Thengai Poorana Kozhukattai/Sweet Coconut Dumplings

Thengai Poorana Kozhukattai is made on ganesh chathurthi day and its considerably easier than the paruppu pooranams. So this year i made this pooranams as i was also making dry fruits pooranams which i will be posting soon.
I still remember those days when Amma used to make double the amount of this pooranam than she needs because the moment i see it i’ll start gobbling it and soon there won’t be any left to fill in the modhakam. When i grew up i used to wait anxiously until the poojas are over and then i will just put in a whole modakam into my mouth to satiate my anxiety. Even last time when i was at mom’s place at that time of the year  I was secretly expecting her to save some for me. But hen i thought she could have cou nted me for a grown –up with a kid!After pooja when we sat down for breakfast, she silently moved the bowl of these  golden coconut scraps towards me and smiled. Who else on world can understand you better? So now coming back to the recipe the pooranams will hardly take 10 minutes to prepare if you have the coconut ready. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

For Stuffing/Pooranam:

Coconut-1 cup finely grated

Cardamom powder-1/4 tsp

Jaggery-1/2 cup grated/powdered

Ghee-1 tbsp

For Outer layer:

Rice flour/Idiyappam Flour-3/4 cup

Hot water- 1&1/2 cup

Salt-as needed

For outer layer dough preparation and tips refer here.

How it happened:

1. Prepare the outer layer dough as mentioned here, apply oil on the surface, keep covered and set aside.

2. Heat ghee in a pan, add grated coconut and fry in medium flame for 2 minutes.

3, Add the powdered jaggery, mix well sprinkle a tsp of water and simmer the flame.

4. Keep sautéing the mixture until all the liquid is absorbed.

5. When the mixture turns shiny and sticky, raise to medium flame and sauté for a couple of minutes.

6. Add the cardamom powder mix well and switch off the flame. Allow the mixture to cool down.

7. When the mixture has cooled, it may be a little hard. But that’s normal.

8. Now take a little/ 1 ball of the rice dough flatten it with your hands and make a shell.

9. Spoon in a little coconut mixture into it and seal the rice dough. You can make any shapes or use any modak moulds available in the market.

10. Arrange the modakams on an oiled steamer plate / idli plate and steam for 10 minutes/ until cooked.

11. When the rice dough layer/outer layer of the modak turns shiny it means it is cooked and can be removed from the steamer and served.

Notes:

* Powder the jaggery well, to melt easily.

*Do not sprinkle too much water while melting the jaggery as you may end up making syrup which may soften the coconut too much and the coconut will lose its crunch.

* Do not steam the modaks for a long time as this may result in hard, chewy modaks.