Cooking Pleasures: Kajjikaayalu (Stuffed Halfmoon Dumplings)

Kajjikaayalu are one among those traditional sweets made during festivals, namely "Sankranthi" which falls in Jan; "Ugadi" in Mar/Apr ; "Deepavali" in Oct/Nov etc. Also made especially for marriages in India. This recipe I adopted from my mother. The speciality for this recipe is, they are made for my marriage with same stuff which is wrapped by the flour and are deep fried.Usualy, the stuff inside the kajjikaayalu varies. Some prepare with simple semolina, coconut and sugar mixture; and some also add peanut powder , chickpea flour etc. You are going to know about this mixture contents today in my recipe, which really makes kajjikaayalu more rich in taste. In Hyderabad we call it "Garijelu". But this sweet is famous with the name "Kajjikaayalu" all over Andhra. So with no delay further, Iam happy to proceed to todays recipe with detail explanation and pics to help you, in understanding and preparing this sweets.

Ingredients: (Makes Upto 20-25 no's Kajjikaayalu)
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Maida or All purpose flour 1/2kg
Fresh Coconut 1 (or 1cup grated dry coconut)
Ravva or semolina (generally used for making upma) 1/2 cup
1/4th cup chickpea powder/ putnala podi (can add even 1/2 cup as you desire)
1/2 cup peanuts
10 to 12 Elachi' in No's
kaaju & kishmish (dryfruits) 1/4th to 1/2 cup
Sugar(fine) 1 1/2 cups (or as per taste)
1 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
Oil for deep frying and preparation
Water as required

Method For Preparing Dough:
---------------------------------

Take maida in a deep vessel (enough to need freely) . Make a whole in betweet(some space with your fingers upto 3 fingures length). Heat one table spoon of oil and add in this whole, with a help of spoon mix the oil with flour well. (Caution: take care not to burn your hand or fingers here)
Knead the above maida with required water to form a dough. Here this dough should be little harder than puri. Keep this aside.

Left: Dough ready to be filled Right: Filling & Dryfruits are ready to be wrapped

Method For Preparing The Filling:
-------------------------------------

If you have fresh coconut, then separate the coconut from shell and make small length wise pieces and dry them in sunlight for 2 to 3 days. When they dry completely ,roast them till the raw smell disappear and make powder in a food processor or grinder. (Or else use ready made dry coconut powder available in Indian stores or in any other stores)
Fry semolina or ravva in a 2tsp of ghee till all the raw smell disappears.
Roast chickpeas, powder and keep it aside.
Roast peanuts, remove skin, powder them and keep it aside.
Remove skin of elachi and powder them.
Fry dryfruits in 2 to 3 tsp of ghee or clarified butter.
Mix all above powders togeather and measure the amount. For example, if above powders make 2 cups then add 1 1/2 cups of sugar to it.
Finally add dryfruits to above mixture and mix well. Keep this filling aside.

(In Picture above) Roasted Powders : Left: Peanut powder + Elachi powder Above: Roasted Dry Coconut powder Below: roasted Chickpea powder Right: Fried semolina

Method To prepare Kajjikaayalu:
------------------------------------
Step1:

Make equal rounds out of the dough. (Approx 20 rounds). Take a round, flatten it like puri (little thin) spoon it with mixture, as shown above. Remember the spoon amount should be same for all the fillings. Here you can choose the amount to be filled. I like kajjikaayalu to be filled completely with the mixture, so I used more.

Step2:

Fold into half and close with the help of little water as shown above. Press the complete one end firmly.

Step3:

Above:Kajjikaayalu First Batch Is Ready For Deep Frying

Twist the complete one side end with your fingers as shown in the above pictures. You need very little practice to do this. Enarge the pictures above by clicking on them to have a clear view. Make batches , each batch should have same number of dumplings. It makes your job easy to divide them and store them. Slowly slide the duplings into oil for deep frying. See that oil is heated well prior to deep frying, so that dumplings does'nt absorb more oil. Fry them both the side on medium heat through out. Remove them once they are well fried into another plate witha paper towel on it, to absorb excess oil. Before you fry another batch and take them out, let the first batch of kajjikaaylu get dried on the paper towel. remove them and now keep in the container to be stored. Now!! Kajjikaayalu are ready to have with mudda pappu (cooked and mashed plain toordal with little salt) and little ghee on top. (this used be our breakfast for some days at my mom's place after they are made. Try this for sure. This combo is great (Kajjikaayalu with mudda pappu) You will just love this and will stick for sure:-))

Note: Store in the air tight container for freshness. You can enjoy eating this sweets for one week long. For more crispyness, make the flat round thin and see the mixture does'nt come out of it.

