Steamed Rice and Coconut Balls

In celebration of my book finally being on sale, I'd like to share some pictures of a wonderful recipe from the book that makes a fun breakfast - steamed rice balls. These rice balls are known as undi or upma kozhakattai.

I usually do not make them on a week day morning, as they are a little too much work before rushing off to college or work. However, they are great as a special breakfast at the weekend or in the holidays. Actually, I suppose you could do most of the work the night before and steam them in the morning, but I prefer to make things as fresh as possible.


First the rice is soaked overnight. You could use brown rice, and I normally do, but white rice looks more sensational so I used it for a treat.


In the morning it is ground into a batter with some freshly grated coconut.


Oil is heated in a pan and some spices popped in it. Then the batter is added, along with a splash of water and salt.


The batter is cooked until it thickens and comes away from the edge of the pan.


The mixture is formed into balls - I make mine reasonably large - and placed into a steamer on top of some wet muslin or cloth. I usually end up with 12 balls, this picture shows half of them.


The balls are steamed for 5-10 minutes.



The finished rice balls are perfect with chutney or a soupy dish such as rasam.

If you like the look of this recipe, please buy my book, Mango Soup, which contains the full version of this recipe and many more: http://www.authorhouse.co.uk/Bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=49169