Ganeshotsav 2018: As we usher in festivities, here are some modak recipes to savour

Ingredients for dough:  1 cup mava, a pinch of salt, boiling water, 2 tsp oil;

Ingredients for filling: 1 cup palm sugar or jaggery, 1/2 cup water, 1 cup chana dal, 2.5 cup grated coconut, 1 tsp cardamom powder, 1 tsp ghee.

Method: Take Chana dal in a pressure cooker, add in 2.5 cup of water. Pressure cook for 4 whistle, simmer for 5 mins. Turn off the heat and let the steam go all by itself.  Open the cooker and set aside, take jaggery and water in a sauce pan and heat till it is melted.  Strain and set aside. Pour this back into the same kadai.  Add in coconut, cooked chana dal and mix well.Keep cooking this till it is thick. Add in cardamom powder, ghee and mix well. Remove this to a bowl and allow it to cool down. Divide it into small balls. Now make the dough.  Take water in a sauce pan, add in salt and 1 tsp of oil. Once the water reaches a boil add in rice flour and mix well. It will become like a sticky dough. Now remove this to a bowl and let it cool for 15 mins.  Once it is cooled, add in 1 tsp of oil and make it into a soft dough.  Now take modak mould and grease it lightly. Take small portion of dough and spread it evenly in mould. Place the filling in and cover it with more dough. Now release the mould, you will have a modak.Or you can make it as small balls. Take a small portion of dough and flatten it thinly. Place a small ball of filling in it and cover it. Roll it between your hands to Smoothen it. Now place this in a steamer and steam it for 8 to 10 mins. Let it cool for 5 mins before removing and serve.

Ingredients for dough: 1.5 cups rice flour, pinch of salt, 1 tsp oil

Ingredients for stuffing: 1.5 cups fresh grated coconut, 1 cup jaggery, 1 tbsp khuskhus; pinch of green cardamom; pinch of nutmeg powder

Method: Heat one and one-fourth cups of water with salt and one teaspoon oil in a deep non-stick pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and add the rice flour in a steady flow, stirring continuously to prevent lumps from forming. Cover the pan with a deep lid and pour some water into the lid. Cook on low heat for three minutes. Remove the lid, sprinkle some cold water on the rice flour and cover again with the lid, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and add the rice flour in a steady flow, stirring continuously to prevent lumps from forming water in it; cook for another three minutes. Repeat this process twice more. Take the pan off the heat and keep it covered for two minutes.Transfer the mixture to a large plate (parat), grease the palms of your hands with oil and knead the dough till completely smooth and pliable. The dough should not stick to your palms. Rest the dough covered with a damp cloth. For the stuffing, combine the coconut and jaggery in a non-stick pan and cook on medium heat for one or two minutes till light golden brown. Make sure that you do not overcook the mixture. Add the roasted poppy seeds, cardamom powder and nutmeg powder. Divide the dough into twelve equal portions and shape them into balls. Grease the palms of your hands and spread each ball to form a three-inch bowl. Press the edges of the bowls to reduce the thickness. Place a portion of the stuffing in the centre; pleat the edges of the dough and gather them together to form a bundle. Pinch to seal the edges at the top. Heat sufficient water in a steamer. Place the modak on a perforated plate in the steamer and steam for ten to twelve minutes.  Serve hot modak with pure ghee.

Ingredients: 2 cups mava, 1 Cup cashewnut powder, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, cardamom powder, yellow food colour
 
Method: Take mava, sugar and cashew nut powder in heavy bottom pan.  Turn the heat on medium heat.  Stir it and mix well. Add food colour. As it gets heat up, it will starts to melt add cardamom powder. Now roast it well till all the moisture evaporated.  It takes 5- 6 minutes. Remove it to the plate and let it cool to handle it. Check mava and make sure there are no lumps. Take small ball of mava and put into the mould. By using your finger pack it. Press it and open the mould carefully and remove it. Modaks are ready to serve.

