Ganpati festival is on in Maharashtra, India and Modaks are must in this festival. There are ample of varieties present in the market like dry fruit, chocolate, paan flavour modaks etc. but traditionally modak is made from rice flour and are steamed. Its little tricky but not too difficult to achieve.
Filling in this recipe is something different from the traditional jaggery coconut. I have rather tried to give it a different flavour through walnuts, coconut and dates.
Modak is favourite food of Lord Ganesha and thus offered to him in this festival by their devotees. It is also served as "prasad"(Lord's blessings) to devotees after offering is made.
So, lets solve this complex recipe and start right away,
We will divide this recipe into three parts :
Preparing the filling
Preparing the dough
Final Shaping and steaming.
Steamed Modak (Ukdiche Modak) Recipe
Ingredients
For filling
1 cup Milk powder
2 tbsp Ghee for khoya and 2 tbsp Ghee for frying.
5 tbsp Milk
100 gms Dates de-seeded and chopped
4 tbsp Coconut, freshly grated
2 tbsp Poppy seeds
Dry fruits (Almond,walnuts), crushed.
For Dough
1.25 glass of Water
1 glass of rice flour
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp Ghee
Banana leaf for steaming
Direction
Preparing the Filling
In a non stick pan warm up ghee, add milk and milk powder to it. Mix everything so that no lumps are formed. Keep stirring it till it reaches to a dough like consistency. This is instant khoya. Keep aside.
In the same pan again add some ghee and all dry fruits. Roast for 2 minutes, now add poppy seeds and roast lightly. Folllow by adding coconut and khoya which we kept aside. Mix everything properly. Mixture should combine well. Keep aside to cool off.
Preparing the dough
In a non stick take water,salt and ghee. Bring everything to boil.
On a low flame add rice flour and immediately mix and break the lumps. All this should take not more than a minute after adding rice flour. Instantly turn off the flame and cover the pan for good 5 minutes.
Let it rest till it is easy to handle.
Knead a soft dough.Make sure the mixture is warm enough other wise soft dough will not be formed and modaks will break.
Shaping and steaming
Divide the dough into 15 parts. Grease your hands with ghee.
Take one part of the dough and place it in modak mould and try to stick the dough to the walls of modak mould while making a holllow in the centre. Anytime if the dough is getting too sticky to handle take the help of ghee.
Fill the hollow with the date - walnut mixture.
Cover the bottom of modak mould with some more dough.
Now demould carefully.
Prepare all the modak in the same manner.
Prepare your steamer by lining it with banana leaf. Banana leaf should be pre-greased with ghee.
Steam modak for 10 minutes and you are ready to serve these delights to "Bappa" and your friends.
Note
Measurements are important in this recipe.
Modak moulds are available online. It gives better results as per standardization. If it is not available you can also shape it with your hands.
I used idli steamer for this recipe, you may use any steamer available to you but avoid microwave.
All the sweetness comes from milk powder and dates so no sugar is needed.
You may garnish these modaks with saffron strands which must be kept in warm milk atleast 10 mins before.
Serve hot. It tastes great.
Do try this recipe anytime you like as it is a great festive dish and could be a delight to your friends and family.
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Let the art of food paint you.
Love, Uma