Sunday, September 16, 2007

Modaks for Lord Ganesha

Happy Gansh Chaturti to all my blogger friends.. May Lord Ganesha always shower His blessings on you! Ganesha is one diety I worship regularly, and specially more during my exams :D And why shouldn't I? He's the lord of intellect and wisdom.. And since its his festival, one of my favourite festival-the Ganesh Utsav now, I had to please him more :) Or do I say I had to please myself with the sweets/naivedya?? ;)

In India, especially in Maharashtra,Ganesh Festival is celebrated with great pomp.. It brings along 10 days of joy, happiness and celebration.. At mom's place we used to have Ganesh idol for 5 days and used to have naivedya of Modak on the 5th day before visarjan(immersion).. Since I cant place a ganesh idol at my place here, I made it a point to make modaks yesterday as naivedya.. I made the modaks using my mom's recipe, a more simple one than the Ukadiche Modak I posted sometime back.. Modaks are usually offered in number of 21 but for small families or lazy/busy people 5 or 11 modaks are acceptable!
Modak


Makes:

~11 modaks

Preparation Time:

25-30 mins (+3hrs for dough to be set aside)

What you need:

2/3 cup Plain Flour (Maida)
A pinch of Salt
Water

1/2 cup grated dry Cocunut
1 tbsp Poppy Seeds(KhusKhus)
1 tbsp Fine Semolina (Baarik Rawa)
1.5 tbsp Ghee
3-4 tbsp powdered Sugar
Chopped Nuts(kishmish, charoli, cashews, almonds)

Ghee/Oil to fry

How to proceed:

1) Add salt and water to plain flour and make a pliable dough. Set dough aside for 2-3 hrs
2) Slightly roast cocunut, poppy seeds and semolina separately
3) Coarsely grind the cocunut with hands on in a mixie.
4) Mix the remaining ingredients(except oil) to make the filling.
5) Divide dough into 11 equal sized balls
6) Roll each ball in circular shape to size of puri.. Place it on the palm and add 1-2 tsp of filling to it.. Then get the sides of the puri together at the center, bind them together to cover the filling.
7) Prepare the remaining modaks in similar fashion.
8) Once all modaks are done, heat ghee/oil and fry these modaks on medium heat till they turn golden brown.
9) Dont forget to offer as naivedya (prasad/offering) before popping them in your mouth :)


Just stumbled upon an event for festival foods for Ganesh Chaturti.. So my modak's go to Latha for Ganesha Chaturti Foods

10 comments:

Sreelu said...

Arts, Modak looks so good.Happy Ganesh Chaturdi to you too

Jayashree said...

Looks good...this is way different from the modakam that we make in the South.

Pooja V said...

This is the way we make it in goa too but made Ukadiche this year for my maharashtrian hubby.

Roopa said...

modaks are our favorite too. i made it too but my feeling is without rava.Nice entry :)

Jyothi said...

Hi Aarti! modaks looks perfect shape. This is entirely different from our version. Thanks for sharing.

Mansi said...

Nice work..from what I know its very difficult to make these modaks, so appreciate your hard work!

Sharmi said...

this is a very different kind of modak! looks cute and crunchy. wish you happy ganesh chaviti.

Padma said...

Aarti, your modaks looks crunchy, did u deep fried them? or shallow fried it...Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

Anonymous said...

Never made them, but they look great. Will try them soon

Anonymous said...

People should read this.