butter, flour, condensed milk, baking powder, salt, vanilla essence, lemon extract, chickoo essence, imitation rum essence and cinnamon applesauce.
4. Now fold in the currants, cranberries, tutti fruitti and orange zest, pour into the bundt cake pan.



5. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit/ 175 degrees Celsius for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

6. Let the cake cool, then gently turn it over and tap to unmould the cake.





Yummy fruit cake is ready. Slice them up and nibble away with your choice of beverage!

Sending this across to Vardhini's

guest hosted by Sumee's Culinary Bites

Cake Pops

WooHooo!! We are one! No no - this is not some "United We Stand" saga! What I mean is that today marks the first anniversary of my blogging "experiment" as I like to think of it. Exactly one year ago to the day, I wrote my first post.

What began as a lark on somewhat shaky grounds a year ago has successfully continued for a whole year. 1 year and 99 posts! Yes dear friends, coincidentally, today also happens to be my 100th post!

Thank you friends and fellow bloggers for helping my reach this milestone. Comments, critiques and positive feed backs - it is your valuable inputs that have kept me motivated.

George Siemens says "Blogging is best learned by blogging...and by reading other bloggers."

I hope that I have learnt something in my journey through the past year - be it through what I read or through what I post.

And on that note, let me mark this double celebration with a recipe for cake pops.

The last time I made cake pops was using my friend's cake pop maker. This time I wanted to try making it without the cake pop maker. After googling and reading various sites, I decided to try my hand at it. Must say its pretty simple. I used a few tips from the following websites:

We Love Cake Pops

and

52 Kitchen Adventures

Also, I had some Gingerbread Cup Cake/Whoopie Pie Mix left over from some past experiment! So I used that to bake my base cake instead of baking my own cake from scratch. The kit came with its own frosting mix, which was an added bonus!

Preparation & Cooking: 2 hours (includes cake baking and cooling time)          Makes: 15 Cake Pops

Ingredients:
Gingerbread Whoopie Pie Mix with Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting - 1 box
Unsalted Butter - 2 sticks (one for the cake and one for the frosting)
Egg - 1
Confectioner's Sugar - ½ cup 
Candy melts - different colors (I used cocoa, white and color burst bright)
Assorted Sprinkles - for decorating

Method:

1. Follow the instructions on the box - beat together the egg and butter until smooth, then add in the cake mix and blend it well. Bake the cake in a 9" round cake pan at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 15 minutes.
2. In the mean while cream the sugar and butter (room temperature) together into a smooth paste, then blend in the frosting mix.
3. Let the cake cool down completely then crumble it. Now, you may knead the cake and the frosting into a smooth dough using you hands or in a food processor. I used the latter. The cake will still be a little crumbly, but the frosting will make the mix moist enough to hold a ball shape.



4. Now, using an ice cream scoop or cake ball or meat baller, shape the cake and frosting mix into smooth balls.



5. Melt a little of the white candy melts in the microwave, dip the lollypop sticks in it and insert it halfway into the cake balls.

6. Keep these in the freezer for about 20 minutes. 
7. Now melt the remaining candy melts as per your color choice. 
8. Take out the cake pops from the freezer, dip them in the melted candy, decorate them as you wish and insert them into Styrofoam blocks for setting or use an overturned colander as I did.

Delicious cake pops are ready to be eaten.

Handy Tips:

• While adding the frosting, take care and add a little at a time. You won't be needing more than 3-4 tablespoons. Too much frosting would turn it into a soggy mess and your cake pops won't have the desired texture.

• After coating the cake pops with the melted candy, immediately decorate them with the sprinkles as the candy sets pretty fast and the sprinkles won't stick once it sets.

Sending this across to Vardhini's

guest hosted by Sumee's Culinary Bites

Gulab Jamun

Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the new year! One of my resolutions this year is to be regular with posts on my blog! Something that I have been seriously lacking at the last few months. The other of course is to lose weight - I mean come on, do I even have to mention it?

But, first hurricane Sandy (gym closed for repairs), then the holiday season (hulloooo - Christmas Holidays and dieting??) and now the weather (temperature inversely proportional to amount of food consumed) have made it extremely difficult to keep the pounds off. Well, that's enough of the depressing talk - lets get into a more cheerful frame of mind - sweets always do the trick! 

The year has just begun - plenty of time to work on the second resolution! As for the first one, the first dish to grace the blog in the new year should definitely be a sweet one!

Well, DH has been mentioning gulab jamuns for quite sometime now. He is very picky as far as sweet dishes are concerned, not a big fan of desserts. So when he asked for this dish, I just couldn't put it off!!

Gulab Jamun is made using khoa (or khoya, whichever you prefer :) ), which is a milk product. It is very similar to ricotta cheese, but with lesser moisture content.

