Munthiri Kothu | Chittu Urundai | Green Moong Jaggery Balls

Munthiri kothu (Chittu Urundai) is a popular sweet dish in Kanyakumari. Since my MIL is from Nagercoil, she used to make this munthiri kothu often. Even for Ganesha Chaturti, she used to make this as yummy Munthiri kothu as an offering to Lord Ganesha. The main ingredients for filling are Green moong, Sesame seeds, Dry coconut and jaggery. For the outer cover, we need to make a batter with rice and wheat flour and which is used to coat the moong balls and finally deep fry the modak. Mundhiri means “cashew nuts”but, there is no relationship between cashew and this recipe and it doesn’t even use cashew in it. In colloquial Tamil of southern districts of tamilnadu and in kerala, mundhiri translate as grapes. It is also deep fried as bunches of three or four which resembles a bunch of grapes, hence the name. 

Preparation and Yield:

Preparation time	15 mins
Cooking Time	40 mins
Servings	15
Recipe Category	Sweets
Recipe Cuisine	South Indian

1. First lets prepare the filling. Heat a pan. Dry roast the green moong till it turns light brown color. Keep this roasted moong aside
2. Then in the same pan, add the sesame seeds and allow it to sputter and take it aside
3. Again, in the same pan, add grated coconut and dry roast till golden brown
4. Cool down all roasted ingredients and take it to mixer jar. To this, now add cardamom and grind everything to a smooth powder
5. In a sauce pan add jaggery and water and allow the jaggery to melt completely
6. Strain the jaggery juice and boil it till it becomes thick
7. In a mixing bowl, add the ground moong powder and add ghee and mix well
8. Then, add jaggery juice little by little and mix well till everything is combined well
9. Now make small balls out of this mixture and set it aside
10. Lets prepare the outer cover batter. In another mixing bowl, add rice flour, wheat flour and salt and mix well. Add water little by little and stir well to make it to a batter. The batter should be in a consistency like bajji batter consistency
11. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying the moong balls. When the oil is hot, keep the flame low, take each moong ball and dip in the rice+wheat flour batter and coat nicely and gently drop in oil. Add 3-5 balls in each batch and deep fry till golden brown and crispy outside
12. The delicious Munthiri Kothu (Chittu Urundai) ready to serve!

Munthiri Kothu | Chittu Urundai | Green Moong Jaggery Modak