Poornam Kozhakattai - revisited

This post should have come out way sooner. But in any case, I reattempted poornam kozhakattai this time and I’m glad to report that the consistency of the poornam turned out just right! It’s way easier than all the fuss I needlessly went through the last time. (Remember, my poornam stuffing turned out a little hard?)
 

Copy pasting the steps from the earlier post, I will just edit the parts that worked this time (in blue font).

Preparing the coconut-jaggery filling (poornam) (You need: ¾ cup of powdered jaggery, 1 cup of coconut gratings, and 1 teaspoon of powdered cardamom)

1. Add a teaspoon of water to a heavy bottom pan (or a not so heavy-bottomed pan - doesn’t matter much). Not necessary

2. Powder jaggery into little bits. In the US, it’s a lot of work to powder the balls of hard, stone-like  jaggery. A trick I use is - stick the jaggery into the microwave for about 30 secs (or more depending on the amount of jaggery), and crumble the heated, loosened jaggery with your fingers. Caution: Do not over heat, or you will end up with a melted puddle of jaggery.

3. Add ¾ cup of powdered jaggery into the pan, and stir till it melts and begins to froth up in little bubbles (Note: Stir the jaggery on sim, or medium heat). The bubbles need not be vigorous. Once you notice the bubbles, switch the heat to low.

4. At this point, add 1 cup worth of grated coconut (I approximated here, for the cookbook says the gratings of 1 big coconut - I had no inclination to hunt for a big coconut, crack it open, and grate it).

5. Continue stirring the mixture on low heat (on a heat-scale of 0-10, my heat was at 2), for exactly 6-7 minutes, till the mixture is almost sticky without much liquid. Remember the poornam will harden and set as it cools. 

6. Remove from heat, and add one teaspoon (or more) of powdered cardamom.  Allow it to cool. The cooled filling should be a soft, non-runny mass of jaggery and coconut. It shouldn’t be runny or hard. 

And viola! You end up with nice, soft, yummy poornam :)