Modak for Ganesh Chaturthi

This is my first entry in Indian Cooking Challange. Modak is most favourite food for Lord Ganesha. My mom is expert in making modak. This is how I made them.

Ingredients:

For Stuffing:

2 Cups scrapped fresh/frozen Coconut

1.5 cup Jaggery

1 Tbsp dry roasted poppy seeds/Khaskhas

A pinch of Cardamom Powder

Few raisins(Optional)

For Covering:

1 Cup Rice flour

1 & 1/4 cup Water

1 tsp Oil

A pinch of Salt

Preparation of Stuffing:

Grate jaggery. Mix the jaggery with coconut gratings & keep aside. Roast the Khaskhas seeds & powder. In a heavy bottomed kadhai, transfer the coconut-jaggery mixture add the khaskhas powder & heat till the mixture is heated through & dries up. Add the cardamom powder & raisins if using. Remove from fire. Let it cool.

Preparation of outer shell:

Meanwhile, in a heavy bottomed pan take the water add the salt & oil. Let the water come to rolling boil. Once the water is boiled slowly add the rice flour stir & close the lid. Let the dough cook for 2-5 mintes. After a big steam, take the pan away from gas. Take out the dough in another bowl/plate. When it is warm enough to handle start kneading the dough. There should be no lumps in the dough. It should be soft & smooth like play dough.

Final stage:

Start boiling water in a large vessel that can fit a steamer. The water should not touch the steamer. Oil the steamer and set it aside. Make about 20 balls of the dough and 20 parts of the stuffing. Start making small bowl with the dough ball with oiled hands & fingers this really needs skill. Once the bowl is ready keep one part of stuffing in the bowl. Now make pleats around the bowl. Then collect all the pleats in the center of the bowl on the top. Alternatively, Start making small puri with the dough ball on a oiled paper/aluminum foil. Keep one part of stuffing in the middle of the puri and gather the puri gently to make shape like modak. You will have to handle the dough very gently. Follow the step to make remaining modaks. Now dip each modak in cold water and put it in the steamer. Put the steamer on boiling water and cover it. Let the modaks steam for 15-20 minutes on medium to high heat. Take the steamer off the vessel and let it sit for 5 minutes before removing modaks from steamer.

Serve the modak hot with ghee/sweetened coconut milk.

I had also prepared the Sesame seeds laadoo on the same day.

I roasted 100 gms of Sesame seeds. After the seeds are cool enough to handle, I added 3.5 - 4 tbsp of Jaggery to the seeds & ran everything in mixie.

Due to the oil in the sesame seeds you can make the laadoo. It also stays in the shape.

It is really simple & tasty recipe for sesame laadoos. It took only 5 minutes for me. Isn't it easy?

I followed Srivalli's recipe to make boorelu. This was first time I made them so I made a small batch. Everybody liked them, now I can make more also.

Ingredients:

For the cover :Black gram dal/ Urad dal - 50 gms

For the Stuffing :

Bengal gram/Channa dal - 1 cup

Grated Jaggery - 1 cup

Fresh/frozen grated Coconut - 1/4 cup (opt)

Cardamom powder - 3/4 tsp

salt to taste

oil for deep frying

Method: Wash and soak Urad dal. Drain water from the Urad dal and grind to fine paste adding very little water. The batter should be like the dosa batter before adding water or like the batter to dip batata wada. Add salt and leave it aside covered.

For the stuffing, pressure cook the channa dal with just enough water to cover it. Cook the jaggary to remove any scum. Then once the dal is well cooked, drain and cook it along with the jaggary. It should become very soft enough for you to mash well. You can either grind it to a smooth paste or mash it to fine consistency with a masher. If you find the puran is very loose, you can cook this in sim to get a thick paste. Add Cardamom powder and grated coconut. You will know its done when the dal starts to leave the sides. Remove and cool. Divide them into equal balls.

Heat a thick bottom kadai for frying. Once the oil is hot, turn to sim. Then dip each ball in the Urad dal batter. Make sure its coated on all sides. Then drop them into the hot oil. Keep turning to cook on all sides. Once couple of batches are done, strain the oil to remove the scum. It takes only 2-3 mins to get cooked. Drain them on to a kitchen towel. Serve hot.

