Salt kozhakkatais are a part of the Ganesh chaturthi neivediyam. it is not only easy to prepare but so tasty and healthy too

First of all uppu kozhakkai just like sweet or jaggery coconut kozhakkatais can be prepared the same way following the three main ways to prpepare the outer cover dough ( also called choppu .) unlike the sweet modakams , the uppu kozhakkatai is usally patted into a semi circle with some pleatsb on outer rim or even kept plain . it has no special intrictae design as such .

Normally i like to use store flours for most sweet and savory snacks, except Kozhakkatais,for which i always soak rice, grind batter and make a good dough , kozhakkatais made with such rice batter dough are so moist and absolutely delightful, it is not difficult to get the consistency right at all, if you have ground a very smooth thick batter and used water in correct proportion to make the maavu / dough . There is no need to use a non stick kadai also to cook the dough .

Kozhakkatais are steamed rice dumplings if you can call them that , as they are shaped like small parcels , gathered into small pleats and with a conical shape . The outer cover or shell is a delicate thin covers prepared with ground rice dough . The filling is mainly of grated coconut and jaggery . Many variaitions are used to prepare the seet filling such as dry fruits, or cooked dal with jaggery , the filling is called poornam in Tamil .

As these are steam cooked, they also make helathy snacks for other days , how ever it is the integral poart of Ganesh chaturthi .

Then pic below shows how the uppy kozhakkatai is prepared with outer shell shaped in many ways , now adays moulds are avaialble for easy preparation .

Uppu kozhakkatai method 1

Delicious soft udad dal spicy filling by using udad dal flour instead of soaking udad dal and grinding .

• By using udad dal flour we save time and very handy for festivals when we have a lot of preparation to make .

• The taste of a udad dal spicy filling is just as tasty and soft like the ground dal batter filling. Uppu Kozhukkatai/ Ulundh Kozhukkatai with udad dal flour .

• A quicker way to make a delicious savoury Kozhukkatai with store bought udad dal flour , saving time on soaking and grinding .

• Same delicious taste and soft filing . Perfectly steam cooked .

• Add spices of choice

• Ingredients

• 1 cup rice flour ( idiappam or kozhukkatai maavu flour )

• 1 1 /4 cup water to make rice flour batter preparation as shown for filling

• 1 small cup ready made udad dal flour to prepare the udad dal spicy filling .

  Method

• Add salt , asafoetida powder Add sufficient water to make a semi thick batter Grease a plate , spread the udad dal batter , steam cook .

• Remove when done , cool and crumble with fingers or in a mixie jar giving short bursts of turns to get perfect rough crumble

• To a kadai add 1 tbsp sesame oil ,

• splutter mustard seeds,

• add split udad dal , curry leaves , grated ginger , chopped chilies ,

• add the crumble , mix well .

• Allow to cool . Use as filling for ulundh Kozhukkatai

Uppu Kozhakkatai method 2

This is the traditional method of soaking udad dalfor 1 hours, grinding to a coarse paste with some green chilies .

Ingredients

1 cup whole udad dal , washed and soaked for 1-2 hours .

2-3 green chilies

pinch of asafoetida

few curry leaves

1 tbsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

salt

1/2 tsp split udad dal

Method

Wash and soak udad dal , after 1-2 hours grind toa slightly coarse paste with salt, green chilies , asafoetida powde r.

Remove this paste and keep aside .

One method is to steam cook this coarse paste in idli cooker .

remove and crumble to smaller pieces .

Another traditional methos is

1. To a pan add 1 tbsp sesame oil , splutter mustardseeds , add split udad dal , few curry leaves .

2. 2. now add the ground paste to the oil and tempering , sautee , continously till the paste becomes soft and breaks into smaller pieces . you must get smooth fluffy crumbles of the mixture .

3. . Do not dry up the mixture completely . you must be able to make soft round balls with it , that is the perfect texture .

4. .Cool the mixture, make small balls of the savoury filling and keep aside.

5. Prepare the outer dough :

6. 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 stor 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

   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 .

To prepare the uppu kozhakkatai with this dough

1. Take a small ball of the dough , flatten into a round shape using a greased banana leaf, place the round shaped thin dough circle in the centre, plae the filling ball in the midle of the dough circle. with the help of the leaf, fold into a semi circle, open the leaf and the folded kozhakattai is ready .

2. You can do this in the palm of your hand itself .

3. Nowadyas moulds are vaialble for making this kind of kozhakkataui, example , somas mould . However i find them little thicker .

4. prepare all such salt kozhakkatais and steam cook .

5. The kozhakkatais are ready when the outer shell looks moist and shiny , do not allow to over steam , aas they will start cracking .

Watch the video below for how to fill and steam cook salt / uppu kozhakkatai with udad dal flour .

Three easy ways of making kozhakkatai dough .

Shown below are mani kozhakkatai and sweet kozhakkatai . Mani kozhakkatais are small balls of savoury rice dough with spices that are steamed and tempered .