Kokis is a crispy, savory, golden brown avurudu sweet made during Sinhala and Tamil New Year in every household. It is said that Kokis was invented around the time when the Dutch were in power. Kokis comes from a dutch word which can be translated into “cookies”. Sri Lankans make their new year sweets with their families within the 3 days before new year.
There are always 4-5 sweets made in large batches because we share them among each other during home visits. Following recipe is more towards sweet but if you prefer savory I will provide options.(Cover Image – Cookerybay)
Contents
Ingredients
- Rice flour 500g
- Thick coconut milk 400ml
- Salt 1 ½ tsp
- Turmeric powder 1 tsp
- Coconut Oil for frying
- 1 Egg(optional)
- For sweetness: Brown sugar 100g (Optional)
- For added savoriness; handful of crushed curry leaves(Optional)
Special Equipment
Kokis mold (There are several shapes. You can buy the one that looks the best. Circular one is the most classic kokis mold.)
If you cannot find rice flour try this!
This is how many Sri Lankans make Kokis at home. They prefer to make rice flour rather than buying it for the New Year.
Take the necessary amount of raw rice. In this recipe, take 500g of rice into a bowl.
Put water to cover the rice because we want to soak the rice for 3 – 4 hours. But don’t let it soak too much for like 8-10 hours because then it will be too wet and fermented.
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 500g of flour out of freshly grinded rice flour.
Instructions:
- Take a large bowl and add rice flour, salt, and turmeric powder. Mix the ingredients with a spatula.
- Now start adding coconut milk little by little until it becomes a slightly thick mixture. Make sure it is not too watery because then it will not hold the kokis shape together.
- Then add the optional ingredients mentioned above. We can add egg to make it easy to remove kokis from the mold. Kokis is originally a savory sweet but my mother adds some sugar to make it less savory. Then it becomes a sweet kokis.
- Mix all the ingredients well until there are no clumps and it is smooth.
- IF it becomes watery, add a little bit of flour to get the correct consistency.
- Before starting to make kokis keep these things nearby.
- Kokis mold
- 1 Long wooden stick (It will help move and pick up kokis from oil)
- A strainer over a bowl
Now let’s begin making Kokis
- Heat a pan over medium flame. If you put it on high flame the oil would become too hot.
- Add oil enough to submerge Kokis mold.
- Heat the mold at the sametime in the oil for 3-5 minutes.
- While it is being heated, transfer some of the kokis batter into a small bowl that is easier to use alongside the stove.
- Take the heated mold, shake slightly to remove excess oil and dip into the batter immediately.
- Be careful as to not sink the mold in the batter. We want the batter to stick to the mold just until the top without touching the top.
- Now, put into the oil and let it sit for about 30 seconds and you will notice it is slightly cooked. Take the mold, shake it a little, use your wooden stick to help remove the batter from the mold.
- DO NOT remove the batter as soon as it is in the oil because your Kokis will be in ugly pieces and DO NOT let it sit too long in the mold because then it will be troublesome to get the kokis off the mold.
- We are looking for a beautiful golden brown, so keep cooking just until then and remove kokis from the pan.
- Put it onto the strainer we prepared by side. When there is a pile of it you can remove it onto a cooling tray.
How to store it?
Use an airtight container to store them. Kokis do not need to be stored in the refrigerator. It will last up to 1 ½ weeks.