I had some ready made store bought khoa handy (I usually keep some in the freezer), so I used that. But it is pretty easy to make khoa at home as well - will post that recipe sometime. Feel free to use either.

Freezing cold weather and piping hot gulab jamuns - perrrrrfect! Better yet, hot gulab jamun served with cold vanilla ice cream, try it, trust me, its an awesome combination...

Preparation & Cooking: 30 minutes      Makes: 25-30
Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour (Maida) - ½ cup
Khoa -  1 cup
Baking Soda - ½ teaspoon
Milk - 4 tablespoons
Oil - for deep frying
For the Sugar Syrup:
Sugar - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Cardamom Powder - 1 teaspoon
Rose Water - 2 teaspoons
Saffron Essence - ½ teaspoon

Method:

1. Combine the sugar and water and bring it to a boil. Once the sugar dissolves completely, add the rose water, saffron essence and cardamom powder and switch off the flame. Make sure the sugar syrup is warm when you add the fried dough balls to it. It should not be too hot.

2. Mix the khoa, maida, baking soda and milk to make a firm dough. Depending on the moisture content of the khoa, you might need a little more or less milk to make a smooth dough. Cover this with a wet cloth or kitchen towel and set aside so that it doesn't dry up. 

3. Heat the oil for deep frying.
4. Make small balls with the dough and keep these also covered with a wet cloth or kitchen towel till they are ready to be fried.

5. When the oil is ready, fry the dough balls a few at a time till they are well cooked and nicely brown all around.

6. Drain out of the oil with a slotted spoon and directly soak it in the warm sugar syrup.
7. Wait for the jamuns to nicely soak up the sugar syrup and increase in size (approximately half an hour should do the trick).

8. Serve hot or cold (refrigerated) as desired. Personally, I prefer it hot with a dollop of ice cream on the side.

Handy Tips:

The dough balls should be small- they will soak up the sugar syrup and increase in size. Bigger sized balls will result in bigger gulab jamuns.

Make sure the balls are smooth, if there are any cracks, the balls could break up and disintegrate, either while frying, or later when they are soaked in the sugar syrup.

You may garnish the gulab jamuns with chopped nuts or edible silver.

Sending this across to 

Just Cooking N Baking's "Hot Beverages and Desserts withing 45 minutes".

Vanilla Mint Chocolate Fudge

Last year for Diwali I had made this milk chocolate double layer barfi, the recipe for which I got from "Show Me The Curry". It was a big hit. Everyone loved it. Infact, I had sent out some sweets and savories to the teachers at my kid's school and they liked it so much that they requested me to get them some more of the same!

So, this year I was leaning towards making the same sweet again. Then I hit a snag. The original recipe calls for the use of heavy cream. It was 2'o clock at night and I was out of heavy cream. The next day was Diwali - it was too late to go to the store and it was also too late to start off on another track altogether. I was extremely tired and at my wits end. Then I thought, let me skip the heavy cream altogether along with the sugar. I replaced these two ingredients with condensed milk. Now that I had started giving the dish my own twist, I thought, why not go the whole nine yards. I replaced the chocolate chips with mint chocolate chips. I also added some vanilla essence to the plain layer of the fudge. The end result was a refreshingly different sweet dish.

Preparation & Cooking: 15 minutes plus 3-4 hours for setting     Makes: 2 dozens

Ingredients:

Condensed Milk - 1 can
Non-Fat Milk Powder - 1 packet
Cocoa Powder - 1 tablespoon
Semi-sweet Mint Chocolate Chips - ¼ cup
Unsalted Butter - ½ stick plus a little extra to grease the tray

Method:

1. Grease a rectangular tray/container in which you would like to set the sweet.
2. Take the condensed milk, nonfat milk powder, unsalted butter and vanilla essence in a microwave safe deep dish bowl.

3. Microwave it for 8 minutes, stopping and stirring after every couple of minutes.
4. Spread out half of this mixture on the greased tray and make it smooth.

5. In the remaining half of the mixture added the cocoa powder and the mint chocolate chips. Microwave it for another 5 minutes, stopping and stirring after every two minutes.

6. By now the plain Vanilla layer would have cooled and become a bit firm to touch. Pour in the chocolate mix on top of the vanilla layer, make a smooth layer and let it set for 3-4 hours.

7. Once the fudge has set properly, cut out into diamonds or squares.

A simple yet delicious dessert that is ready in a jiffy.

Sending this across to Diwali Food Fest at Anu's Healthy Kitchen
Nupur's

Kesar Pista Badam Kalakand

Happy Deepawali! We just bid goodbye to the festival of lights and what better post to publish than a sweet recipe!

