Kinnathappam

     Kinnathappam is one of the unique festive sweets common to the Muslim households of Kanyakumari district. Sorry, no offense to my non-Muslim friends, but I have never known anyone else who has made this, and it's always me making them this sweet. It's a festive sweet because it's specially made during Eid and all many other happy occasions. Kinnathappam is a must have during Eid and is made in almost every household. Eid is the one day you can taste every possible variety of Kinnathappam because you get to eat it at almost every house you visit.

     This sweet is a twin of Vattilappam, local to Ceylon. The difference between Vattilappam and Kinnathappam is that the former is made using more eggs and the latter with more of coconut cream. This is very easy to make and it's a rich delicacy made out of fewer and easily available ingredients. Depending on the rice used, bringing the texture can be really challenging; I usually use basmati rice so that the texture remains the same every time I make it. This exact measurement credit goes to one of my friends, Aneeze.

     If you are using fresh coconut cream, you can use the first milk extracted for the given amount and use the second and third instead of water. Again, it's highly recommended to grind the rice in a grinder, but I always use my mixer to do the job and never regretted doing so. I use a pressure pan to make this with a round steel stand to hold the plate and the lid goes with the rubber gasket without the whistle. My pan to hold the batter is 2" deep and 6" wide. With the given standard measuring cup I make two plates of this pudding.

     The prep steps may sound very long, but it is actually very simple and worth a try. Believe me, you will definitely fall in love with this smooth velvety creamy pudding.

INGREDIENTS :

Raw rice             - 1 Cup
Sugar                  - 1 Cup
Egg                     - 1
Coconut Cream  - 1 1/2 Cups
Salt                     - Pinch
Jeera Seeds         - 1/2 Tsp (optional)
Water                  - As needed
Cardamom          - 8 Nos
Ghee                   - 1 Tsp

METHOD :

     Clean and soak the rice in water for a couple of hours. Grind the rice with cardamom and egg to a smooth paste. Add the coconut cream to this too while grinding, instead of water. The texture should be really smooth, almost like silk. Remove this from the blender, add sugar, and dissolve well. Add a pinch of salt and measure the total quantity of this mixture with the same cup used to measure the rice. Bring this to a total measure of four cups using water. For every cup of rice used, you should make it to four cups of batter, as this helps to maintain the consistency of the batter.

     Now strain the batter through a fine sieve. Strain it a couple more times to remove any grains. The batter is now ready to be steamed. In a wide pan deep enough to steam a cake, or a deep plate, pour water and put something to hold the plate/pan (an inverted plate, for example) so that the plate/pan with batter doesnt touch the bottom of the wider pan and bring it to a boil. Grease the pan or plate with ghee, then pour the batter through 3/4th's of the plate and keep above the inverted plate. Cover the deep pan and steam cook at medium flame for about 14 mins. A tooth pick inserted should come out clean and you should see slight cracks on the surface of the cake once done.
  
     Remove from the stove and sprinkle jeera seeds on top. Let it cool completely, then cut and serve. The shelf life is one day and can be refrigerated for about three days. If you freeze it's better to steam again before serving, to get the right texture.