Ukadiche Modak

After Gulpoli and Puranpoli for Makar Sankranti and Holi respectively, its time for the biggest festival celebrated in Maharashtra, the Ganesh Utsav/ Ganesh Festival.. Lord Ganesh/Ganpati being the favourite god of all Maharashtrians, this festival is celebrated on account of His birthday. :D It comes sometime in Septemer, on the day of Vinayak Chaturti [4th day of the month of Bhadrapad] and lasts for 10 days, ending on the day of Ananth Chaturdarshi.. On the first day of this festival, people bring home Ganesh idols made from clay. For the next 10 days, the idol is worshipped- Puja, Aarti and then Naivedya/Prasad. :) The last day is the day of “Visarjan” when the idol is immersed in water saying “Ganpati Bappa Moraya, Pudchya Warshi Laukar ya!” (Come soon next year!) Some people do the Visarjan after 11/2, 2, 5 or 7 days.

Here are some artistic pictures of Ganesh representing His different names. These pictures came through a forwarded mail with the title “Akshar Ganesh” and were so artistic that I thought of sharing it with you people! Open in new window to view original size!

Ganesh Festival celebrations were limited to homes until Lokmanya Tilak, a freedom fighter from Maharashtra, started this festival as “Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav”(public Ganesh Festival) in the pre-independence period in Pune, with the motive of getting people together and celebrating the festival which provided an easy opportunity for the freedom fighters to convey their ideas about independence to the public. Till date, people from Pune and from other cities in Maharashtra celebrate this festival with full josh! There are big Ganesh idols at every nook and corner by small and large societies/ mandals. The Ganesh festival from Pune and Mumbai are very famous and people come down from nearby places to watch the last day procession (called “Visarjan Miravnuk”) which sometimes lasts for 30-32 hrs. A large amount of money is spent on sets and decorations for the 10 day celebrations as well as for the procession.

Coming to the important part of the festival.. yes obviously the feasts :) Ganesh festival is incomplete without the naivedya of Ganesha’s favourite food-the modaks.. Modaks are prepared in different ways, some can be the stuffed ones and some can be the ones made from khava/mava. The stuffed ones can be normal fried modaks or the steamed ukadiche modak. The khava modaks are just khava put in moulds and comes in various flavours like amba modak, pista modak etc. At our place, mom makes the fried modaks which I’ll post some other time. Today I’ll be posting Ukadiche Modak for "RCI Maharashtrian Cuisine".

Since these were never prepared at my place, I used to eat them like a “havrat”(greedy) whenever I got a chance to :) Especially at my workplace, where a big ukadicha modak used to be a sweet dish once every 2-3 months. We generally used to have team lunch and on such days, there would be 4-5 modaks infront of me, generously given up by calorie conscious and non-sweet eating colleagues! :) My love for sweets and chaats is well known by most of my friends :) Since I fast on chaturtis, I decided to try these as Naivedya for last week’s chaturti. I followed the recipe mostly from Mumbai Masala. This seemed to be one risky recipe to try hence started with small amounts :D The modaks turned out very well.. heavenly taste!! I am sure Lord Ganesh wud have been happy with the naivedya ;) the only problem was that the covering turned out a bit thick than expected. The covering seemed more than the filling. The covering wasn’t getting rolled properly and was breaking so often hence had to make it thick. And the shapes of just 2 modaks seemed perfectly like modak.. Hence it’s just these 2 modaks for you guys.. enjoy!! :)

Ukadiche Modak

What you need:

For the covering:
½ cup Rice Flour
½ cup Water
2 tsp Ghee
A pinch of Salt

For the filling:
1 cup Coconut, shredded
½ cup Jaggery, grated
1 tsp Poppy Seeds, roasted
1 tsp Cardamom Powder

How to proceed:

For the filling:
1) Heat a pan and put jaggery in it
2) When jaggery starts melting, add 1 tsp Ghee and coconut to it
3) Mix well and cook on medium heat for 5-6 mins
4) Add cardamom powder and roasted poppy seeds
5) Filling is ready, keep aside to cool

For the covering:
1) Boil ½ cup water, add ghee to it
2) Add rice flour to boiling water and miz well stirring continuously
3) Add salt, mix well and cook covered for 2-3 mins
4) Remove from heat and knead well into a soft flour when its hot
This dough is called Ukad and hence the name!

