• How to shape kozhakkatai outer shell for beginners. Believe me , while it may seem very easy to shape a rice dough into thin round hollows and fill with jaggery coconut filling , then reshape into a modak, many struggle at this, reasons are many , for one the dough is not pliant .

• Being made of rice , it is not so easy to get a smooth fine pliant dough to shape as you want unless you have prepred the basic rice dough accurately .

• This depends on how you have preped the dough , the water proportion and whether you are using store bought rice or ground rice batter or home processed rice flour .

• Most important Is that the rice flour for the dough must be perfectly cooked and kneaded smooth to get crack free shells .

• While we can easily shape with a thumb and finger , many beginners find it cumbersome , so a suggestion to find something that will create a smooth dent in the centre and you can work from there by pressing evenly more to the bottom so that a deep cup is shaped .

• Elaborate pleats can be created but for beginners this is a good way to start .

• Even a bottle cap can be placed in centre of dough and pressed gently to create a well . You can further make the cup thin by working around .

• Here the flour is ready made store bought one , personally I prefer to soak snd grind rice to a smooth shiny batter and cook .

• However many beginners want to try with ready flour do here is the way . While any neivediyam is usually supposed to be prepared with all home made flours only , for many this is a challenge usually people living in other countries have the difficulty of preparing home processed rice flour .

• so the next best option is to use store bought flour .

I have shown the method where the flour is crumbly and steamed evenly.

Follow whichever method you are comfortable with .

Ingredients

1 cup store bought flour

Tiny pinch of salt

1 tsp ghee

1 cup water plus a little more if needed, don’t add all of it initially.

Method

Boil 1 cup water with salt and ghee or oil. For extra softness of the outer cover, add milk and water . say 1/2 cup milk1/2 cup water .

Add the flour , mix well , cover and cook . Do not worry about the dry looking mixture as here we are actually steaming the rice flour by adding just 1 cup water . After mixing well , cover and keep on heat for a minute , be careful not to dry out too much .

Remove and keep on a work surface. When the rice flour mixture is warm to handle , take it to a bowl , quickly Shape a smooth firm dough . If you feel the dough is drying or not moist enough , sprinkle drops of hot water very lightly to moisten and bring the dough together . Use little oil on hand to help knead .

The dough must not be sticky , make small balls and shape the outer cup of the kozhakkatai .

While you work on the shape. Keep the remaining balls covered with a moist cloth . It is a good idea to work in batches of dough . Use up one batch and mix another one , that way your dough will remain moist and smooth to work with .

Shaping technique

Most preferred is thumb and finger. Make a dent in the-ball of dough and shape inwards to get a deep cup .

Greased ladles or deep spoons can also be used .

Even a bottle cap will help in shaping

Watch the video below .

Watch this youtube channel video for more . Subscribe to my youtube channel for quick easy recipes .

uppu kozhakkatai with uidad dal flour

Tips : Pro tip

A mix of milk and water to cook the dough will keep the dough white and very soft too

1. Make sure dough doesn't sit on counter for long, so prepare in batches if planning to prepare in bulk.

Cover with moist cloth, not a dry cloth as dry cloth will absorb the moisture from dough.

2. Finish off dough in one batch, prepare the next.

3. Dough must be slightly warm and pliable while you start shaping. Keep them covered till you finish with filling etc.

4. Steam in a heated idli steamer. Before placing the modaks for steaming, quickly dip in cold water then cover the steamer. This helps he modaks to cook while keeping

outside cover moist and shiny . you can either dip in water and keep or spray

water before cooking in steamer.