Labels: kajjikaayalu, sweets, traditional sweets

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti on Monday, January 22, 2007 at 1:07 PM | Permalink

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Hey we make this too and I absolutely love it. We call it "Pyarakia"
Only we do not use peanuts and sometimes use Khowa for the stuffing
I also like the braided edges, but am not very good at doing the edges. Yours have come out very nice and neat

Posted by Bong Mom | January 22, 2007 5:57 PM

nice visual treat by step by step pictures. thanks for sharing this . I liked it . :)
-Pooja

Posted by Pooja | January 23, 2007 4:27 AM

Hi Meena

Tempting. Wish I lived next door. Thanks for the step by step instructions.

Posted by Lakshmik | January 23, 2007 5:56 AM

Wow Meena, kajjikayalu chala bavunnayi. Your recipe details and pics are excellent. Thanks for sharing this traditional dessert.

Posted by Pavani | January 23, 2007 7:08 AM

Thank You Sandeepa..to comment first here.and good to know that u too prepare them and know as Pyarakia. I knew that it is filled with khova also. Some how I like this with semolina. It gives a crunchy taste.is'nt? Anyways thank you dera for dropping by:-))

Thank You pooja..I wanted to present some of recipes in step by step prrocess always. This is one among them.My aim is to present recepies in a manner which can reach my readers well in understanding and easy to prepare them
:-))

Thank You Lakshmik...If u would have been my neighbour..then it mee first to visit ur home for ur homely dishes.Ur pics are very good and I feel like at home when I see them.U arrange them in well manner, exactly as we take our meals.Thanks for that lakshmi:-)

Thank you Pavani....nenu chaala satisfied unnanu for its out come.Only thing I could wish for more crispyness. next time I will try again for it:-))

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti | January 23, 2007 8:09 AM

I remember these!My grandmother used to make these for Ganesha festival.YUM!!:))

Posted by FH | January 23, 2007 8:56 AM

HI Meena,
My mom makes this , and we call it somaasu. Thanks for the recipe!

Posted by Anonymous | January 23, 2007 9:10 AM

Thank You Asha Dear for dropping by.I visited ur blog several times..but except ur front page, Iam unavle to access any another page and other links.Are u working on it??...anyways ur new additional link is good.I have seen it once for blog events.If u see this coomnet do reply.Thank u:-))

Thank You Lakshmiammal...new name to hear somaasu.Thanks for info:-)

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti | January 23, 2007 9:34 AM

Hey, my MOM makes these every year on Holi and I love them. I have made it once here but never again. Yours are looking just perfect, now i will try making them from your recipe.

Thanks a lot for sharing.

Posted by Nidhi | January 23, 2007 2:03 PM

hi meena,
good to see ur post. my mom makes it for ganesh chaturthi and i forgot its name!!!

Posted by Sia | January 23, 2007 3:02 PM

Hey..looks delicious..we make this too with sweet filling and with meat filling also.

Posted by Unknown | January 23, 2007 8:06 PM

very well write-up and great instructions! Believe or not, some areas of my home country make something (taste and the look!) similar to your dumplings, I love them!

Posted by Gattina Cheung | January 23, 2007 9:28 PM

Thank You Nidhi,
hope this time when u prepare them again..you will enjoy more than before.Do tell me..when you cook:-))

Thank You Sia,
As far as name is concern...in different lang's Ima hearing different names.That's intresting to know.

Thank You Maheshwari,
this is know to be and famous for sweet. And as far as meat is concerned..Iam hearing it for first time. Generally we prepare meat samosas..those are completely different from this.When u cook ur version..try to blog them.I will be happy to know abt it more:-))

Thank You Gattina,
Its really unbelievable that even in your place, there is a apractice of doing this.Happy to know...well if you get that recipe any time..please do blog.Nice to know abt it from completely different country.Hey!!..do'nt u think...thease food stuff is really binding all of us togeather?...Very Good haa:-))Thank You , once again dear.

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti | January 24, 2007 9:11 AM

Hi Meena,
I love somass(this is what we call it ) and enjoyed reading ur step by step presentation. Thanks.

Posted by Prema Sundar | January 24, 2007 4:08 PM

Hi Meena, what a lovely detailed post and recipe -- the sweets look delicious. Thanks for sharing this :)

Posted by Anonymous | January 24, 2007 5:31 PM

Thank you prema,
I came know from some other blogger friend that it is also know as somass.thank u:-))

Thank you Linda!

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti | January 24, 2007 9:42 PM

Looks yum!
Enjoyed the step by step pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Posted by Mrs. K | January 26, 2007 6:16 AM

looks delicious ! thanks for the step by step pics. love the way you have twisted the edges. very professional

Posted by Krithika | January 26, 2007 7:55 AM

thank you RP for dropping by:-)

Thank you Krithika,

yeah I used to help my mother when ever she prepared.I think that helped me out now:-)

Posted by Meena Kandlakuti | January 26, 2007 8:35 AM

Hi Meena,
Very nice recipe! We make this too,and call it "ghugra"..the only difference is that we add some Khoya and we don't add peanuts/chickpea flour to it.

Trupti

Posted by TNL | January 27, 2007 9:46 AM