Recipe

Modak
(मोदक)

Recipe Contributed By: Anupriya Sinha, Pune

 Ingredients

For the dough
Basmati rice flour - 1 cup
Water - 1.5 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Ghee - 1/2 tsp

For the filling
Freshly grated coconut - 2 cup
Gud (गुड़, I use Khajoor gud) - 1 cup
Green cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

 Method of Preparation

1. For the filling, heat a kadai and roast grated coconut for a minute.

2. Add gud and break it, so that it melts quickly.

3. Keep stirring the mixture till it dries up a bit, and you get a non sticky filling. Let it cool.

4. To prepare the dough, boil water in a kadai, add salt and ghee.

5. Add rice flour to the boiling water slowly, stirring it continuously, so that there are no lumps.

6. Gather the dough thus formed and knead it thoroughly, with oiled hands. Let cool.

7. Divide the dough into desired number of parts and make smooth balls.

8. Flatten each ball, with hands and fill the coconut-gud mixture.

9. Fold it to make modak like shape. Oil hands so that the dough does not stick to your hands. This would give a smooth surface to the modaks too.

10. Using toothpicks*, press and make the design on these modaks.

11. Steam these modaks in a steamer, lined with a wet muslin cloth for almost 30 minutes or till the covering sets well.

12. Take out the modaks from the steamer and let cool.

13. Serve as a dessert on special occasions.

 Notes and Tips