yummy everyday meal: Ulunthan Kanji / Uluntham Kanji / Ulundhu Kanji

For the letter U,under Journey through Tamil cuisine I am sharing a village style kanji/porrige made with urad dhal.
Though there were options like ulunthu bonda,ukkarai,urulaikilangu paal kari for U,I decided to make this kanji as it is a forgotten recipe.

This is a mildly sweetened kanji/porridge and made especially in the winter and served warm.In villages this kanji is often served in the evenings instead of tea/coffee.Another salty version is also made along with rice and skinned whole urad.The salty version is served along with coconut thogayal and pickle for a comforting breakfast.Once in awhile this used to be our Sunday breakfast back in my parents place.

Coming to the recipe its an easy to make porridge and can be sweetened with jaggery or palm sugar.The addition of grated coconut and the cardamom powder is added flavor to the porridge.Also this kanji is given to girls especially at the time of puberty to strengthen the spinal cord and back bones.

In our house hold this porridge is made often and while grinding the idly batter my mom used to take a handful of urad batter and make.A handful of batter serves a family of 4 generously and the urad dhal after cooking becomes more fluffy.Lets move on to the recipe............

Ulunthan Kanji/Ulutham Kanji

Basic Information

Preparation time 10 minutes

Soaking time 2-3 hours

Cooking time 20-25 minutes

Serves 4(generously)

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Urad dhal/ulutham paruppu	1/4 cup
Raw rice/pacharisi	1 tsp
Jaggery/vellam	1/2 cup
Salt	3/4 tsp
Coconut(grated)	3 tbs
Cardamom powder/ellakai podi	a pinch
Milk (boiled)	1 cup(optional)

Method

Rinse the dhal and rice couple of times in water and soak it together for 2-3 hours minimum.After the soaking time drain the water completely and grind it to a fine paste in a blender along with salt.Add water and grind it.Transfer the batter to a bowl and to this add around 2 cups of water and mix it well.It should be like buttermilk consistency.Melt the jaggery with 1/4 cup of water and pass it through a strainer,keep it aside.

Heat a pan with one cup of water and let it boil,once the water gets boiled add the ground batter mixed with water.Stir it continuously,otherwise lumps may form.Let it cook with continuous stirring for 3-4 minutes.Once the urad dhal cooked it looks shiny and smooth.

Now to this add the melted jaggery and mix it well.Let it cook for another 3-4 minutes in a medium flame with occasional stirring .Add in the grated coconut and cardamom powder to it.

Mix it well and let it cook for a minute.

Serve it warm.

The kanji will become thick after cooling,so adjust the consistency while cooking.If you feel its too thick after adding melted jaggery add hot water and adjust the consistency.
Grated coconut and the amount of jaggery can be adjusted according to personal preference.
After adding the urad dhal batter to the boiling water mix it continuously .