Akki Pundi (Rice Dumplings)

In today’s menu I am going to present authentic, traditional Mangalorean recipe of Akki Pundi (Rice Dumplings). This was the first time I tried making this and boy! They were so simple and easy to cook. There is no frying, rolling and no sweating or swearing ;) Everything went so smoothly and I really-really managed to produce perfect Pundis. Thanks to my MIL who gave me simple yet best recipe to make perfect Akki Pundis. I served them with delicious bowl of onion-potato Sambar, Rave (pronounced as ra-way) which is made from jaggary and onion pakodas (oh!!! It’s difficult to stay away from fried food :) This time I made Onion Pakoda’s using Asha’s recipe and boy, they were yummylicious :) Thank you Ashakka for yummy recipe. And these pakodas are my entry for Coffee’s MBP.

Akki Pundi served with Potato-Onion Sambar and Onion Pakodas

There are different ways of making Akki Pundi’s and this is my MIL’s version. I will post my Amma's version sometime later.

Akki Pundi and Onion Pakoda

Ingredients:
2 cups Rice
Salt to taste

Akki Pundi ready for steam cooking

Method:
Wash rice and spread it on clean cloth to dry.
Once all the water is dried up, grind the rice without adding water coarsely. Make sure that you don’t grind it to smooth powdery texture. I usually grind the rice grains to khus-khus sized granules.
In a mean while, pour 3 glasses of water and salt to taste in thick bottomed vessel and bring it to boil.
As soon as the water is hot enough add ground rice and keep mixing the mixture making sure that they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
Cook this mixture over a medium flame, stirring continuously till solid enough to be rolled into balls. (It took me around 8-10 minutes)
Make small lemon-sized balls by wetting your hands in cold water.
Arrange them in a steamer and steam cook for about 15 minutes in medium heat.
Let it cool down a bit before you serve them.
Serve them with any Sambar, Kurma, Honey or Chutneys.

Akki Pundi served with Potato-Onion Sambar and Onion Pakodas

Tips:
Once you mix the hot water and rice flour you can shift the mixture into microwave bowl and cook it in microwave for about 10 minutes. Make sure that you mix the mixture once in every 3 minutes so that it’s mixed evenly.
You can also cook the Pundi’s in microwave for 8-10 minutes using Microwave Idli Maker.
To make spicy Pundi’s, season mustard, urad dal, broken red chillies and curry leaves. Add this seasoning to the water along with rice in the beginning and then proceed with the next steps.
You can also add ½ cup of freshly gated coconut to the mixture.

Akki Pundi served with Potato-Onion Sambar and Onion Pakodas