Pillayar Patti Mothagam

Vinayagar chahurthi is my most favorite festival in the world. Grand celebration is a norm in our household with cleaning,decorating and of course the food.  From morning till evening we'll be busy in the kitchen to dish out prasadham for Lord Ganesha and I try to come up with variations. One such encounter is this mouth watering Pillayar Patti mothagam served as prasadham in Pillayar Patti temple in South India.  Sweet, filling, delicious and absolutely different from the ordinary mothagam.  I used deep dark in color jaggery which resulted in the beautiful brown colour. If you are using Bellamy the colour will be lighter and looks good too without compromising in taste. I hope everyone had a wonderful Vinayagar chahurthi.  May Ganesha bless us all with wisdom, health and wealth 🙏.

Ingredients 

1 cup raw rice 

3/4 cup jaggery

1/4 cup moong dhal

3 tbsp freshly grated coconut 

1/4 tap cardamom powder

2 & 3/4 cups water

1 tbsp ghee & more for greasing

Methods

Dry roast moving shall till golden. Keep aside. 

Dry roast raw rice for 2-3 minutes. Keep aside to cool completely.

In a blender, combine both moong dhal & roasted rice.  Grind to a coarse powder. The mixture shall resemble like semolina or rawa.

Dissolve jaggery with a cup of water and strain to remove impurities. Keep aside to cool. 

Add a tsp of ghee in a frying pan and roast the rice mixture for 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. 

In a pan add the strained jaggery water and remaining 1 3/4 cups water. Bring to a boil.

Add the rice mixture to the boiling Jagger and stir to combine. Close with lid and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for another 2-4 minutes uncovered. 

Once the rice softened, add the remaining ghee and stir till the mixture form a huge mass by leaving the sides of the pan. Pinch a small portion of the mixture and form a ball,  if it forms easily the texture is correct. Add grated coconut and cardamom powder.  Stir well and switch off the heat. 

Let the mixture to cool completely. Grease hands with ghee and pinch a lemon sized of the dough and start to form into balls. 

Place on a plate greased with ghee and stream for 10 minutes. 

Serve warm.