Modak

This dish is also a specialty of •

Ganesh Chaturthi

Featured Recipes for Modak By sunkan

in south india we always make it with rice powder rather than anything else, now The easiest way to make modak: Soak rice for half hour and then dry them on a cloth and grind them to powder in your mixie and sieve through, now this powder as it is still wet is great to make it soft modak, one can use the ready made rice powder too but have to soak for sometime… Measure the required amount of powder add a pinch of salt and add water to make it to dosa consistency and now leave it for sometime, keep in a kadai some water with a little bit of coconut oil and once it comes to boil, add this dosa batter like rice mixture and stir well until it gets cooked, pl keep your gas at simmer once it is clumped up now cut across and roll it until all portions are well cooked and you get a very shiny white lump, now remove from fire and close this with a wet cloth and leave it.

Sweet coconut filling: Coconut well scraped and if you do not find it fine in scrapping try to blend it without water to get an even mixture while blending do add your elaichi 2 or 3 according to the amount of coconut, and add equal amount of jaggery. Now this jaggery please keep it on fire with a tablespoon of water and let it all melt and strain this mixture for any sand or stone and then wash the vessel to drain out all stones or sand and then reheat the mixture along with coconut and once it leaves the sides add a teaspoon of ghee and mix well and bring this down to cool…

Urad dhall filling: Soak the required amount of urad dhall and once u r able to pinch it easily strain and run in the blender until you have lost its shape not like vada, but just enough to loose out all dhall inshape..grind it along with ginger, green chillies, karuveppilai and a little salt no water pl, now as u get this coarse mixture make it into a large vada with a centre opening and steam cook for sometime, then once cooled crumple this out into a powder with hand or run in blender you will get a smooth even powder, keep some oil, add mustard and then this mixture just stir enough to mix well as it is already steamed no need to wait to cook it again, now keep this mixture to cool. And go ahead making the modak.. Till filling: Wash the till and dry fry in a kadai, until all the till pops up to shape remove from fire powder it with a little bit of elaichi and jaggery and now this is ready for filling. Chanadhall filling:

Boil chana dhall in a pan of hot water and once you are able to pinch through the dhall remove and strain now blend this mixture once it is cool along with elaichi, equal amount of jaggery needed, remove stone or sand and bring to boil once it is well into thickness add this chana dhall powdered mixture and within two minutes or so it will start to crumble as u keep mixing bring this down once it has lost its clumbed state to a powder state, do not keep this too long on fire other wise it would be stiff and not soft to taste.. Vegetable filling: Chopped beans one cup Chopped carrots ½ cup Chopped cabbage 1 cup Ginger chopped 1 tsp Green chillies chopped, as required, Now just heat some oil olive oil if you want to give a chinese effect here and add the ginger and chillies and add the vegetables and stir them well with a little white pepper powder and salt as needed and a tsp of soy sauce stir and bring this down to cool. Now you have all the fillings ready just take small balls of rice cover and dip your fingers in oil and shape them into cup and fill the items and arrange and steam cook until a shiny finish comes on top remove and do the neivedyam…

Unni Appam : This is done in kerala in a big way for this one needs to mix the mixture the previous day for the appam to come out well, equal amount of rice powder and jaggery one has to measure them on the weighing scale for equal grams then you will never go wrong in consistency and will be able to do well. Cut some tiny bits of fresh coconut and keep some dry ginger powder ready for this. Now the jaggery keep on fire with a little water and let it boil add the coconut and ginger powder and now let it boil to consistency of a tomato that is when you put this drop of jaggery syrup in a small plate of little water it should roll in your hand but should not shape up as a hard ball once this is reached stop the fire and remove from fire, keep the rice powder in a vessel which u can cover now pour this jaggery liquid onto the rice mix and mix it well with a wooden spatula until all rice powder has been well mixed do not worry if it is looking soft it will become

solid later, now once it has been mixed add 2 tablespoon of fresh ghee to keep the wetness inside in tact. And in the morning add a little water and mix well to thick dosa consistency and make appam in appakaral, it will be crisp and soft inside when you roll it out with a knitting needle or long needle....happy ganesha with this savories...sunkan ALL PICTURES ARE FROM GOOGLE FOR EFFECT AND I DO NOT HOLD ANY COPYRIGHT OVER THEM...

