Simple, practical, and full of everyday flavour, Poornam Kudumulu (Sihi Kadubu) is a vegetarian Andhra, Indian dessert made with simple everyday ingredients in about 35 minutes. The recipe lays out the ingredients and each cooking step clearly, so you can adjust seasoning, texture, and serving size for your own kitchen.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 20 minutes
  • Cook time: 15 minutes
  • Total time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 11 · 11 poornam kudumulu
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: Andhra, Indian

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup rice flour ((very fine flour))
  • ¾ cup water ((little more or less, depends on the quality of rice flour))
  • 1 teaspoon ghee
  • ½ cup channa dal
  • 1 cup water ((more if required))
  • ¾ cup jaggery (grated)
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons raw coconut (grated (optional))

Method

Make poornam

  1. Add jaggery to a pan with 1½ to 2 tbsp water. Heat it on a low flame until completely dissolved. Strain this to a bowl and keep aside. This step can be omitted if your jaggery is clean.
  2. Cook chana dal with water until fully cooked and not mushy. To test mash a few lentils in between your fingers, they should get mashed easily. Cool down and grind to a coarse mixture or simply mash it.
  3. Add back the dal, jaggery and coconut to the same pot and cook until thick and becomes a mass. Stir in the cardamom and cool down. Divide to 6 to 7 portions and roll to balls. They should be dry and not sticky.

Make outer covering

  1. Pour water to a pot and add ghee and salt. When the water comes to a rolling boil, turn off and add the flour. Mix well with a spatula and cover it. It is dry and crumbly at this stage.
  2. Let cool down a bit and grease your fingers. Knead to a smooth dough. Divide to 6 to 7 portions and shape to balls.

Shape poornam kudumulu

  1. Make a dent in the center of the ball. Dip your fingers in water and spread the dough to make a flat puri. Flatten them to as much as the size of your palm.
  2. Place a poornam ball and bring the edges together gently. Shape them off to a round ball. Do not squeeze or apply pressure on the ball, they may break.
  3. Pour water to a steamer or pressure cooker, bring it to a boil.
  4. When the water begins to boil, place these balls in a wide greased basket and keep it in the steamer or cooker. Close the lid and steam on high for 8 minutes if steaming in a smaller cooker and for 10 minutes if steaming in a larger cooker. Steaming them for longer can make the outer covering harder.
  5. Cool poornam kudumulu and offer to Ganesha.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.