Godache Aappey

Wish you all a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi.
May the Vighnaharta remove all the obstacles from our life.

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This is a very simple recipe from my mom. I made these yesterday for naivedya for lord Ganesha. I am keeping Ganapati Bappa for 5 days and everyday I am making one sweet dish. For Sunday I made Modak & Sesame Laddu & today I made Appam & coconut milk. Today I will be making Naarali Bhat. I will post the recipe later. Now here is the recipe for Gode Aappey.


What you need:

1 Cup fresh/frozen Coconut,
1 Cup Jaggery
1.5 cups Coarse Rava/Sooji/Bombay Rava
1 Tbsp Roasted Peanuts
Ghee for frying


What to do:

Lightly dry roast rava. In a mixing bowl, take coconut & grated jaggery. Mash both of them together. Add the peanuts & rava. Soak everything together. If you feel this is of not dropping consistency add little milk to the mixture. Keep this aside for 3-4 hours.


After 3-4 hours, heat the appey patra and half fill the cavities with ghee. When the ghee is hot, add a spoonful of the above mixture and cover.

After 2-3 minutes remove the lid, if you see the sides of the appey has turned brown, turn them upside down with a knitting needle or a chopstick. Let the appey cook on the other side.


Once done remove from the patra & serve. You can keep these appey for 3-4 days also.

Lapsi - A healthy sweet dish

This friday was the last friday of Aadi & even kirthikai of aadi maasam. I wanted to make some sweet dish for naivedya at the same time feeling lazy to go to the kitchen. I was not in the mood to go & cook anything. Thought a lot to make something very simple yet healthy & quick recipe. I opened the pantry & found some lapsi rava. Immediately idea clicked in my mind to make Lapsi.

Ingredients :

1 Cup Lapsi Rava/Wheat rava/Fada/finely Broken wheat

1/3 Cup Ghee

1 Cup Brown Sugar

3 cups water/milk & water in 1:2 measure

10-15 broken Cashew,

5-6 Almonds/Badam,

1 Tbsp Raisins,

1 Tbsp dry/fresh grated coconut (Optional).

Method:

In a heavy bottomed kadhai/pan heat ghee. Add the lapsi rava & roast till it becomes aromatic or till it becomes 1 shade darker. Add the cashew, badam, raisins and water or the mixture of milk & water. Add sugar. Break all the lumps if any, add coconut if using fresh. Put the lid on the pan/kadhai. Let cook for min. 5 minutes of medium flame. Add coconut if using dry coconut at this stage. Serve hot.

Shahi Jackfruit Kofta

These kofta's I made for my son's birthday for the first time and was a major hit. It won't take long time to make these & very easy.

Ingredients required:

For Koftas

1 tin green jackfruit

2 Med Potatoes

4 Tbsp Besan/Chana dal flour

3-4 Green Chillies finely chopped

2 Tbsp Cilantro finely chopped

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

For gravy:

1/2 finely choppped onion

1 tomato finely chopped

10-15 Cashew nuts soaked in water

5-7 Almonds soaked in water

3-4 Tbsp Sour cream

3-4 Tbsp Heavy whipping cream

4-5 green chillies

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/2 tsp sugar

1 Tbsp Oil

1 Tbsp Ghee/clarified butter

Salt to taste

1 Tbsp chopped Cilantro (Optional)

How to make:

Koftas:

Boil potatoes & drained jackfruit pieces. Squize out the water from jackfruit even after boiling to the maximum possible extent. In a bowl, mash both of them together. Add the chillies, salt & cilantro. Sprinkle the besan & make soft golf-ball sized balls. Heat oil in a kadhai. Deep fry the Koftas/balls in the hot oil & remove on a tissue paper.

Gravy:

In another kadhai/pan, heat the oil & ghee. Add the cumin seeds, chillies, onion, sprinkle the sugar & keep stirring till onions are soft. Add tomatoes, turmeric powder, salt. When the onion & tomatoes become very soft almost like paste add sour cream. Meanwhile make a thick paste of cashew & almonds. Add the paste of cashews & almonds. Add a cup fo water cover & let boil. Now in a serving bowl, arrange the koftas, pour the gravy on the koftas. Decorate with the heavy cream & cilantro.

Serve with rice, roti or parathas. Goes well with anything.