Homemade Mung Kavum Recipe

Mung means green gram and kavum is the deep fried sweet made with it. Mung Kavum is a very old Sinhala and Tamil New Year sweet. It is a deep fried sweet presented also in wedding receptions and for auspicious events like pirith.

Following recipe is a traditional recipe which uses more kithul treacle and a little bit of sugar. Though it is deep fried, all the ingredients used in the recipe are healthy. People would not gain weight because of Mung kavum. When locals drink tea they eat a kavum instead of adding sugar as a sweetener. Try making this with your family and see if you like it! (Cover Image – Dailylifelk)

Ingredients

• Green gram flour 500g
• Rice flour 1kg
• Coconut oil for frying
• Salt 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder ½ tsp
• Sugar 250g
• Kithul treacle ½ bottle
• Coconut milk 1 cup

If you cannot find Rice Flour try this!

-Take the necessary amount of raw rice. In this recipe, take 1kg of rice into a bowl.
-Put water to cover the rice because we want to soak the rice for 6 – 10 hours. But don’t let it soak too much for like 24 hours because then it will be too soft.
-Next, get a strainer and strain the rice. Let it sit for sometime to get rid of water as much as possible. Note that we cannot grind wet rice into flour.
-Lastly, take your grinder and grind the rice finely into rice flour. Sift it through a sieve to make sure there are no clumps.
Now you can measure 1kg of rice flour out of freshly grinded rice flour.

If you cannot find Green Gram Flour try this!

-Take 500g of green gram and a huge pan/ large deep frying pan.
-Put the stove’s flame medium high and start roasting green gram.
-Keep it stirring and from time to time until they are all slightly brown in colour.
-Take the pan of the heat, let it cool before grinding.
-Then take your grinder and grind the green gram as finely as possible. No need to sift through.
Now measure 500g of green gram flour and keep it aside.

Prepare these before making Mung Kawum

• A large deep frying pan
• A somewhat tall saucepan.
• (We are going to use the frying pan to fry kavum and the tall saucepan to make the complete mixture.)
• Strainer on a bowl
• Large wooden tray or a wooden board (to cut kavum)

Instructions:

1. Take the saucepan and add sugar and kithul treacle. Heat it over medium heat.
2. IF you cannot find treacle at all, just take 750g of brown sugar with a little bit of water. Keep stirring and make a good sugar syrup.
3. When the treacle or sugar syrup reaches its bubbling point, take it off the heat.
4. Then add gram flour part by part to the pan with treacle and start mixing it.
5. Next take ½ of rice flour and start adding to the mixture gradually. If more is needed add more flour.
6. Keep the pan on low heat and slowly bring the mixture into a boil for 1-2 minutes.
7. Take it off the heat. It should become a slightly sticky and thick mixture.
8. Take the wooden board and spread some rice flour onto it. Put the mix on it.
9. You have to be quick with your hands. Flatten the mixture without using a rolling pin because it might stick to the pin. Then sprinkle more flour on the thinned out mixture.
10. Take a knife and start cutting it into your desired shape. Usually Sri Lankans cut into diamond shape.

11. Make the frying batter
    • Take a bowl and add rest of the rice flour, turmeric powder, and salt.
    • Mix the dry ingredients well.
    • Start adding coconut milk to make a thick batter. Make sure there are no clumps in the batter. It should not be too thick or watery but just right.
12. Take the large deep fry pan and add oil enough to submerge the mung kavum.
13. Let the oil heat over medium high flame and when it is hot enough you can start making kavum.
14. While the oil is heating, transfer some of the cut pieces into a small plate so it is easier to be kept near the stove.
15. When oil is hot, take one piece, completely dip it into the thick batter and carefully drop into the oil.
16. Put as much as possible at the same time and use the spoon to keep them without sticking to each other.
17. Flip on the sides and when it is golden brown take mung kavum out of the pan.
18. Pile them on your strainer and later keep it aside.

How to store it?

Take a big airtight container. Put tissues on the bottom and store them carefully. When mung kavum cools down it has the tendency to break. This will last up to 1 ½ weeks.