(Kozhukattai, Kolukattai, Modak, Kudumu, Kadubu)
I recently went for an office dinner with my boss and team to a Chinese restaurant. When I saw the menu card, in the starter section, along with the different varieties of manchurian, I chanced on the word dumplings. Since I was not sure of what it is, I did not try it out too. After reaching home I asked my genie Google about dumplings. Well, here it goes… According to Wikipedia dumpling is a broad classification for a dish that consists of pieces of dough wrapped around a filling of vegetables, sweet, fish or even meat. They may be cooked by boiling, frying, simmering or steaming and can be eaten with gravy or by themselves. It sounded closely similar to the preparation of some of our traditional dishes. Yes!!! You guessed it right, our traditional kozhukattai is nothing but a dumpling. In kozhukattai the outer shell is rice flour dough and the filling can be a sweet or spicier version.
The best part of the Indian dumpling is that all our varieties are steamed, thus making it cholesterol free and diet friendly recipes. Also, the outer dough shell is primarily made of rice flour, whereas in the other varieties of dumplings in the world cuisine, all purpose flour or maida (all purpose flour) is used as the primary ingredient. Maida, as we all know is ripped off all its proteins, vitamins and fiber during milling to get the fine texture and is also bleached with chemicals to obtain the white color. Rice flour on the contrary is enriched with vitamin, fiber, proteins and minerals. Rice flour is gluten free while the refined flour or maida is gluten dense. One of the other advantages is also that, in the Indian dumplings, especially in the spicy version, we add seasoning of mustard seeds, curry leaves, asofaedita etc. This seasoning done in hot oil or ghee not only imparts a flavor to the dish and makes it fragrant some but also enhances the essence of the spices. The addition of cumin seeds or jeera, mustard seeds and curry leaves supports digestion, boosts immunity, fights infections and lowers the level of bad cholesterol.
Try out these amazing ranges of our own Indian dumplings and relish to your heart’s content with no fear of calories and other ill effects.
Sweet Dumpling Varieties
Savoury Dumpling Varieties