Delicious Manda puttu a traditional steamed balls made as offering for Attukal pongala made with rice flour, mung beans, jaggery and cardamom.
Some of the things that you did in the childhood is really nostalgic and follows you where ever you are. I born and brought up in Thirivuvanthapuram, Kerala, and the Southern part of India. In Thirivuvanthapuram, in the month of February or March there is festival at a local temple called Attukal Pongala. My mom used to do pongala every year irrespective of her health conditions. I would accompany her whenever it was possible. During this festival last day all the women gather around the temple Attukal and nearby and make Hearth under the hot sun and prepare offering for the Goddess. Most famous one is Pongala payasam/ Sweet rice pudding which everyone makes. I prepared that last year. I made this Mandaputtu as attukal pongala coming on March 9th 2020.
Pongala paysam, Mandaputtu, therali , Sweet sundal and vella choru( white rice) are the offering of Attuakal pongala. Legend is that ladies did pongala to pacify the Goddess Kannaki, who was angry after killing her enemies in Madhurai (Tamil Nadu) who wrongfully imposed the death penalty on her husband. In February or March each year, over one million women gather at the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, for the `Pongala' offering. It is registered in Guinness records, as the largest annual gathering of women in a particular area. The women, from all religions and communities in Kerala, gather with their cooking pots to perform a ritual for the health and prosperity of their families. The ceremonial, which involves cooking rice as an offering to the deity, lasts six hours.
Credit: IBN news
This manda puttu is offered to the goddess to cure headaches and end troubles in the life. Manda puttu is made with green gram (mung beans) powder, rice powder, coconut and jaggery. It is also a steamed delicacy. “There is a belief that if manda puttu breaks while you are making it, it is a bad omen, when I made yesterday I was so afraid praying whole time, I was happy only after seeing them intact after steaming. I know it is belief, still you do it then do it with whole heartily that is my view.
Making mandaputtu is really easy, you need to roast the green gram (mung beans) really well and make it into powder then add rice flour, freshly grated coconut and cardamom and Jaggery. I am afraid of dirt in jaggery so made syrup of jaggery with ¼ cup water and added to the mixture. Then added fried raisin and roasted cashews into the mixture and made balls and steamed for 20 minutes it is ready.
It is delicious, give it try you will like it, and here comes the recipe.
Delicious steamed sweet rice and mung beans balls with coconut and cardamom.
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice flour ( I used store bought one)
- ¼ cup +1 tablespoon green gram/mung beans/Pachapayru( roasted and powdered)
- ¾ cup jaggery
- ½ cup freshly grated coconut
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 10 cashews
- 1 tablespoon raisins
- 3 cardamom pods crushed
Instructions
- In a small skillet roast the green grams/mung beans/ pachapayru until it becomes slightly brown color.
- Set aside once it is cool enough to touch powdered it into fine powder. You don’t need to sieve it.
- In a small bowl add jaggery and ¼ cup water and boil it until jaggery melt and then strain the impurities and set aside.
- In a medium bowl add this powdered mung beans, rice flour, grated coconut, jaggery water, cardamom and mix well
- Gradually mix in rest of the water to form smooth dough you can pinch out and make it into a ball.
- In a small skillet heat ghee and add raisins so that it can plump up well and add this fried raisins and cashews
- along with ghee into the flour-grated coconut-jaggery mixtures and mix well to combine everything.
- Then divide dough into 9 equal pieces and make balls out of it.
- Then in a steamer steam the dough balls for 20 minutes or until it becomes glossy.
- Enjoy
Notes
Copyright ©2016 Zesty South Indian Kitchen by Swathi( Ambujom Saraswathy) All Rights Reserved
Here is the Recipe of Pongala payasam
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This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Nalini Somayaji says
beautifully done manda puttu rice . delicious traditional dish....nicely done yummy steamed balls Swathi..
Hema says
Very different and new recipe for me, especially the steaming part, looks superb, one question, should it be consumed the same day or can it be stored..
mjskitchen says
I would love to try one of these. They look delicious and the ingredients are very interesting. I love it when I see ingredients get toasted before added. Toasting really brings out the flavor of any ingredient.
tigerfish says
I have never seen mung beans used this way. Usually, I just cook mung beans as a dessert soup.
Winnie says
Thank you Swathi for this wonderful post!! I really enjoyed learning of this festival and it's history 🙂
And I would loooooove to eat these wonderful treats - they definitely look and sounds delicious
Torviewtoronto says
delicious combination looks wonderful healthy snack
Suja Manoj says
Nice recipe Swathi,thanks for sharing
Gloria says
I loved reading this post Swathi...thanks for sharing in details ..the ladoos are very delicious
beena says
Very new recipe to me. Looks so yummy
marudhuskitchen says
super delicious ladoos ...yummy
kushi says
Very interesting recipe. Looks delicious!
Amrita says
nice to know the rituals behind the recipe...
Subha says
Super recipe..Haven't heard of this before but can make out how tasty it is. Lovely clicks too..