Mothagam – vella kozhukattai is a must for Vinayagar chaturthi. We make usually mothagam with channa dal plus coconut pooranam. This time, I wanted to post kozhukattai recipe with thenga pooranam. So tried it, asking recipe from my friend Sangeeta’s MIL. It was super yummy!. I had always a thought that thenga pooranam may be too too sweet, and never tried. Only tasted twice at Jeyashris house. But when I tried this, I really loved this, its so easy too unlike the channa dal pooranam we usually make. Vj too loved it so much! Now my usual story about the festival, please feel free to skip it
As a kid I have always enjoyed ‘pillayar sadhurthi’. Dad and bro are talented enough to make clay idol of vinayagar at home itself. We take mud from our own backyard for this. And when it comes to decoration, that is painting it colourful, I used to help. I loved that part. When the day of celebration comes, we keep two black beads ready and after the ‘abishekam’ gets over, we insert that in the eye part, after which only vinayagar is officially born.
And not to forget the time when mom sends to gather ‘arugampul’ – a type of grass- for making a garland for vinayagar. Every day I gather it carefully (only three strands should be there in a sprig) freshly from the fields opposite to our house. Also we go a little far to gather the ‘erukkam poo’ to make malai, that stays good for few days. I use needle and thread and make that cute garland. We get only the purple variety near our area. But paati says white flower variety is more special for the festival.
I used to sit and watch eagerly what are all the things dad used for abishekam – lemon juice, honey, milk, curd, mashed banana,pure sandal (sandanam), turmeric etc and water in between each item… And not to miss the cute little mouse (moonjoor) also gets all these abishekams. My paati used to assist the whole thing. I feel now Aj misses all those things! In our in-laws house we celebrate the same way, but in a brief manner.
And we make kozhukattais all of us sitting together – mom, dad, bro, paati and me.. Afternoon, just for padayal we make 11 kozhukattai in each and finish the padayal and in the evening we start to make lots for dinner. And we enjoy hot, soft and delicious – it goes in without any counts. And not only the pillayar chadhurthi day, as long as the pillayar is kept at home before its dissolved. Every evening mom makes something to offer the idol. Sundal and appam will be mostly made. Since there will not be any rivers or ponds nearby, we dissolve the idol in a big tub of water kept in our garden and after it gets dissolved super fast (yes super fast as its homemade) we pour the water to the flowering plants that we have in our garden. Sweet memories!
Check the other Ganesh Chaturthi recipes
- Channa dal pooranam recipe
- Mothagam with channa dal pooranam
- Ellu poorana kozhukattai
- Sweet pidi kozhukattai
- Ulundu kozhukattai recipe
- Ammini kozhukattai recipe
- Easy ulundu pidi kozhukattai recipe
- Aval pidi kozhukattai recipe
- Samai pidi kozhukattai recipe
Refer How to shape a mothakam in the below video :
To read the mothagam recipe in Tamil, click here
Mothagam recipe
Prep Time: 25 mins | Cook time: 20 mins | Makes: 12
Ingredients
Sesame oil – 1 tsp
Water – As needed
Salt – As needed
For coconut pooranam
Jaggery – 1 cup minus 3 tblsp
Elachi – 2
Method
- For the dough, bring water to boil with a tsp of sesame oil and let it boil for a minute. Add it to the flour with salt and mix well. Use a spatula for mixing. You may need lots of water. So make sure you boil enough.
- After it becomes warm, knead to a smooth dough and keep covered. You can make equal sized balls and keep covered.
- For the thenga pooranam, place grated coconut jaggery and elachi powder in a pan, with 2 tblsp of water. Mix in medium flame for 5 minutes, when it starts leaving the sides of pan, switch off the flame.
- Make small cups out of the dough, refer this VIDEO for learning how to shape the cup. Fill with the coconut pooranam.
- Repeat and finish the kozhukattais and keep covered until steaming. Boil water in steamer and arrange the modaks in the steaming plate and cook for 5 mintues. Or until they are cooked.
Notes
- You can reduce jaggery quantity as needed to suit your taste. I used little less jaggery than mentioned as I dont like it too sweet.
- To get the outer layer soft, its important to boil water well for making the dough. Dough should be almost cooked with the hot water so that you get non sticky pliable dough.
- If the dough is not cooked well, you may not be able to make the cups properly and will break while making.
