“Hey Deva.. Shree Ganesha”
“Hooo… teri bhakti ka vardaan hai
Jo kamaye vo dhanvaan hai
Bin kinare ki kashti hai vo..
Deva tujhse jo anjaan hai…”
Jo kamaye vo dhanvaan hai
Bin kinare ki kashti hai vo..
Deva tujhse jo anjaan hai…”
“Hey Deva.. Shree Ganesha”
Ganesh Chaturthi is the biggest festival in western part of India. But I wasn’t even aware of it two years back. And look at me now. I roam around the city to visit idols (read pandal hopping, if you are a bong); I love to watch the puja, aarti. Even I love people around here wearing their traditional dresses. I can clearly remember that last year I spent two entire days to figure out my pandal hopping route across the city. And no need to tell I spent another whole day to execute the plan.
Ganesh Chaturthi is the celebration of the birthday of Lord Ganesha. It is also known as Vinayak Chaturthi. In Hindu religion Lord Ganesh is worshipped for wisdom, prosperity and fortune. According to Hindu mythology,Ganesha is superior to all other gods except Shiva, Parvati, Laxmi/Lakshmi and Vishnu. It is believed that worshiping Lord Ganesha at start of the new year will bring prosperity and happiness in our life for the full year.
This year I was not able to follow my past year’s routine as I was not well. So I decided to celebrate it in my own way. After few random thoughts I made up my mind to start with Modak. (After all we are Bongs, unable to think beyond food when we come across new culture)
Modak is basically kind of sweet dumpling which has two variations, steamed modak and fried modak. It has a soft filling of desiccated coconut and jaggery mix. And the outer skin varies for steamed and fried version. Where rice flour is used for the steamed version the all-purpose flour is used for the fried version. It is believed that modak is the most favorite item of Lord Ganesha. (Though I used to know Laddu is the thing for him). So it plays a very important role in Ganesh Chaturthi or Ganeshotsav.
This modak is a complete stranger to me. Again the rice flour plays the same role for me. And I dint dare to catch up two strangers at a time. So tried my hands on Fried Modak and here it is how it came out for me 🙂 (I hope I will manage to sneak out little blessings from Lord Ganesha.)
Ingredients:
For filling:
Desiccated coconut: 2 cups
Jaggery: 1 cup
Cardamom powder: 2 tsp
For outer skin:
All-purpose flour: 2 cups
Semolina/ Rava: 1 cup
Warm water: 1/4th cup
Oil: 2 tbsp
Pinch of salt
Preparation:
If you can’t find desiccated coconut (like me 🙁 ) use regular coconut and scrape off 1 whole coconut.
Make very tiny pieces of jaggery.
Dry roast the coconut in a nonstick wok on medium flame.
Add jaggery and turn down the flame to medium. Otherwise it will start sticking to the bottom of the wok quickly.
Keep mixing together until they form a lump.
Take a very small portion out of it and try to make a ball. If it forms a fine crack free ball, your filling is done.
Remember it’s too hot now. Apply little ghee on your palm to avoid burning.
Add cardamom powder or crushed cardamom. Give it a light stir. Remove the pan from fire and keep aside.
Let it cool just for few mins. Make very small balls out of it while it’s still warm. (I skipped this step as I was already running out of time.)
Now take a large bowl and shift the flour in it.
Make a well in the center and fill it with the oil.
Add semolina and salt with it. Mix them together such a way that it looks like crumbles.
Now add warm water little by little and keep mixing. Don’t add too much water at a time as it will make the mixture runny and you will be in trouble. Try to add small portion of water at a time and keep mixing.
Knead well until it forms soft dough. Keep the dough covered with a wet kitchen towel for 1 hr. Don’t let it dry.
After 1 hr. knead the dough again with light pressure. It will help you to release the air bubbles ( if any).
Make 18-20 small balls. (You can adjust the number according to your desired size of the balls. But don’t make the size too big, it will be difficult to deep fry them later.)
Roll each ball into a flat circle. (Like we do for rotis or indian flat breads). There is no need to make it perfect circle.
Put small portion of filling in the center.
Now start pleating the edge of the circle like shown below.
Now seal the top by pinching little.
Follow the same for rest flour balls.
Add enough oil in wok to deep fry. For deep frying temperature of the oil is very important. Check the right temperature by adding a tiny ball of the dough in the hot oil. If it sizzles and floats immediately, turn down the flame to medium-low and start adding modaks.
Fry all the modaks batch by batch. Don’t add more than 4/5 modaks at a time. As a result temperature of the oil will drop suddenly and modaks will be rubbery in texture.
Finally, I’m done with my Fried Modaks. Now it’s your turn. Try some to please Lord Ganesha or just yourself, both will be extremely happy 🙂
Ganpati Bappa Morya!
Mangal Murti Morya!!!
simplyy loved it..!! awesome recipie! 😀
wow! This is great post.I like this post. Many many thanks for this post. I was not aware of this cooking method. I love the food at all difficult to handle temptation. Thank's for sharing.