Ingredients: 2 cups Ricotta Cheese, 1 cup sweetened condensed milk, 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips, 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Method: Heat heavy bottom pan on a medium heat. To that add ricotta cheese. Mix and cook for 5 to 8 mts. Once the ricotta cheese starts to thicken up, add condensed milk in that. Mix and cook for 4 to 5 mts more. Turn the heat off. Add cocoa powder, chocolate chips, mix well. Wait until mixture cools down completely Once the chocolate mixture is cool to touch, take the modal mould and stuff with chocolate mixture to give that a modak shape. Chocolate Modak is all ready!

Ingredients: 1 bowl gram flour, 1.5 bowl sugar, 1.5 bowl water, 1 tbsp vegetable oil, 1/2 tsp cardamom powder, 10-15 pieces of chopped pista, 1 tbsp saffron, ghee to deep fry

Instructions: Take gram flour in a large size bowl and add half bowl water slowly to make thin batter without lumps and add 1 tbsp oil. Beat it for 5-7 minutes with beater to make it fluffy. Put pan on the gas and add ghee. Heat it on medium flame. Hold Jhar (a big round spoon with multiple small holes in it) just above the pan and put batter on it with service spoon and tap at edge of the jhar so small droplets will fall in the oil. Fry it for 5-7 minutes on medium flame and take it out in a plate with another jhar to drain extra oil. If possible put bloating paper on plate to absorb extra oil. Put another pan on the gas then add one bowl of water and sugar and cook it for 10-15 minutes on medium flame to make one taar sugar syrup. To check one taar, take one drop of sugar syrup between thumb and index finger and see single taar. Add cardamom powder, pista and saffron leaves in sugar syrup and put off gas. Add Boondi in sugar syrup and properly mix it and keep for 15 minutes Now put Boondi mixture in Modak mould and press it. Now take it out. If you do not have Modak mould then make it with hand and give shape of Modak

Ingredients: 1 Cup fresh grated coconut, 200 Grams Mawa or milk powder, 1 Cup Sugar, 4 Pods Cardamom, 2 tbsp ghee.

Method: In a mixer jar add cardamom and sugar grind to form powdered sugar. Heat a wok on medium flame add ghee once the ghee melts and the wok starts to smoke place on low flame add grated coconut. Once the coconut is added keep stirring until there is no moisture in the coconut.  The coconut should not have any moisture at that point crumble and add khova and powdered sugar keep stirring until the khova and sugar has thoroughly combined with the coconut. Do not add any water or milk to melt the sugar or khova the consistency of peda with get watery. On low flame keep stirring all the ingredients until the peda mixture starts to form a ball consistency and ghee starts to separate. Remove from heat transfer to a bowl and allow to cool a bit. Make sure the mixture does not cool completely we cannot form modak shapes. Once the peda mixture cools a bit and we can handle the warm mixture take portion of peda mixture fill in modak mould and form equal modaks. If you do not have a modak mould spread the mixture on a plate and cut the peda using cookie cutter. Serve right away.

Ingredients: 15 seedless dates, 10 dried figs, ¼ cup raisins, ¼ cup almonds, ¼ cup pistachios, ¼ cup shelled Walnuts, ¼ cup desiccated coconut, 4 cardamom pods, seeds crushed into powder, 1 teaspoon Ghee. 

Method: Finely chop the dates, figs and raisins. Also chop all the almonds, pistachios and walnuts into tiny bits. In a saucepan, dry roast the desiccated coconut till lightly browned. Transfer to a large bowl and keep aside. Dry roast the chopped nuts together till lightly browned. Add them to the bowl with the coconut and keep aside. Heat ghee in the same pan and add chopped dates, figs and raisins and fry continuously for about 5 minutes. Switch off the heat and let it cool slightly. Grind the cooled dates, figs and raisin mixture till it forms a coarse paste. Add this paste to the bowl with the browned nuts. Mix well till a uniform mass is formed. Take lime-sized balls of the mixture and form them into modak shapes. You can use a modak mould to do this, or shape them by hand. To shape them by hand, make a lime-sized ball first and then, holding the ball in the palm of one hand, use the fingers of your other hand to pull up the top of the ball, thus forming a fig shape. Store the modak in a air-tight container. These should last at room temperature for about 4-5 days.