My second new year resolution with regard to food is to avoid / drastically reduce having rice for dinner. The problem has been that the husband loves rice and is not a huge fan of rotis, especially for dinner and me being the epitome of laziness hates to take the effort of making rotis at night. Hence its been rice as a default. But, of course, since that is not the best way forward, especially since there is also a resolution to lose weight, we decided on millets and other grains for dinner. Millets are the popular choice since we can make all the rice recipes with them and you feel full very easily.

So far, I have tried dal khichadi, vegetable pulao and adai with millets and all have turned out wonderful. In fact, the dal khichadi was a hit with the husband’s colleagues who dropped in unexpectedly for dinner. So yay! So the next on my list is the upma kozhakattai which is also traditionally made with rice.

I have followed the same recipe as for the rice kozhakattai that my mom taught me except I added some lentils for the protein quota. So here goes –

WHAT WE NEED

Millet (little millet/barnyard millet/ mix of both)          1 cup

Split skinned green gram/ Paitham paruppu                    1/4 cup

Oil                                                                                                    1 tsp

Dried red chillies                                                                         2-3

Mustard seeds                                                                              1/2 tsp

Bengal gram / kadala paruppu                                                1 tsp

Curry leaves, chopped                                                               1 sprig

Grated coconut                                                                             2-3 tbsp

Water                                                                                               3 cups

Salt

WHAT TO DO                                                       

• Soak the split green gram in warm water for 15-20 minutes
• Heat oil in a pan 
• Roughly tear the dried red chillies and add them to the oil
• Add mustard seeds. Once they pop add Bengal gram and curry leaves.
• Once the Bengal gram is golden brown in colour, add the coconut and mix well.
• Pour the 3 cups of water into the pan and let it come to a boil.
• Drain the water from the split green gram
• Once the water is boiling, add the millets, split green gram and salt.
• Mix well to combine.
• Once the millets have absorbed all the water, switch off the gas and let it cool slightly.
• Once the millets are cooled enough to be handled by hand, take a handful of the mixture and gently press it to an oblong shaped. Continue with the rest of the millet mixture.
• Ensure that the millets do not give way and break immediately.
• Once the entire millet mixture has been shaped into oblongs, put them in a steamer or pressure cooker (without the weight) and steam for 10-12 minutes.
• Don’t steam beyond 12 minutes since the kozhakattai can turn dry and break.
• Enjoy them with a chutney of your choice!

   

NOTES

1. The most critical part is shaping of the mixture into kozhakattais. So don’t let the mixture cool beyond 6 minutes or so else it will not be warm enough to shape.
2. In case, you are unable to shape them, then put the entire mixture in a plate and steam it. You can cut them into pieces and serve.
3. To make it more healthy and colourful, you can add some grated carrot. Add it before the grated coconut.

This is my entry for the Blogging Marathon under the theme – New Year Challenges.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for other marathoners doing this BM.