I love this festival.  And I happen to be among the few people who DON'T like bursting crackers. For me all the fun is in lighting the diyas and candles and also hogging the munchies. I don't mind sparklers, flowerpots and zameen chakkars - but that is the extent of enthusiasm towards fireworks that I can bring myself to show. Even as a kid, while my sister and cousins would be bursting crackers and rockets, I would just watch from a distance.

Deepavali literally means "row of lights". This festival finds its roots in Ramayana. Deepavali is celebrated to mark the occasion of the return of Lord Rama, his brother Lakshman and wife Sita to Ayodhya after 14 years of vanvaas (exile). It also signifies the victory of good over evil as Lord Rama, with the aid of the Vanarasena (army of monkeys), defeated Ravana and saved his wife Sita.

For us Tam Brams, Diwali starts with the "Ganga Snanam". We wake up before day break, apply sesame oil heated with some peppercorns and rice and take a bath. We wear new clothes and then starts the bursting of crackers! Oh, how can I forget the "Diwali marundu/leighiyam"? As kids, me and my sister used to absolutely abhor this weird tasting concoction that you are supposed to eat to cleanse out the stomach and avoid indigestion, considering the amount of sweets and savories that are consumed during the occasion! As an adult, I am more than happy to overlook that one tradition :), so I don't make it!

Another tradition is to distribute sweets, bhakshanams (savory snacks) and gifts to friends and relatives. The responsibility of distribution usually falls on the youngsters in the family. Many were the fights that me and my sister fought in order to divide the houses that each of us would go to give the stuff prepared by amma.

And now I have come a full circle. Coz this is the only thing that gives a feel of Deepavali here in the US for me. As the kids go to school and offices are also open, I am more than happy to get decked up in a sari/salwar kameez and visit friends in the evening to exchange greetings and goodies! No more complaints amma!

We also decorate the house with fancy multicolored light bulbs and candles and diyas. This year, apart from the lights at the window, I painted a few clay diyas that I had bought and decorated them into a rangoli form on a cardboard with acrylic colors and some sequins and beads. My kiddo joined my in the diya painting and we made a fun activity of it!

I also prepared a few sweets and savories - Ribbon Pakoda, Mullu Thenkuzhal, Methi Paara, Coconut Laddoo, Kesar Pista Badam Kalakand and Vanilla Mint Chocolate Fudge. I hope the share some of the recipes on this blog over the next few days...

But ofcourse I would like the first recipe to be that of a sweet. When I was in India this year, I borrowed up a couple of recipe books from my mom. This particular recipe is adapted from the Kenstar Microwave Oven Cook Book by Sanjeev Kapoor. But ofcourse I had to put my own spin on a simple Kalakand! The end result was this yummy moist sweet that looked like Kalakand but tasted more like Sandesh!

Preparation & Cooking: 30 minutes plus 2-3 hours for setting                      Makes: 24-25 pieces

Ingredients:

Milk - 1 gallon
Cream Of Tartar - ½ teaspoon
Sugar - 1 & ½ cups
Cornstarch - 1 teaspoon
Cardamom (Elaichi) Powder - 2 teaspoons
Saffron Essence - 1 teaspoon
Rose Water - 2 teaspoons
Saffron - a few strands
Almonds - 2 tablespoons (finely powdered) plus 10 whole (for garnishing)
Pistachios - 10
Orange Food Color - ½ teaspoon (optional)

Method:

1. Coarsely powder the almonds and pistachios and set aside, this will be the garnish.
2. Microwave the milk for 10 minutes in a deep dish.
3. Add the sugar and cream of tartar and put it back in the microwave for another 10 minutes. The milk will slowly curdle. Depending on the microwave, you might need a few minutes less or more. Keep an eye on the milk and it will be ready when the milk curdles forming a variety of cottage cheese known as chenna, leaving a watery liquid behind.

4. Strain this chenna through a muslin cloth then pass it through a sieve. The original Kalakand recipe required that most if the the moisture be removed, but I let the chenna be a little moist. 
5. Mix this with the cornstarch, cardamom powder, saffron strands, almond powder, saffron essence and rose water and microwave it for another 4 minutes, stirring in between after about 2 minutes. At this stage, you could mix in the food color if you choose to use it.

6. Now, spread this out on  greased plate, garnish it with the coarsely powdered almonds and pistachios and allow it to cool and set for about a couple of hours.

7. After the mixture has set and cooled, cut it into square/diamonds using a greased butter knife.

Dig in, distribute and spread the joy!

Sending this across to Diwali Food Fest at Anu's Healthy Kitchen
Nupur's

Kozhakattai (Modak)

Ganesh Chaturthi has long gone by. Infact, even Navaratri just passed us by. So, it's high time I posted this recipe! As I mentioned in my last post, I make kozhakattai for neivedyam every year on Ganesh Chaturthi. After all, that's what Bappa loves to eat - right? 

