Modak - Food of Gods

Today we celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi or Chavati with great love and devotion towards the most intellectual of Gods among the Hindu Gods and Godesses.

Now everyone makes different types of sweets to entice him and each part of India has a special sweetmeat made for him. For he is supposed to be one great foodie among all the gods :)

As kids we used to wait for this day and would enjoy it thouroughly and feast on all the delicacies made by our aunts and grandmas.

In Western India there are mainly two sweets prepared as an offering. One bieng Appo and the other being Modak.

Appo is more like the Indian version of the Danish Æbleskiver made with Wheat Flour, Jaggery, Coconut and Cardomom. I will post the recipe to make this soon. Oh! there is a savoury version of this Appo too but that is made for breakfast and not for offering.

I usually prepare Modak as offering. So that is the story behind this blog post.

Now there many different variants for preparing modak. One is the steamed version prepared with rice flour and the other is the deep fried version which is what I made this time.

The ingredients are as follows:

• Wheat Flour - 1 1/2 Cup
• Chiroti Sooji (Semolina) - 1/2 Cup
• Grated Coconut - 1 cup
• Jaggery - 3/4 Cup
• Cardomom - 1 pod powdered
• Clarified Butter or Ghee - 1 tbsp
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Cashewnuts -5-6
• Raisins -10-12
• Oil for frying

Method:

1. Mix the Wheat Flour and the Semolina along with water and make a stiff dough.
2. Add some oil to this and knead till it is pliable dough. Set aside.
3. Now take the Ghee in a wok and one it is how add the coconut, Jaggery and the cardomom mixture to this and fry till the jaggery melts.
4. This may take a while. Once done add the broken cashewnuts and raisins and mix well.
5. Turn off the heat and let this mixture cool.
6. Now take a small portion of the dough and roll it into a poori. Basically you need to get the round shape which will fit in your palm.
7. Take a little bit of the coconut mixture and keep it right in the middle and now seal the ends by pulling the edges towards you. The photograph above may help you decipher that.
8. Once done you will need to take oil in a wok and once the oil is hot enough fry these modaks in oil till they are light brown.
9. Modaks are ready to be served or offered.

P.S:

Kids really love this. Try it ;-)