Munthiri kothu / green gram balls with palm sugar
It's been ages since the last I ate this Indian sweet nuggets, and can't believe I made. This sweet is called Munthiri kothu translated as roasted green gram with jaggery balls.
It's sorta ground gram mixed with jaggery which is palm sugar then coated with batter and fried.
I've been craving for some of these long forgotten traditional sweets lately and I'm existed try them...I wish I had my mum's recipe, she used to make these without fail when we were young every holidays.
I halved the spices used and omitted cardamons from the original recipe since the husband hates the stuff. Yes he does...anything with cardamons and he sparks like New Year's fireworks! Oh, not forgetting my sons!
330g whole mung bean
1 tsp cumin - I used 1/2 tsp
1 tsp peppercorn - I used 1/2 tsp
250g chopped palm sugar boiled with 250 ml water
160g grated coconut
50g sesame seed - toasted
First dry roast the green gram and grind it to a fine powder.
Blitz the spices fine.
Dry toast the grated coconut, it would take about 15 minutes in a slow heat for it to turn golden brown. Cool it down and grind it.
In a large bowl add all grounded ingredients and pour the hot syrup a little at a time and mix it until it is moist enough to hold in a ball.
This is a very sticky paste, shape it into grape size balls and put it in the fridge for 15 min to harden up, else it will break apart when you dip it in the batter.
Now prepare the batter.
200g rice flour
100g plain flour
600 ml water
3/4 tsp salt
pinch of turmeric
In a large bowl mix all the ingredients into a smooth batter.
Heat the wok on a medium heat with some oil for frying.
Take three balls at a time and dip into the prepared batter and dip in the oil and fry until golden brown.
Remove and pat it in a kitchen towel to remove any excess oil.
Done.
Enjoy...jue
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