I got this recipe from my grandmother, who used to prepare this dish whenever we visited her.
What you need
Doppy rice: one cup
Black gram dal: 1/ 2 cup
Cumin seed: 1/ 4 tsp
Scrapped coconut: 1/ 2 cup
Salt: to taste
Method
Soak and grind rice and black gram dal a little coarser and thicker than idli batter. Add salt and cumin seeds. Mix. Place one big spoonful batter on a piece of plantain leaf or seelanthi leaf. Put one spoon scrapped coconut in the centre. Fold the leaf and steam cook. This dish goes well with mulagu chammanthi.
How to prepare mulagu chammanthi
Sauté five or six red chillies with one spoon coconut oil and five or six small onions and a few curry leaves separately. Grind to a paste. Add salt and coconut oil. Serve hot.
(Jayasree Surendran runs a boutique called ‘Mayuka' with her old schoolmates Lisa Mathew and Seetha Lakshmi. She enjoys cooking conventional dishes.)