Every year it used to be a hit or miss thing, mainly because the covering would either crack open or be a very thick layer. The reason for this was that I was using ready made rice flour just because I was too lazy to use soaked rice to make it! Finally, this year I decided that a well made kozhakattai is worth a little time and effort! And it worked! This year the kozhakattais were awesome and got consumed pretty fast.

I usually make 3 kinds of kozhakattais - the sweet ones (vella kozhakattai), the savory ones (uppu kozhakattai) and the tiny roasted ones (ammini kozhakattai). I love all three of them and so does my husband.  Its mainly just the former two kozhakattai that are usually made for neivedyam, and the left over dough from the outer covering is used to make ammini kozhakattai, but I love these so much that I make enough dough to ensure  the making of the tiny kozhakattais. These make an excellent snack item.

Making kozhakattais is not too difficult - it is just an elaborate and time consuming process. And the sad part is the rate of consumptions is inversely proportional to the time and effort put in!

Rice Soaking Time: 2-3 hours       Cooking Time: 2 hours           Makes: 12-15 of each kind

Ingredients:

For the Covering:
Rice - 1 cup
Water - to grind rice into a smooth batter
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Salt - a pinch

For the Sweet Filling (Vella Poornam):

Coconut -½, grated
Jaggery - 1 cup
Cardamom - ½ teaspoon

Ghee (Clarified Butter) - 2 tablespoons

For the Savory Filling:

Urad Dal (Black Gram Dal)- 1 cup
Channa Dal (Bengal Gram Dal) - 2 tablespoons
Green Chillies - 4
Red Chillies -2
Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoons
Cilantro - a few sprigs
Lemon Juice - 2 tablespoons
Salt - to taste

Tempering for the Savory Filling:
Mustard - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida (Hing) - a pinch
Curry Leaves - a few
Oil - 1 tablespoon

For the Ammini Kozhakattai:
Mustard - 1 teaspoon
Urad Dal (Black Gram Dal) -  1 teaspoon
Red Chillies - 2

Asafoetida (Hing) - a pinch
Red Chilli Powder - ½ teaspoon
Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoons
Curry Leaves - a few
Oil - 1 tablespoon

Method:

For the Covering:

• Rinse and soak rice in water for 2-3 hours. 
• Grind it into a smooth batter adding sufficient water to make it into a smooth paste a little thicker than idli batter.
• To this batter add a tablespoon of oil and cook over a medium flame, stirring constantly till it thickens up to form a smooth dough. Now take it off the flame and cover it with a damp cloth/kitchen towel till it is ready to be used.

The same dough is used for all three kozhakattais.

 For the Sweet Filling (Vella Poornam):

• Melt the jaggery, don't let it burn.
• When the jaggery melts add in the  grated coconut and cook stirring constantly. 
• Once the mixture thickens enough to form balls, add the ghee and the cardamom powder and remove from the flame.

• After the filling cools enough to handle, make small balls out of it.

• Now, take a little bit of the dough for the covering, knead it well and make a small ball out of it. Using the tips of your fingers shape this ball into a small cup. 
• Place a little amount of the sweet filling into this cup and shape them into modaks by pulling the ends together.

• Steam these kozhakattais in a cooker/idli steamer for about 10 minutes.

• Turn off the gas and wait for a couple of minutes before taking the kozhakattais out - if you try to pull them out immediately, they tend to crumble. Yummy kozhakattais are ready for neivedyam.

 For the Savory Filling:

• Soak the urad dal and chana dal together for about an hour. Drain and grind them to a coarse mixture along with the green chillies, red chillies and salt.
•  Roll these into balls and steam them in a cooker for about 10 minutes.
• Once they cool, crumble them and add the grated coconut, cilantro leaves, lemon juice and the tempering of mustard, asafoetida and curry leaves.

• Now take a small quantity of the covering dough, knead it well and place it inside a ziploc bag or between two plastic sheets. Use a round bowl to press it into a circular shape.

• Place this circular piece of dough in a mold, place some of the savory filling into each and seal the edges by closing the mold. If you don't have a mold, then simple seal the edges with your fingers, to give the kozhakattai a semi-circular shape. You could use the back of a fork to crimp it's edges to make a design. 

• Steam these in cooker/idli maker for about 10 minutes. 

• Turn off the flame and wait a couple of minutes before removing the kozhakattais, otherwise they will crumble. Delicious uppu kozhakattais are ready to be served.

For the Ammini Kozhakattai:

• Roll the outer covering dough into tiny balls and steam them in an idli steamer/cooker.

• Heat oil in a pan and add mustard, urad dal, asafoetida, red chillies and curry leaves.
• When the seeds splutter, add in the steamed rice balls, red chilli powder, grated coconut and salt and cook them till they begin to get evenly roasted and crunchy

• Tasty and fun ammini kozhakattais are ready for munching.