Kozhukkatta and ada, steamed sweet rice dumplings

Kozhukkatta and ada, steamed sweet rice dumplings

This is a south Indian breakfast dish. Once you get the hang of making the dough, making these will be easy. ‘Kozhukkatta’ and ‘ada’ are different only by their shape. The spherical ones are called “kozhukkatta” and the half-moon ones are “ada”.

Start off by making the dough. The dough you make in this method do not need a wrapper (banana leaf or aluminium foil) to hold its shape. We will boil some extra water to start with. You need to cook this dough well. The dough should be firm too. Adding extra flour to fix a ‘soft dough’ will make dumplings hard. If you add oil to the dough, dumplings will fall apart while steaming. 

Bring the water with salt to a rolling boil in a heavy bottom pan. Remove one cup of water and keep aside. Add the rice flour to the boiling water on stovetop and stir to combine. Add more water (from what we have set aside) if you see any dry flour. The dough will look lumpy but don't add too much water. Take off heat and keep covered for 10 minutes. Knead for 5-7 minutes to make firm dough. Wet your hands if the dough is too dry. It should not be sticky. Keep covered while you prepare the filling.

It is best to use fresh grated coconut for filling. If you have only desiccated coconut, rehydrate it with sprinkling a little water or milk. Heat a heavy wok and sauté the coconut with sugar and molasses about 5-7 minutes. Traditionally jaggery is used in this recipe. You can use brown sugar also in place of sugar and molasses. Add the powdered cardamom, combine and set aside. Some people just mix fresh coconut with sugar/jaggery and use it straight away without cooking. But then, it will ooze out while steaming.

Fill a pot with 3-4 inches water and bring it to boil. Meanwhile shape the dumplings. Pinch off a small egg size dough and shape it into a pouch by pressing your finger into it. Stuff with a table spoon filling. Pinch the opening closed. To make the half-moon shaped dumplings, roll out the ball of dough to make a 3 inch disc. Keep the filling inside and fold the disc. Press the seams closed. Arrange he dumplings in a steamer basket. Steam for 10 minutes. Take out the steamer basket after 10 minutes and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve hot.