Ingredients
3/4 cup white rice
1 cup packed grated unsweetened coconut*
3/4 cup jaggery**
3 cardamom pods, remove cardamom and finely grind
4 tablespoons canola/vegetable oil
Directions
Make the wrappers:
1. Soak 3/4 cup white rice in water to cover rice for 2 hours. Drain water from rice.
2. Grind (using a food processor or grinder) rice with 1/2 cup of water until it becomes a smooth thin batter. Add a pinch of salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons of oil.
3. In a nonstick pan, heat batter over low heat, stirring continuously until it becomes thick paste, almost like wallpaper glue. Cover and heat for 3 minutes more over medium heat until the paste has formed into thick pieces. Remove from heat, place in mixing bowl, and let cool.
4. Begin by mixing about 1/4 cup water with the wrapper dough and knead dough for about five minutes, adding more water as necessary, until it feels like Play-Doh. Add 1 tablespoon oil and knead into dough.
Make the filling (in Tamil, called poornam)
1. Heat coconut and jaggery over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and breaking up jaggery pieces until they come together and turn copper.
2. Turn off heat and mix in ground cardamom into coconut mixture. Let cool.
Make the kozhakattai:
1. Take pieces of dough and roll into small ping pong sized balls.
2. Take filling and roll into balls about 3/4 of the size of the dough balls.
3. Fill a small bowl with two tablespoons oil. Dip fingers into oil to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.
4. Create a small indentation in the center of the dough ball.
5. Carefully moving your fingers around the edge and not the center of the dough ball, create a small bowl.
6. Then place the bowl into a cupped hand and, using one finger from the other hand, gently extend the sides of the bowl, without create cracks in the dumpling wrapper. The thinner your dumpling wrapper, the better the kozhakattai.
7. Place filling ball into the dough bowl and crease the edges of the bowl into the center.
8. If, at any time, the dough begins to be difficult to work with, add some water to the dough and knead the dough again. If the batter begins to stick to your fingers, dip your fingers into the oil.
Steam kozhakattai:
1. You will need a mechanism to steam your kozhakattai. I have a steamer bowl that attaches to the top of my rice cooker but a bamboo steamer or a bowl with holes suspended over a pot of boiling water will work (what patti uses).
2. Boil water in boiling mechanism. Coat steamer pan with ½ teaspoon oil.
3. Place kozhakattai in steamer pan and cover with a lid.
4. After about five minutes, check your kozhakattai. They should be shiny, translucent, and not sticky when you touch them. Sprinkle one tablespoon of water on them.
5. Serve to your admiring fans.
*If at all possible, use freshly grated coconut rather than store bought varieties because most of the flavor in the kozhakattai comes from the sweet creaminess of the coconut flesh. Alton Brown has an excellent method for grating coconuts, or you could purchase a coconut grating tool, that looks like a torture device, sold in Indian stores.
** Jaggery is a form of pure unrefined cane sugar sold in Indian stores. I think you could substitute dark brown sugar for the jaggery, but the jaggery has a buttery undertone that dark brown sugar lacks. If your jaggery has hard stones of sugar in it, then just like brown sugar, you can heat it in a small amount of water in the microwave gently for a few seconds and grind the jaggery to soften it.