South Indian Soul Food: Fall In Love With The Delightful Panai Olai Kozhukattai

While extravagant desserts like cheesecakes, red-velvet and different fashionable desserts would possibly lure you with layers of wealthy cream and their sinful sweetness, the standard steamed Panai Olai Kozhukattai has a definite attraction to it, captivates you with its distinctive mix of flavours and textures that will not weigh you down. Amongst all of the styles of Kozhukattais, one thing that majorly caught my fancy is the Panai Olai Kozhukattai, a treasured down South delicacy steeped in custom and handed down by grandmothers’ loving arms retaining Tamil Nadu’s cultural and culinary heritage alive. 
During these two festivals – Chithirai Thiruvizha/Chithirai Pongal (April-May) and Thiru Kaarthigai, throughout the districts of Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Kanyakumari, tender palm leaves are simply accessible. The streets are festooned with lights, cut-outs of Gods and loudspeakers blare devotional songs. Houses are stuffed with family, good meals and laughter and the aroma of those Panai Olai Kozhukattais makes the festivity much more particular. Many households have totally different recipes, some even use sugar syrup, however the magic of this delicacy lies within the heavenly mixture of palm jaggery and palm leaves. The tenderness of the palm leaves shares its earthy aroma and passes its flavour to the dumpling, making it a sacred providing to God. 
Also Read: South Indian Desserts: 7 Dessert Recipes You Can Make Under 30 Minutes

^{_{Photo Credit: Deepa Shri Rajan}}

As a child, I’ve at all times waited for the pooja to complete, in order that I can get pleasure from these delicate, candy, fragrant and tender Kozhukattais. The enjoyable lies in unwrapping these from the palm leaves and is greatest loved with coconut chunks as a facet, thereby making use of the coconuts to the fullest after having carried out the rituals at temples and houses. The nuttiness of coconut chunks, the aroma of tender palm leaves and the sweetness from the palm jaggery is truthfully probably the greatest flavour combos and I wager, one can simply hold indulging on this addictive mixture. 

Panai Olai Kozhukattai Recipe | How Toi Make  Panai Olai Kozhukattai

Ingredients: 

• 1.5 Cups Rice Flour (Soak the rice in water for two hours and shade dry it. When the rice is barely moist and would not stick to one another, grind it right into a wonderful powder).
• 3/4 Cup Palm Jaggery
• 1/4 Cup Grated Coconut
• 1 tsp Cardamom and Dry Ginger Powder. 

Instructions: 

1. Crush the palm jaggery with a mortar and pestle. Boil the jaggery with little water, thereby making it straightforward to soften. Filter it to take away impurities. 
2. In a large bowl, add the hand-ground rice flour, cardamom, dry ginger powder and coconut gratings. Mix it nicely. 
3. Slowly add the palm jaggery syrup to the above combination and make it a clean dough, like a chapati dough. 
4. Wash the palm leaves and minimize them into 4-5 inches leaflets, smear oil to the within of the palm leaves, then fastidiously stuff the dough lengthwise and shut it. 
5. Steam the ready palm leaves in an idli steamer for 10-12 minutes. 
6. Now open one of many palm leaves and see if the dough would not persist with it. If it would not, it is cooked proper. Remove them from the steamer and revel in. 

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