Morya re bappa morya re!
Can't do without these favourites of Ganpati bappa! Modak Ladoo! This is my mother's recipe and it never fails to yield delicious modaks oozing with the taste of jaggery and coconut (chav)!
Ingredients: Makes about 30 modaks
1. Rice flour 1/2 kg (I use flour made from organic red rice(patni), I am lucky to find it in the stores by the brand-name "Navadarshanam". The modaks look a lovely pink!)
2. Grated coconuts: 2 whole coconuts
3. Powdered jaggery: 1 cup (This too, I get from "Navadarshanam", powdered, organic)
4. Cardomom powder 2 tspn
5. Ghee 2 tspn or more if you like
6. Water: 2 cups
7. Salt: pinch
Procedure:
1. Mix the grated coconut, jaggery and cardomom powder and cook the mixture in a thick bottomed saucepan for about 7 minutes until it becomes dry. Note: the jaggery will first melt. On cooking a little, it will become dryer. Do not heat upto high temperatures or the jaggery will caramelize and become hard on cooling.
2. Leave the coconut-jaggery mixture out on a plate to cool. This mixture is called the "chav" and will be referred to it as such here onwards.
3. Boil the water, salt and ghee. Mix the rice flour in the boiling water. Switch off heat, cover and let stand for 15 minutes. Note: Letting the mixture stand covered is very important as the starch will be released during this steaming and will make softer modaks. Uncover and cool the mixture.
4. Knead the rice flour and water mixture until a smooth dough is formed, some more cool water can be added to the dough at this stage if required.
5. Knead for 5 minutes until the dough becomes a little elastic.
6. Make about 30 balls of the dough.
7. Apply ghee/oil on your hands. Take each ball of dough and with your fingers, spread it and make it into a cup while maintaining uniform thickness.
8. Spoon some chav into the cup of dough and close the cup from the top by stretching the dough and making a kind of a point at the top. Your modak is ready to be steamed.
9. Repeat until all the modaks are made. Note: If there's extra dough and the chav is all used up, don't worry, the extra dough can be flattened and steamed without the chav, it tastes amazing when eaten with "vaalacha birde". The dough can be refrigerated for later use too. If there's extra chav, no problem, refrigerate it and stuff a paratha with it for a sweet paratha! Or scoop it up for dessert.
10. Place the modaks in a steamer and steam for 10 minutes.
11. Relish hot from the steamer. You can even refrigerate the modaks and steam them for 3 minutes before you want to eat them.
Rice flour is traditionally used by CKPs for making modaks and I personally love the traditional version. However, I tried making them with wheat flour as my husband does not like the taste of rice flour. Well, it's soooo.. much easier to make modaks with wheat flour! Mix the wheat flour with milk instead of water to make a dough. The rest of the procedure is the same. I tried baking some and steaming the rest of these wheat flour modaks and they came out well both ways!
Can't do without these favourites of Ganpati bappa! Modak Ladoo! This is my mother's recipe and it never fails to yield delicious modaks oozing with the taste of jaggery and coconut (chav)!
Ingredients: Makes about 30 modaks
1. Rice flour 1/2 kg (I use flour made from organic red rice(patni), I am lucky to find it in the stores by the brand-name "Navadarshanam". The modaks look a lovely pink!)
2. Grated coconuts: 2 whole coconuts
3. Powdered jaggery: 1 cup (This too, I get from "Navadarshanam", powdered, organic)
4. Cardomom powder 2 tspn
5. Ghee 2 tspn or more if you like
6. Water: 2 cups
7. Salt: pinch
Procedure:
1. Mix the grated coconut, jaggery and cardomom powder and cook the mixture in a thick bottomed saucepan for about 7 minutes until it becomes dry. Note: the jaggery will first melt. On cooking a little, it will become dryer. Do not heat upto high temperatures or the jaggery will caramelize and become hard on cooling.
2. Leave the coconut-jaggery mixture out on a plate to cool. This mixture is called the "chav" and will be referred to it as such here onwards.
3. Boil the water, salt and ghee. Mix the rice flour in the boiling water. Switch off heat, cover and let stand for 15 minutes. Note: Letting the mixture stand covered is very important as the starch will be released during this steaming and will make softer modaks. Uncover and cool the mixture.
4. Knead the rice flour and water mixture until a smooth dough is formed, some more cool water can be added to the dough at this stage if required.
5. Knead for 5 minutes until the dough becomes a little elastic.
6. Make about 30 balls of the dough.
7. Apply ghee/oil on your hands. Take each ball of dough and with your fingers, spread it and make it into a cup while maintaining uniform thickness.
8. Spoon some chav into the cup of dough and close the cup from the top by stretching the dough and making a kind of a point at the top. Your modak is ready to be steamed.
9. Repeat until all the modaks are made. Note: If there's extra dough and the chav is all used up, don't worry, the extra dough can be flattened and steamed without the chav, it tastes amazing when eaten with "vaalacha birde". The dough can be refrigerated for later use too. If there's extra chav, no problem, refrigerate it and stuff a paratha with it for a sweet paratha! Or scoop it up for dessert.
10. Place the modaks in a steamer and steam for 10 minutes.
11. Relish hot from the steamer. You can even refrigerate the modaks and steam them for 3 minutes before you want to eat them.
Rice flour is traditionally used by CKPs for making modaks and I personally love the traditional version. However, I tried making them with wheat flour as my husband does not like the taste of rice flour. Well, it's soooo.. much easier to make modaks with wheat flour! Mix the wheat flour with milk instead of water to make a dough. The rest of the procedure is the same. I tried baking some and steaming the rest of these wheat flour modaks and they came out well both ways!
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