Kozhukatta - Coconut Stuffed Sweet Dumplings

Palm Sunday is really a great day..........

Celebrating the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

Jesus,you entered Jerusalem knowing that it will end in your sacrificial death, for all the sin humans performed.

' Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of Lord!'
The large crowd shouted waving and throwing palm leaves as you passed by.

In our churches, we receive Jesus with flowers and coconut tree leaves (the custom). (We don't have palm leaves there and coconut trees, a lot.........)

But before the Palm Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!
That is a delicious saturday.......
We used to make kozhukatta, the dumplings stuffed with sweet coconut, on the Saturday before palm Sunday. We call that day as kozhukatta Saturday.

Don't ask me why and what is the relation. I seriously don't know. 
That's the custom being followed by the generations.

Now the recipe,

Kozhukatta

The Ingredients :

Rice flour                    - 2 cup

Water                         - 3.25 cup

Coconut shredded        - 1 cup

Cardamom                  - 1/4 tsp

Jaggery powder           - 3/4 cup

Powdered orange zest  - a pinch

Salt                            - 1/2 tsp

Method

First prepare the filling. Mix Jaggery and 1/4 cup water in a bowl. Boil to form a thick syrup, just before the one thread consistency. Remove from heat.

In a pan mix coconut and jaggery syrup well. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes.Switch off the flame.

Powder the cardamom.

Add this to the coconut filling and mix well.

Now add the dried orange zest powder. A pinch is more than enough. Mix well.

 The filling is ready. Keep it aside.

Now prepare the dumpling base.

For this take 3 cups of water in a bowl. Add salt and boil the water.

While the water is boiling, dry fry the rice flour on medium flame.

Take the fried flour in a bowl. Add the boiled water, to the flour with mixing. Cover and keep it aside.

When it is warm enough to handle, knead with hands to form soft dough ball. The right consistency is when the dough is not sticking to hands.

Wet your palms to avoid sticking. Make medium size balls from the dough. Then holding the ball in one hand, press the center of ball inward out to form a cup shape.

Fill the cup with coconut filling.

The close and seal the cup to form a ball, again. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Steam the dumplings in a steamer for 10- 12 minutes. Then switch off the flame. Keep it covered for 1 - 2 minutes.

Kozhukatta is ready.

Serve Warm.

Enjoy Kozhukatta Saturday.


But recently i had read a beautiful interpretation for making kozhukatta on those Saturdays.

"That was the day Lazarus was brought back to life by Lord Jesus. He asked the men to move the stone from the cave entrance and called out to Lazarus and he came alive.
Kozhukatta is believed to represent the stone, when opened reveals the sweet life God gave us."

I don't know whether this relation is true, but i loved this version.

Happy Cooking

Heavenly Sweet Carrot Truffles / Carrot Laddu

I love vegetables. But i hate carrots. They taste raw, right? When made curry they taste sweet. I don't like my spicy curry to be sweet also. May be many of you are like me, (i said may be). Then this post is for you friends. 

And those who love carrots will love this heavenly treat for sure. And why shouldn't they? Its yummy, delicious................ hmmm, my mouth is watering. Yes it's me (who hate carrots) saying this. These truffles are easy to make with less ingredients. Carrot Truffles make perfect desserts for parties and get together.

Carrot Truffles

Here goes the recipe...

The recipe is similar to carrot (gajar) halwa. I just made it into small balls. That makes it easier to serve and more appetizing. 

Sweet Carrot Truffles

Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time      : 1 hour
Yield                  : 20 truffles

The Ingredients:

Carrot grated          - 5 cups

Sugar                     - 1/2 cup

Milk                        - 1.5 cups

Ghee                      - 4 tbsp

Cardamom              - 3 or 4 

Raisins (optional)     - 1 tbsp

Nuts (optional)        - 1 tbsp

Ingredients for Carrot truffles

Method

 Peel, wash and grate the carrots.

Grated carrot

Heat the pan in medium flame. Add 3 tbsp ghee into the hot pan.

Add ghee to the hot pan

Add the grated carrots into the hot ghee. Mix well. In very low flame, cook until the carrots are cooked and doesn't taste raw. This will take some 20 minutes. All the water in the carrot should evaporate.

Cook grated carrots in ghee.

Now add milk into the cooked carrots. Cook in a medium flame for 15 minutes or until the milk is completely absorbed by carrot. The carrot should again become dry.

Add milk into cooked carrots

Add the sugar into this dry carrot-milk mixture.Then the mixture will again become watery as the sugar dissolves. Continue cooking in medium flame until this mixture is again dry. This time the carrot mixture will be sticky. Caramelization is the process happening here. This will again take some 15 minutes to dry completely.

Add sugar to carrot and cook

Meanwhile powder the cardamom (avoid this if using powdered cardamom).

Powder the cardamom

When the mixture is dry and sticky, switch off the flame. Add cardamom powder and remaining ghee. Mix well to combine.

Add cardamom and ghee.

Then add nuts and raisins.

