Coconut Modaks
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
(coconut and jaggery filled in wheat dough)
My mom prepared this on Ganesh Chaturti, Sept 3rd. It is Lord Ganesha's birthday and we celebrate by bringing a Ganesh idol home, preparing bhog (traditional festive food) and sweets and culminate the evening pooja with arati (devotional song). In my place here, we don't bring the idol home (my tauji in Bombay does it). Mom prepared modaks, Lord Ganesha's favourtite sweet. Here's the recipe:
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Ingredients:
1 cup fresh coconut, grated
2 tbsp jaggery
Wheat dough
Oil, to fry
Method:
1. Mix the grated coconut and powdered jaggery well. Fry it until the jaggery blends with the coconut and turns light brown in colour. Set aside.
The coconut + jaggery filling
2. Heat oil in a deep-fry pan. Make small balls of the dough, sized such that they fit in your palm when you close them.
3. Now roll it a little, in round shape. Fill it with coconut+jaggery mixture, enough to be able to close it on all sides. Bring the dough, when closing, to the center of the round spread. Secure it such that the filling doesn't come out. Make 3-4 of these and fry them in oil.
4. Once done, drain the oil as much as possible (I used tissue papers). Put half a tsp of ghee on top and now its ready to eat!
Only that, we offer it to Lord Ganesha first, and then we take it as prasad :-)
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Modaks are very popular in Maharashtra and north Karnataka, and are easy to prepare. Varieties of modaks exist, some which you can even boil in water (instead of frying in oil) and eat! For now, I've learnt how to make yummy coconut modaks :-)
10 December 2008 at 15:32
Oh, wa lot of great food....I have to look at it all...and cook! My friend is going to India as a part of his research...so I've better learn some more ;O)
13 December 2008 at 09:48
In Rajasthan, there's a very similar looking thing called "Batia", except that it's wheat not coconut.
I wonder what Modaks taste like *butterflies in stomach, mouth all watery*
17 December 2008 at 13:51
Aputsiaq,
Oh cooking Indian food is very easy! I keep hearing about how it is not, and its not true :) Its simple. Actually, I cook lots more than I manage to make an entry about here, so that makes the blog very slow. I intend to speed up the process! And you're welcome to ask me anything about Indian cooking (though I'm no expert... but I'll sure try!)
Ramit,
Yaar modak bade hi tasty hote hai. When you bite into one, the coconut leaves that tingling feeling in your mouth... mmm... Now I'm at my inlaws place in Kharagpur, eating pure Punjabi khaana like yummy gajrela, rajma, and tonight's menu is makki di roti n sarson da saag! Oye balle balle! Main teh challi khaan :D