Kozhukatta

Kozhukatta or Kozhukkattai is a popular South Indian dish, essentially a sweet, jaggery and coconut filled dumpling. For the dough, one needs rice flour, water, coconut milk, salt, and coconut oil. And for the filling, mix together jaggery or dark brown sugar, grated coconut, green cardamom, and cumin seeds.

The dish is traditionally prepared by Kerala Christians on the Saturday preceding Palm Sunday, giving the day the name Kozhakatta Saturday. Among Hindus, it is also a popular offering to Lord Ganesha during Ganesh Chaturthi, and goes by the name "Modak". Throughout Kerala, it’s a favourite snack and eaten along with the evening tea or coffee.

A regional tale, part of the state’s oral culture—which hasn’t aged well—attests to the dish’s popularity in Tamil Nadu. It goes like this: A newly married man in a village tasted the Kozhukkattai for the first time. He learned the name so he could ask his wife to make it for him, and started on his way home, repeating the name of the dish to himself the entire time so he would remember it. On the way, he had to leap over a stream, and the effort of doing so meant his concentration wavered from the dish’s name and he forgot it. Once he reached home, he asked his wife to cook him ‘Athiribacha’ and the woman stood there flummoxed. His anger surged and he started beating his wife, leading to the neighbour coming and intervening. She exclaimed that his wife’s head had swollen like a Kozhukkattai, and the man exclaimed that that’s what he wanted.

Although traditionally a sweet dish, it also has savoury varieties, and comes with fillings like black gram, green chillies, mustard seeds, lemon, and green gram.