Modak

Sweet Steamed Dumplings

Lord Ganesh's favorite sweet is the Ukadee che modak. These are like steamed rice (flour) dumplings filled with a mixture of jaggery and coconut. It is customary to make these on the very first day of this festival. They are very delicate and tender.

Modak Recipe #1 Modak Recipe #2 Web

www.CuisineCuisine.com

The above shape is called a "modak" shape. Many pedhas too are shaped like this and sold at this time in many Indian sweet stores. It does take practice to make this delicate dessert. The inside is filled with a coconut and jaggery filling.

Modak #1 First these special sweets are prepared and offered to god as "naivedya" and then distributed as "prasad" to family and friends. Prepare the filling first. For the filling 2 cup shredded fresh coconut 1 cup jaggery or sugar 1/2 cup a mixture of unsalted pistachios and unsalted cashews.

1/2 cup Milk 1/2 a pinch of cardamom powder To prepare the filling, mix the coconut, milk & jaggery or sugar together and cook on a medium flame. Stir continuously until they are mixed properly. If you are using sugar the mixture will start to caramelize and bubble. Add the cashews and pistachios. Cook for another minute. Lastly ad the cardamom powder. Mix well. Let it cool. Set aside. For the outer cover 1 cup rice flour 1 cup water 1 teaspoon ghee 1/2 teaspoon salt Boil 1 cup of water. When it has reached a steady boil, add ghee, salt and oil. Now immediately add the rice flour and stir quickly so as to remove all lumps. Cover with a lid for some time. Remove the lid & stir again & again, cover again. Note : The dough should be neither too sticky nor too dry. Now remove pan from the heat. Take off all the mixture on a flat plate. Knead it thoroughly while hot. Make a soft dough. Keep covered aside. To make the modaks It is best to make the modaks when the dough is slightly warm. Grease the palms of your hands well. Take a ball of dough. Flatten the dough to form a cup shape. Place about 3/4th teaspoon coconut filling into this cup. Dip thumb & index finger in the oil & make 5-6 small pinches side by side on the outside edges of the cup. Bring them together on top and join to form a peak. Your modak is complete. This should look like a whole garlic pod. . Place the modak on a pre greased plate. Make the rest of the modaks. Place them on a pre-greased plate. Steam for about 15 minutes. Serve with ghee.

Ukadi Che Modak #2 2 cups of rice flour 2 1/2 cups of water A pinch of salt For the filling: 1 cup grated fresh coconut 1 cup of jaggery 2 tablespoons raisin

2 tablespoons cashew nut - chopped 1 tea spoon cardamom - grinded Preparation of the filling: Put 1 tablespoon of ghee in a kadhai and heat it. Fry the chopped cashew nut till it becomes golden brown. Remove from the kadhai. Put the kadhai on the gas stove again and put the grated coconut and jaggery into it. Mix well till the coconut becomes soft and till the jaggery melts and well blend with the coconut. When the mixture is well cooked and becomes quite dry, take off the kadhai from the heat Allow the mixture to cool. After cooling add the raisins, fried cashew nut and the cardamom powder to the coconut and jaggery mixture. Mix well. The filling is ready. Preparation of the modak: Now for the modak heat 2 cups of water in a vessel. Add salt to the water. As the water starts boiling, add rice flour to the water. Lower the flame. Mix well. See that lumps are not formed. It should be a smooth paste. If you find the mixture is becoming too dry add the remaining 1/2 cup of water Keep the vessel on the gas stove till the rice flour is cooked. Take the cooked dough from the vessel and put on a wet cloth. Cover the dough with the cloth and mash it with any metal tumbler base. This will make the dough softer. Rub little ghee on you palms and take small portion of the hot dough. Make a ball out of it. At one portion, press the ball with your finger to make a ditch into the ball. From inside the ditch press side-wise to make a small round vessel-kind thing out of the ball. Put 2 teaspoons of the filling in the small vessel-shaped dough. Merge all the sides of the vessel to make in the shape of a fresh fig. Take a colander spread little ghee in it. Place the modak in it. Make such 10-12 modak out of the remaining dough and place all in the colander. Place the modak in such a way that they don't touch one another. Take a big vessel. Pour 4 glasses of water in it. Put the vessel on the heat. As the water starts boiling, cover the vessel with the colander full of modak. Now cover the colander with a tight lid so that the steam should not come out from anywhere. The modak should be steamed for 10 minutes. Serve hot modak with a teaspoon of ghee on it.