Add nuts and raisins

Till this point it is CARROT HALWA.

From here this will be called the SWEET CARROT TRUFFLES.

When the halwa is warm enough to handle, make small lemon sized balls. Sprinkle some sugar in a plate or cookie sheet. Place the truffles in the plate. Dust with sugar. 

Make truffle balls from carrot halwa.

Enjoy...

Carrot Truffles with nuts and cardamom flavor

Sometimes when I am ignored or rejected,  i get more inspired. This post is such an inspiration. 

To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence. - Mark Twain

Happy Cooking

Homemade Eggless Flaky Croissant

Eggless Buttery Flaky Croissant

For me, croissant is all about Germany. Actually croissant is a viennoiserie (things of Vienna). This Vienna-style pastry is famous for its crescent shape. I first had croissants on a trip to Germany. At the time I was not that much interested in cooking. I was even scared of making experiments. I only wanted to taste everything. And, I must say, every taste was different. Till then Bread was just a soft thing for me with rectangle shape or sliced squares. Variety in bread really surprised me.

But, wait a minute, croissants, I have seen something similar to this spiral flakes. Yes, the Puffs, Stuffed Vegetable or meat puffs. I hated those stuffed vegetables and will always give it to my amma whenever I get one. I only wanted the flakes of bread. And here it is, The Croissants.

Then after 1 year, sitting alone and getting bored in the house wake up the experimenting cook in me.

I wanted to make croissants. I searched the recipe. But most of them had egg and I don't want egg in my recipe. After doing lots of research and making, I am sharing my first blog recipe,

EGGLESS FLAKY HOMEMADE CROISSANT.

Yummy Croissant

The making of croissants is really time consuming but totally worth the time.

Croissant ingredient list:

Croissant Ingredients

All purpose flour - 3 cup
Warm Milk         - 3/4 cup
Lukewarm water - 1/4 cup
Active dry Yeast - 1 tsp
Salt                   - 3/4 tsp
Cold unsalted Butter - 2 oz(4 Tbsp)
Sugar                - 1/4 cup

Yeast Proofing

First proof the yeast. Combine yeast, sugar and lukewarm water. Let it sit for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes  the liquid will start to foam. Yes, the yeast is working. (I took the pic before 15 minutes and the foaming is not complete)                 

Meantime cover the butter block in a plastic wrap. Make it into a flat square sheet by slightly pounding and rolling. We can use a roller for this.

Making Butter Sheet

Keep the butter sheet in the refrigerator until the croissant dough is ready.

When the yeast proofing is complete add the flour, sugar, milk and salt into the bowl.

Croissant Dough

Knead to form a soft dough. The dough will be softer than bread dough. Cover and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Letting it rest help the gluten to activate so that the dough can be stretched and rolled without breaking.

Now starts the interesting, same time, difficult part.

Clean your work surface. Dust with flour. Keep the dough on the dusted surface. Make a cross on the dough ball with a knife.

Keeping the middle part a little raised, roll to form a star shape.

Croissant lamination step 1

Now take the butter from the refrigerator, unwrap and place it in the middle raised portion of dough. Then wrap the butter sheet with the dough, each part completely covering the butter.

Croissant lamination step 2

We will get a square block. (If the butter starts to melt, stop everything and keep it in the refrigerator for sometime).

Croissant lamination step 3

Then roll the square to form a rectangle sheet. Fold the rectangle dough sheet to form a square again. Wrap in a plastic cover and keep it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. 

Croissant lamination step 4

After 30 minutes take the dough from wrap and again roll to a rectangle sheet, fold to form a square, cover with a plastic wrap, again refrigerate for another 30 minutes.










Repeat the rolling and folding process 2 more times with 30 minutes refrigeration gap, so total 4 times, which will form many unseen buttery layers inside the soft dough sheet. We can make thousands of layers by repeating the rolling and folding process.

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (176 °C)

Line a cookie sheet or pizza pan with parchment paper.

Cut dough into triangles

Now trim the uneven edges to form a perfect rectangle. With a pizza cutter or knife, cut the dough into triangles.

Crescent Shape making step1

Make a small cut at the base of triangle.

Crescent Shape making step 2

Pull the sides apart.

Crescent Shape making step 3

Make a tight roll.

Place the croissant in a pan

Place it in the cookie sheet 1 inch apart so that it won't stick together when cooked. Yes, it will double in size. Let it rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Microwave milk and butter

I used butter and milk mixture for glazing. Combine 1 tsp butter with 1 tsp milk. Microwave until butter melts(10-12 seconds). Usually egg wash is used for this.

Brush the croissant with milk-butter mixture

Brush the croissant dough with milk-butter mixture.











Place it in the preheated oven. Cook for 25 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown. Let it cool down.

You are done. You will forget all the difficulties you came across in making this when you have the first bite.

Eggless flaky Croissant

Croissants had assured me that I have lot of patience.

Take risk, Get out of your comfort zone, You will learn something new.

Happy cooking.....