Aval Pidi Kozhukattai – Flattened Steamed Rice Dumplings

Vinayagar Chaturthi festival is coming this Sep 19. So everybody is probably be making lots of snacks and sweets already this week. Kozhukattai is one of the special and favorite dish for Lord Ganesh so it’s one of the must-make items on that auspicious day. I have lots of poha/aval sitting in my pantry which I bought for Krishna Jayanthi. (See Poha Vada recipe)

So I thought why not make some Aval Pidi Kozhukattai and give it a trial run before Vinayagar Chaturthi. So I made this aval pidi kozhukattai just like Pidi Kozhukattai except I am substituting flattened rice instead of beatened rice. It tatses really good.
Whenever I make pidi kozhukattai always it remind me of Pondicherry restaurant “Adayar anadha bhavan”. I used to go there and never missed eating it at that place.

Preparation Time : 30 minutes
No Of Kozhukattai : 12

Ingredients:

• Aval/Poha/Flattened rice: 2 cups (Grind the aval coarsely)
• OIl : 2 tsp
• Mustard Seeds : 1 tsp
• Urad dal : 1 tsp
• Curry Leaves : few
• Green Chili : 1 (chopped finely)
• Water : 2 cups
• Salt : to taste
• Grated Coconut : 3 tbsp

Method Of Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan add mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and when seeds sputter add green chilies.
2. Now pour two cups of water into it and bring it into a full boil.
3. In between the boiling time grind the whole poha coarsely and keep it aside.
4. I’ve shown the ground poha in pic
5. 
   Now add the ground poha into the boiling water and mix it carefully in medium heat.
6. Cook aval till it absorbs all the water and it looks semi dry as shown in pic and remove from heat and keep it aside.
7. Now add the shredded coconut and mix it well.
8. Let the mixture cool down completely .
9. Take a small portion out of the mixture and roll it in to a cylindrical dumpling by gently pressing it with your fingers.
10. Cover it and steam it for 8-10 minutes (in a Idli cooker) as shown in pic.
11. Serve it hot with coconut chutney.