Munthiri Kothu | Kanyakumari Special Christmas Recipe

Munthiri Kothu with step by step pictures.

This recipe is one of the famous recipes in the southern district of Tamilnadu. "Munthiri" which means cashew and "Kothu" means a bunch. If you happen to visit any places down south during Christmas you can find the recipes in almost all houses. Whenever we return from there after Christmas  I make sure to load some of this with me. I love this recipe to the core and was happily making it here in Chennai in my kitchen.I gathered some information from my sister-in-law and proceeded to make it. As doing alone for the first time I just made a very small quantity. I regret it as it quickly got vanished.

The main ingredients for the recipe with green payaru( whole mung beans), karupattai(palm jaggery)and coconut. Instead of palm jaggery, you can use ordinary jaggery also.Here also I used jaggery since I was running out of karupattai. Roasting of green gram and coconut well make it last longer.

Preparation time: 10mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Recipe type: Sweet
Recipe Cuisine: South Indian
Author: Babitha
Makes:9 balls

Ingredients:

Green whole moong dal(whole mung beans)-1/2 cup
Grated jaggery/karupattai-1/2 cup
Grated coconut-1/4 cup
Green cardamom-2
oil- to fry

Outer coating:

Maida-2 tbsp
Rice flour-2 tbsp
Salt- a pinch
Turmeric powder a pinch

Method:

1. Dry roast green payaru well without burning it. Cool and powder it in a mixer with the cardamom.

2. Dry roast coconut well till it becomes golden color. Keep aside.

3. Make a syrup with grated jaggery and 1/4 cup. When it becomes sticky, switch off.

4. Take the powdered dal, roasted coconut in a bowl. slowly add jaggery syrup( don't add all the syrup quickly , add little by little).

5. Make balls out of it and allow to dry for some time. As it dries it gets harder.

6. Make a semi thick paste with rice flour, maida, turmeric,salt.

7. Heat oil for frying. Dip each ball in the prepared batter and fry in the oil.

8. Do the same for all balls. Cool and store in an airtight container. It will stay well for months.

Notes:

1. The shelf life depends on roasting of coconut and mung beans, so dry roast it well.

2. We usually use palm jaggery(karupattai) but I was running out of it, hence used jaggery.