- To check if the kozhukattais are done, it will be shiny and changed in colour.
- Do not over cook , it may give you rubbery and broken kozhukattais.
- If you mix the stufiing in high flame or for more time than needed, then it may turn hard or brittle.
Its so soft and delcious, that you can pop one kozhukattai per mouth and enjoy!
fabulous mothagam..tempting clicks..esp love the last click..
mothagam looks perfect and yummy 🙂
Awesome mothagams.. the mothagam slit in half with the revealing pooranam looks very tempting.. I was also awed by the abishekam as a child.. in my in-laws house its not so grand as it used to be in my house.. and my mother-in-law does the kozhukattai herself.. so no chance there too.. but hoping to try it on my own someday
Cute and very attractive mothagams..
Looks yum and cute ..nicely done
Really Nice.. Even i did the channa dal pooranam last year for ganesh chaturthi from ur blog.. this time i'm goin to try this mothagam.. As usual wonderful clicks… More than ur recipes, i'm a great fan of the stories u write before every recipe.. it reminds me of my childhood…!!!
Thanks 🙂 Happy Vinayagar chaturthi
🙂 I could relate to your situation Happy Vinayagar chaturthi
very nice.. Happy vinayagar chaturthi Raks
Oh wow, I'm drooling! Thanks for the recipe…
yumm, yumm, yummy modakams
nandoo
ongoing event: Healthy Breakfast
Nice receipe with pics. Thanks for sharing. I'm going to try it for the first time.
Nice receipe with pics. Thanks for sharing. I'm going to try it for the first time.
Awesome pics..:) this my husbands favorite.In Telugu we call Jilledukayalu.Thanks for the recipe .happy Ganesh chaturthi.:)
Awesome pics..:) this my husbands favorite.In Telugu we call Jilledukayalu.Thanks for the recipe .happy Ganesh chaturthi.:)
Looks so delicious..waiting to make this on 9th.
Awesome clicks.. This is my fav pooranam than ellu & kadala parippu one !
Hi Raks i think there is a difference between mothagam and kozhukkattai. Mothagam is the one which we fry in oil and kozhakkattai is the one which you have showed now..Just wanted to clear my doubt.
Wonderful write up with yummy recipe.
Wonderful and cute little modhagams…
oh, I never knew that, thanks!
yummy and delicious
Very neatly explained, delicious one and loved your story…Modaks are very cute and very nice clicks!
Cute and yummy mothagam,nice clicks.
Yummy Modaks…going try all your recipes
My mom makes kozhukattai with peanut and jaggery purnam. Happy vinayaka chathurthi 🙂
Asusual Kalakureenga raks!!
Hi raks.. thx a million for ths simple yet superb recipe.. my mothagam turned out to be good! Everyone at home loved it.. Thx again..
Thanks you very much for the prompt feedback Darshini 🙂
thank you for the recipe i get it
thank you for the recipe i get it
Cute looking Mothagam..coconut stuffing is always my fav!
More than the receipe, i seriously enjoyed reading your intro, just took me back to my childhood. Life has been simplified in many ways and that includes tradition.It is a pitty that our children miss out on so many simple things that we enjoyed. Thanks for the post.
nice recipe, I like it…
Thanks to your helpful instructions I managed to make great mothagams for the very first time. Your recipes never fail to impress my household. Thank you so much.
Hi raji
Can we substitute sugar for jaggery
Jaggery is best. If you want you can try with brown sugar / Naatu sakkarai
When i made the kozhukatti after the steam vellum started dripping on the idli plate. Why?
Hi, By 1/2 cup rice or idiyappam flour, how much grams or quantity do you mean?
Also, your childhood story is interesting 🙂
Sorry I don't have a kitchen scale. My cup holds 240 ml of liquid.
Place the modak after water boils in the steamer. Do not steam more than needed. I am not sure what is the exact reason…
Did you use Nirapara idiyappam flour? just checking…thanks for a nice post
Baba's 🙂
Hi Raks, prepared this for Vinayagar Chathurthi today. My hubby and son liked it very much. I have a doubt. I first prepared pooranam. Then dough. While making kozhukattais the pooranam had become little hard. Why so?
Hi Viji, If you cook the pooranam more than needed time, it turns hard. Cook in medium heat to avoid over cooking. The timing given is just a guidance for rough idea, depending on the environment, vessel, heat, it could vary.