Munthirikkotthu (Sweet Moong Dal Balls)

Yipppee!! I am jiving for Jihva!Finally, finally I could make something on time to take part in the great Jihva for Dals.
This is a very traditional and very uncommon recipe from Kerala. To be specific, only seen and known in Central Kerala, or to be more precise, the exact centre point in Central Kerala. If you keep two steps to the left or right, you won’t find it and most people wont even know about it. (Now, please don’t tell me, “Hey I live in Bihar, we make this every day. This is our common snack and all”. I want to feel like I am giving out a secret authentic recipe :))

I wanted to blog this, particularly because it is disappearing fast. I asked ten Malayalees and only one of them have even heard about it. My mom-in-law makes it and packs them in loads when we travel back to U.S. If we are flying from my home, my mom and brothers would finish half the package...giving me excuses like ‘We never ate something like this’, ‘You already have half more packet for the two of you’,'You can ask her to make more, we cant’ and the rest of the package my husband finishes off with a vengeance the first two days after we reach here, claiming on homesickness. I end up with crumbs! This is her recipe for Munthirikkotthu (Munthiri means grapes in Malayalam and kothu means roughly powdered. However, there is no grapes in thisroasted rice

Roast 1 cup of split moong dal and 1 cup of raw rice separately in a pan brushed with ghee.roasted moong dal
Roast them well until moong dal turns golden and rice turns a little brown.ground mixture

Grind it together to a coarse sooji rawa consistency. Don’t grind fine.

Alternatively, you can only use moong dal for this.Then double the amount of moong dal in this recipe when it replaces rice.

Roast ¾ cup of coconut also after this in the same pan. Don’t brown it, just roast the coconut very dry. Also, Roast 1/2 cup of cashew nuts in ghee and dice them small.

450gm of Jaggery or Brown sugar powdered and liquefied with 3/4 or 1 cup of water.

Melt Jaggery and add water and make it a liquid. Add coconut to this mixture. Make sure the heat is low so as not to burn the jaggery or sugar.

While the sugar syrup is hot, Mix the moong dal, rice, ¼ tsp of cardamom powder, ¼ tsp of dry ginger powder and cashew. The mixture should not be watery.The trickiest messiest part is now. We need to make small balls with this mixture before the sugar hardens. Make small balls in your fist and press them tightly. You might need some extra hands if you are not quick enough.

This was hard for me, so what I did was, I took a 1 tbs measuring spoon and pressed the mixture into this and flipped the measuring spoon downwards so the mixture forms small balls, flat on one side. If you don’t have heat resistant hands, it is very hard. My measuring spoon trick would be good for you.making small balls with the mixture
My mom in law makes small round perfect balls, all with her own hands. While I was doing this, I really felt so bad for my mom-in-law. I will be busy shopping, talking,getting excited etc., while she is painstakingly doing all this for us and we just gulp them all without even thinking about all the hard work for a moment. I have never even seen her making this. I only see neat little packets. I am so bad :(

Let the small balls cool down completely. The sugar will harden when it cools which will make the balls hard.

Make a batter with the same consistency of ‘idli batter’. Add water to 1 cup of All Purpose Flour and 1 cup of idli rawa or rice which is coarsely ground. Roast ¼ cup of some black sesame seeds in ghee and add to this batter along with some salt.

Now dip the small balls in the batter and fry them in any frying oil. Dry them completely.This stays good for one or two months in a glass jar.Serve it as a snack.What’s the best way to your husband’s heart? Re-creating his childhood!