Yellu Poornam Kozhukattai

Yellu Poornam Kozhukattai / Vinayagar Chathurthi Special

Yellu poornam kozhukattai is one of the traditional dish which we generally make in our homes for Vinayagar Chathurthi and Varalakshmi Viratham. It is another healthiest steam cooked dish with the best flavour of sesame seeds and jaggery packed in fine rice flour outer covering. 

This kozhukattai can also be done with coconut poornam or kadalai paruppu poornam instead of sesame seed (yellu) poornam. Our favourite is yellu poornam. Just the sesame seeds and jaggery - complement each other very well in both taste and medical property. The flavour of yellu is intense and has lots of good fat. One of my best buddy A shared some good quality sesame seeds from her native which are more flavourful. I have used it in today's recipe with gratitude.

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Yellu Poornam Kozhukattai for Pillaiyaar Chathurthi.

To prepare sesame seeds for poornam:

We generally use the black sesame seeds as it is more flavourful.

Buy the good quality sesame seeds / yellu. The seeds should not have any rancid smell so, buy the seeds just before you have decided to make kozhukattai. Generally the yellu has some debris like clay or small stones.

Wash the sesame seeds few times in tap water. Make sure all the debris present in the seeds are washed off. Drain the water. Dry them in sun till crisp dry. 

Roast the seeds till nice aroma fills the house. By then, some of the sesame seeds starts to pop. It will be very difficult to find whether the seeds are all well roasted as they are already black. So the only clue is the aroma and the popping sound. Remove them from heat when you see these clues.

Cool the seeds. Now its ready to be used in poornam.

Ingredients for Kozhukattai:

• Rice flour - 1 cup 
• Sesame seeds - 1 cup
• Jaggery - 1/4 cup
• Salt - 2 pinches
• Ghee or sesame oil - 2 spoons

Procedure to make poornam:

• Take the sesame seeds in a blender and use the whipper in the mixer for few seconds. Check whether it has become a coarse powder. (DO not run the blender with sesame seeds and the jaggery together in the first run itself as the sesame seeds wont be powdered well along with jaggery.)
• Now add the jaggery and run the mixer again or few more seconds. (Since we are not dissolving the jaggery to filter, there are chance of the presence of impurities like sugarcane fibres in the jaggery. So, make sure you buy jaggery from good shop where there are less impurities.)
• The poornam is ready.

Click the link for detailed step by step explanation with pictures for the recipe of rice flour dough.

Procedure to prepare the rice flour dough: 

• Today I used store bought rice flour. You can also use the rice flour prepared at home. 
• Take around 2 and 1/2 cups of water and let it boil. Once it starts to boil, add salt and 1 spoon of sesame oil or ghee.
• Keep the rice flour ready in a broad vessel. Add the hot water little by little. Add hot water and mix well. Repeat this till you get a soft dough.
• Once you get the soft dough, cover it and keep it aside for some time to cool (till your hands could bear the heat of the dough to knead). 
• After some time, open it and knead gently to make the dough even and still softer. You can add 1 spoon of ghee to make it more soft and non sticky.
• Now you would have got a soft, non sticky dough. This dough will not crack easily even when you spread flat to fill with poornam.
• The ghee you added will keep the dough moist. The outer covering dough is ready.

Procedure to make kozhukattai:

• Knead the dough a few times. Grease your hands with oil (sesame oil). Take a small ball of the dough. 
• Keep the dough in the middle of your left hand palm and with you right thumb base (as you see in the below picture) press the dough gently and spread it.

• Keep the poornam in the centre of the flattened rice flour dough, fold it and seal the edges. One kozhukattai is ready to be steam cooked. (I made a few modhagams, where, after we keep the poornam in the centre, bring the edge of the round, flattened dough together and seal it.)

• Repeat the same with the rest of the dough.
• Once you finished making the kozhukatais keep them in the idli cooker and steam cook for 10 minutes like idlies. (You can also use the pressure cooker to steam cook the kozhukattais like idli, i.e., once full pressure is built up inside the cooker [or idli cooker if using that instead], turn the heat to low, without the weight for 10 minutes).

• After 10 minutes, turn off the stove, wait for 5 more minutes. Then open to see the kozhukattais smiling at you..

The yellu poornam kozhukattais are ready to be offered to God on auspicious day or its a great snack on special day. 

Enjoy the healthy traditional dish with goodness both inside and out!

Happy cooking !!