Cookings By Maria

Pidi Kolhukattai

• By admin_maria
• August 29, 2016
• No Comments

Pidi Kohlukattai is a very traditional recipe made by Indian families during certain festival season. It is one of my childhood favorite snack as my mom used to prepare it for us. Soft in texture is the key for the delicious kohlukattai. I used homemade rice flour in this recipe as per my mom’s way of making it. The method of making it may sound little hassle, but the taste of this kohlukattai is definitely superb.

Recipes serves 25-30pcs

Ingredients : 

• 2 Cup raw rice (to make rice flour)
• 1 Cup sugar
• 1 Cup freshly grated coconut
• 4 Tablespoon green mung gram/pasipayaru
• 2 teaspoon of salt (or little lesser)
• Pinch of cardamon powder (optional)
• 1 – 1.5 cup hot water
• Few pandan leaves
• Little oil

Let’s make the Kohlukattai :

Prepare the required ingredients.  I used homemade rice flour. Soak the rice for 1-2 hrs, drain the excess water, spread the damp rice on a cloth and let it to dry up to 90% (little moist will do). Then, use food processor (dry type) to grind the rice to a powder texture. Sift the flour with fine sieve to get the fine rice flour.

The sieved rice flour will be little wet (moist). Sprinkle few tablespoon of hot water onto the rice flour, give a good mix. This is to ensure that the rice flour retain it’s moisture during steaming process.

Place the flour in a cloth (cloth been folded with few layer as in picture).  Steam it for about 15-20 minutes. Optional to cloth, you may use a tray. Spread the flour on it, then steam. If you are using a tray, then give a stir to the flour few times, so that it been evenly cooked.

It’s optional to use either pasipayaru with skin or pasipayaru without skin. In this recipe, I used pasipayaru with skin.

In low heat, use a pan to dry roast the pasipayaru with skin for about 2 minutes. Then use the mortar & pestle to crack the beans to remove the skin from it. Clean it up and soak them in water for about 10-15 minutes. Some of the skin might be still intact with the bean. Its fine.

In a large bowl, add in the steamed rice flour (still warm), sugar, grated coconut, salt, cardamon powder and the soaked pasipayaru.  Give a good mix all together.

Gradually add in the hot water (about 1 cup). Use ladle to mix them well. Once its not so hot, then you may use hand to handle them. The texture must be soft. Add hot water accordingly. If the mixture is too dry, we can’t make the shapes well and it turn to be hard once cooked.

Brush some oil on the steamer tray (to avoid sticking during cooking). While making the shapes, apply some oil on your palm as well and start making the palm shaped kohlukattai.

Arrange the kohlukattai in the steamer and place few pandan leaves on top of it. This is optional step. The fragrance from pandan leaves will enhance the flavor.

Steam the kohlukattai for about 20-25 minutes.

Tips : Homemade rice flour can be prepared ahead (a day earlier). Place it in airtight container and store it in refrigerator. The next day, when you about to steam the rice flour, sprinkle some hot water and give a good mix all the flour together. The key step is, the flour must be moist or little wet. If the flour is too dry, the rice flour doesn’t cooked well and end up in hardened kohlukattai later.