Sweet sesame seed balls, vegan cracked wheat pudding and urad gram filled rice dumplings

Ingredients

1)Ellu Urundai (Sweet Sesame Seed Balls):

• Sesame Seeds - 3/4 Cup
• Chopped Coconut Pieces - 1 tablespoon
• Panela(Powdered Jaggery) - 1/4 Cup
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• Water

2)Godhumai Pradaman (Vegan Cracked Wheat Pudding):

• Cracked Wheat - 1/2 Cup
• Powdered Jaggery(Panela) - 3/4 Cup or you want it sweeter increase this
• Coconut Milk - 15 ounces
• Cardamom Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• Toasted Cashews - 2 teaspoon
• Ghee(Clarified butter) - 1/2 teaspoon (optional)
• Water

3)Ulundu Kozhukkatai(Urad Gram Filled Rice Dumplings):

• Raw rice flour-1 cup
• Water-1 1/4 cups
• Salt-1 teaspoon or more according to your taste
• Oil - 2 teaspoons
• For filling
• Whole White Urad -3/4 cup
• Coconut - 1/4 Cup
• Red chilli - 2 or more according to your taste
• Salt-1 teaspoons as required

Preparation

• 1)Ellu Urundai (Sweet Sesame Seed Balls):
  Wash, rinse and soak sesame seeds for an hour. Drain the water and once the water is completely drained leave them in a paper towel for it to dry. Heat a pan and once it is hot, (now let the heat be on medium to low heat) transfer 1/3 rd of the dry seeds and keep stirring them till they pop nicely (Depending on the size of the pan you can add more or less seeds for popping. Once the seeds are nicely popped remove them from heat and spread them in a plate. Now in a pan add the jaggery and add little bit of water just to cover the jaggery and heat it. Once the jaggery is completely dissolved, start stirring and heat it till the jaggery becomes thick and if you pour the dissolved jaggery with your spoon you will see threads coming out of it. At this point switch of the stove and add the cardamom powder, popped sesame seeds and Coconut pieces and stir fast so that sesame seeds are evenly coated with the jaggery. Set it aside for 5 minutes, now take small amounts of this mixture and make them into a ball and enjoy.
• 2)Godhumai Pradaman (Vegan Cracked Wheat Pudding):
  Heat a pan and add 1/2 tsp of ghee and once melted add the cracked wheat. If you are looking for a vegan version, avoid this ghee and go for dry roasting the cracked wheat. Once wheat is well roasted and not overly browned add water and simmer it till it is cooked. Now add the Coconut milk and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Add the powdered jaggery and simmer for 5 minutes till the jaggery is completely dissolved.
  (Sometime jaggery may contain dirt, in that case dissolve the jaggery using little bit of water and once completely dissolved filter it and use the dissolved liquid). Switch of add cardamom powder and toasted cashews. You can also add toasted dry coconut pieces and chopped jack fruit pieces.
• 3)Ulundu Kozhukkatai(Urad Gram Filled Rice Dumplings):
  Soak the urad dal for 30 minutes. In a pan boil 1 1/4 cup water and then add salt and oil. When water starts boiling, lower the heat and slowely add rice flour little by little and mix vigorously with a heavy ladle without any lumps. Once mixed thorougly switch off the heat and close the pan with a tight lid and let it get cooked and in that heat and let it cool down also, meanwhile let us prepare the filling. Drain the water completely from the urad dal and grind it with salt, asafoetida powder and red chillies coarsely. Steam this mixture for 15 minutes until it is well cooked and becomes crumbly. Now add the grated coconut and combine thorougly and make elogated balls or cylinders using this filling. Our outer covering would have cooked and cooled now, smear your hand with little bit of oil. Take the rice flour dough, make a ball and then flatten it using your fingers. Keep the stuffing balls inside and join the edges and steam modaks for 15 minutes or till done.

Questions

Photos of members who cooked this recipe