Putting it all together:
1) Divide the dough into small balls
2) Roll each ball to size of puris
3) Place this on the palm and add some filling to it
4) Bring together the ends in form of plates and form a tip and seal
5) Repeat the procedure for rest of the modaks
6) Put these modaks in a steamer/cooker (do not put weight/whistle) and steam for 15-20 mins. The abobe ingredients make 7-8 modaks
7) Serve hot modaks with Ghee… aahh.. they just melt in the mouth.. Oops.. did we forget to offer the naivedya/Prasad?? ;)

This is also my entry for WTSIM-Stuffed Dumplings... I hope the modaks qualify the deadly tests ;)

GulPoli

This was my first recipe on net, at the time when I didn’t have my own blog. It was my entry for My Dhaba’s FAHC Campaign. Since this is one of the well-known festival foods in Maharashtra, I decided to post it here for RCI-Maharashtrian Cuisine.

Makar Sankranti is the first important festival in Maharashtra wrt to English calender, and is celebrated on 14th January every year. Its an occasion to visit near and dear ones and distribute tilgul saying "Tilgul ghya, god god bola" (take tilgul(sweet) and talk sweet! :D) Makar Sankranti is a special festival for newly wed girls as well. On the first Makar Sankranti after marriage, the girl comes back to her parents place and is presented with various ornaments made from halwa/white tilgul called "halwyache dagine". Ladies also get a chance to wear black sarees on this day which is usually considered unauspicious on other good occasions/festivities.

Since Makar Sankranti falls during mid winter in India, the food prepared for this festival is such that it keeps the body warm and gives high energy. Hence til (sesame seeds) and gul (jaggery) are basically used in the preparation of sweets for this festival. Gulpoli is a traditional dish prepared on this day in Maharashtra as an offering to God. Other festives include tilache ladu(sesame balls), tilachi wadi (sesame squares), murmura ladu(mamra/rice flakes balls) etc. These sweet and crisp breads taste better when eaten on the second day.

GulPoli

What you need:

For the dough:
1/2 cup Plain flour(Maida)
1/2 cup Wheat flour (Atta)
2 tbsp cooking oil
Luke warm water
A pinch of salt

For the filling:
1 and 1/2 cup Jaggery
4 tsp Sesame seeds
2 tsp Poppy seeds
3-4 tsp Gram flour
1 tsp Cardamom powder
1 tsp Nutmeg powder
4-5 Cashewnuts
1-2 Almonds

How to proceed:

For the dough:
1) Sieve the flours so as to avoid lumps
2) Mix the flours. Prepare a hollow space in the center to put oil.
3) Heat oil and add it to the flour.
4) Mix hot oil with flour using a spoon.
5) Add a pinch of salt.
6) Add luke warm water and make a soft dough.
7) Leave aside covered by wet cloth for 2 hrs.

For the filling:
1) If the jaggery is soft, break it in small lumps by hand. If hard, just grate it.
2) Roast poppy seeds, sesame seeds and gram flour separately.
3) Grind poppy seeds, sesame seeds, cashews and almonds together to a smooth paste.
4) Mix Jaggery, gram flour, ground paste, cardamom powder and nutmeg powder.
5) Make 4-5 small balls about one inch diameter for filling.

Putting it all together:
1) Knead the dough well. Make 4-5 equal parts of dough
2) Roll the dough on rolling board till it becomes 3-4 inch in diamater.
3) Place a ball of filling in the center and close it by getting the edges together at top. Take care not to let the filling come out.
4) With the use of flour, just press the dough by both palms so as to equally spread the filling inside towards the edges as well.
5) Using flour, roll it to nearly 7-8 inches in diameter.
6) Heat the frying pan and put some ghee.
7) Roast the gulpoli on the frying pan on both sides using ghee till it turns brownish.
8) Serve hot with ghee or eat crispy gulpoli later.

Mind a look at the entire stock??