Rich in Potassium, Magnesium and Fiber, Which May Reduce Blood Pressure.
Munthiri kothu recipe
The Munthiri kothu is a unique festival sweet from Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, South India.
Munthiri Kothu is a sweet usually prepared in southern part of Tamil Nadu. It is healthy and guilt free sweet snack as it doesn’t contains any refined sugar. Kothu means bunch the sweet is made into balls in bunches hence the name. it looks like bunch of grapes and called munthiri kothu.
Munthiri kothu recipe
Ingredients
2 cup green moong
¼ cup raw rice
11/4 or 11/2 cup grated jaggery / palm jaggery
1 cup coconut grated
4 cardamom
oil to deep fry
For the Batter
1/2 cup rice flour
a generous pinch of salt
1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
as required water to make thin batter
NOTE – Instead of rice flour we can soak ½ cup raw rice for 1 hr and grind into fine batter as shown in video .
METHOD
Dry roast the green moong in a heavy bottom pan over medium to low heat till it becomes light brown in colour. This could take around 8 TO 10 mins.
In the same pan, add the rice + cardamom . Dry roast it till it becomes golden brown. Transfer it to a plate..
Now, in the same pan, add the grated coconuts and dry roast over low flame. The coconut has to become golden brown in color and crispy.
Take the cooled down green gram + rice + cardamom in a mixer jar and grind into fine pwdr.
Take jaggery + water upto the level of jiggery .Allow it to boil till the jaggery dissolves .
Strain the jaggery syrup through a metal strainer. Add the hot jaggery syrup to the ground green gram mixture.
Mix everything well with a spoon till the jaggery syrup mixes with the powder. Once you are able to handle it start mixing with hands.
* check if you are able to roll balls , if the mixture is too dry , sprinkle hot water as required .
Immediately start taking a small portions of mixture and roll into small balls If you let cool the mixture, it will become hard. So it’s important to shape ball still the mixture is warm. Let these laddus rest for 20 to 30 minutes to rest or overnight .
Take rice flour along with turmeric powder and salt. Add water little by little and make the batter. The batter has to be thin not too thin .
Heat oil for deep frying .
Now, take few balls at a time and dip it in the batter either with your hand. Drop it carefully in hot oil. It will form like a bunch of grapes .
fry it on medium high flame for few seconds .
Since the outer layer of rice flour is very thin , it will cook fast. There is no need to flip and cook also .If required flip and cook .
once the outer cover get crisper drain the oil and take the mundri kothu out on a strainer to drain excess oil.
Delicious munthiri kothu is now ready.
Munthiri kothu recipe
Notes
Once the mixture is made start forming the balls .
Keep warm water aside while forming the balls ,as the mixture becomes dry ,dip your hands in warm and roll the balls .
As the balls are dried overnight these remain good upto one month.
Instead of rice , use white sesame .
Adding rice give a nice texture .
Do not boil the jaggery syrup till any string consistency.
I have used palm jiggery which is available in tamil nadu , you can use regular jaggery .
I have used coconut oil to fry .
It is a must to keep the balls aside for resting time before you start frying else it will crumble.
10.We can also add a pinch ½ tsp of dry ginger pwdr .
11.You can add a tbsp Of corn flour to rice batter
