Lemon-Koozh

#LemonKoozh #ElumichaiKoozh :

When we were school going children, my mother used to prepare a sour & spicy paste/cake for evening snacks to relish with coffee as soon as we came back from school. It is one of the traditional dishes prepared from rice flour or rice batter, tamarind juice, red chilly and other spices. Whenever my mother made it, me and my brothers used to finish it off without any traces. The speciality of this dish is that the taste of it is very good when it is relished hot and even tastier when it is cooled down. The texture of the dish is just like a thick paste and sticky when it is hot. When it cools down, the sticky paste turns into a smooth cake and can be cut into pieces. The dish that I have been describing so far is known as Puli koozh.

Later after marriage I learned from my husband that in the same way another tasty and traditional dish is being prepared from sour buttermilk. The dish made from buttermilk is called more koozh. I also used to prepare more koozh whenever I churned out butter from saved cream at home. The butter is being churned out from collected cream by adding chilled water. The remaining watery milk after taking out the butter is turned into buttermilk by adding a few drops of curd/buttermilk. Thus made buttermilk is being used in the preparation of buttermilk koozh - mor koozh.

Now I have three lemon trees in my garden and they are giving lemons throughout the year. The #Lemon [ Citrus lemon ] is a berry with leathery skin [ peel ] called rind containing volatile oil glands. The interior part of lemon is called endocarp which contains fleshy part of the fruit in separate sections. Each separate section is called carpel and is filled with fluid-filled sacs [ vesicles ] that are specialized hair cells. I squeezed out juice from lemons and filled in bottles then stored in the refrigerator. Then discarded inner skins from the rinds and dried the rinds in the Sun to preserve them for future use.

I always used to make rasam only with lemon juice. Nowadays I have been preparing sambar also adding lemon juice instead of tamarind. In the same way. I tried puli koozh adding lemon juice in place of tamarind juice. The outcome happens to be tastier than the original dish, the puli koozh.

This yummy dish is prepared from rice flour. Or take out half a cup of rice batter while grinding maavu for idli or dosai and use it for the preparation of lemon koozh.

Preparation time             : 5 mins

Cooking Time                 : 10 - 15 mins

Quantity is just enough for three persons.

Ingredients :
1/2 Cup	Rice flour
1	Lemon
1 - 2	Green chilly, chop finely [ adjust ]
1 Tsp	Ginger finely chopped
1/2 Tsp	Turmeric tuber finely chopped*
10 - 15	Curry leaves
1/2 Tsp	Mustard seed
1/2 Tsp	Black gram split
1 Tsp	Gram dal [ chick pea ]
2 Tsp	Ground nut [ pea nut ] slightly pound
Small piece	Asafoetida
4 Tsp	Gingelly oil [ Sesame/Til oil ]**

* If turmeric tuber is not available then take 1/4 Tsp of turmeric powder.

**Take oil according to your taste and availability.

Method :

Combine rice flour and 1 cup of water in a vessel. Mix well and set aside.

Heat an iron kadai on a stove over medium flame with oil.

Crackle mustard seeds once oil starts smoking.

Next add asafoetida and black gram split. Fry for a few seconds.

Then add gram dal and ground nuts. Keep stirring till lentils turn golden color.

Reduce the flame to SIM position.

Now add finely chopped green chilly and teared curry leaves. Stir for half a minute.

Next add finely chopped ginger and turmeric tuber. Keep stirring for a few seconds.

Add rice flour mixture and salt. Keep stirring continuously otherwise it might stick to the bottom and loses its uniformity.

After few minutes the water mixture slowly changes to porridge consistency.

Then it starts thickening and at this point add lemon juice. Mix well and check salt and sourness.

Stir till the mixture in the kadai starts leaving the side and rolls as a single mass.

Transfer on to a clean and dry plate and sprinkle few drops of oil over the surface of the prepared lemon koozh.

Spread it flat and make it smooth with the help of a flat spoon.

 

Spicy n tangy Lemon koozh is ready to relish.

Scoop out a portion and serve hot with coffee or tea.

If Lemon koozh - Elumichai koozh is allowed to cool down to room temperature then it can be cut into pieces just like cake.

Hot or cold Lemon koozh tastes very good!

You might also like to try

Puli koozh [ Spicy Tamarind cake ]	More koozh [ Buttermilk Rice cake ]	Samai Arisi Thaengai Payasam
Browntop millet Bread	Quinoa Conjee	Samai Methy Pancake [ Little millet methy pancake ]

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