Modaks: For the God who loves food

Hyderabad: The idols are ready to be bought and the markets are already full of flowers, fruits and every other puja necessity. Ganesh Chaturthi is here. Like every other festival, the food is one of the highlights. This time too, we bring you recipes, but with a slight twist.

MODAKS - (By Nagalakshmi, blogger at ediblegarden.com)

Ingredients

• ¾ cup of raw rice powder
• 1 ¼ cup of water, more or less
• ¼ tsp of salt
• ½  cup of jaggery
• ½  cup of grated coconut
• 2 tsp of ghee
• ¼ tsp of cardamom powder

Method

First make the filling. Heat a pan and add a tsp of ghee. Add the grated coconut and jaggery and mix well until it begins to roast a bit. It will take about 8-10 minutes to reach this stage. Keep mixing and add cardamom powder before turning off the heat. Set aside and allow to cool. Meanwhile, boil 1 cup of  water with ¼ tsp salt in it. Once it boils, turn off the heat and add the ¾ cup rice flour, mixing as you do so. Make sure no lumps are formed and mix well until you get a soft dough. Start with 1 cup water and keep adding a few drops as you mix until you get the desired consistency. Let this mixture cool down a bit until you can handle it. Don’t let it cool completely, or else the dough will become dry. Depending on how this comes out, your modaks can turn hard or soft or crack while they are steamed. Roll the filling into small balls and set aside. Take a lime-sized portion of the rice dough, form a ball by greasing your hands with the ghee, and flatten on your palm. Make sure it’s not too thin. Cover the filling with the rice dough as uniformly as you can. Once covered, make a smooth ball (just using the fingertips of one hand). Once done, steam it for about 10-15 minutes until ready. Make sure, you don’t steam it for more than 15-minutes or it could turn hard.

UNDRALLU - (Prashanthi, blogger at yummilyyours.com)

The undrallu can be eaten after they are steamed as well, or you can go ahead and sauté them in a coconut-coriander mixture

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 ¾cup water
• 4 tsp oil
• Salt to season
• ¼ tsp mustard seeds
• 1 green chilli (can be substituted with paprika or black pepper)
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander
• 1/8 cup coconut
• ¼ cup green peas
• Salt to taste

Method

Sift the rice flour to make sure there are no lumps. In a pan, add water, oil and salt and let it boil. Now add the flour to it. Do not mix or distribute. Just add the flour in a pile and let it cook on medium heat for 5-7 minutes. Turn off the heat. Now, mix the flour. Let it cool for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a ziploc bag or cover it with cling wrap and knead well. Make small marbles with the dough and steam them for 10 minutes. Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. Once they begin to crackle, add the green peas. Meanwhile, blend the coconut, green chilli, salt and coriander  together and set aside. When the peas turn soft and start to break into tiny pieces, add the blended coconut-coriander mix. Add it to the steamed flour marbles and sauté for about 5 minutes.

DATES AND SESAME POORNALU

Ingredients For the batter

• ½ cup rice flour
• ½ cup all purpose flour
• A pinch of salt
• Water

For the stuffing

• ½ cup pitted dates
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2-3 tbsp fine sugar (optional — only if the dates are not sweet enough)
• Oil for deep frying

Method

Finely chop the dates into tiny pieces. Dry roast the sesame seeds until the rawness is gone and till it turns light golden brown in colour. Cool and grind coarsely. In a bowl, mix dates, sesame seed mixture and sugar (if using). Make small balls out of them. In a mixing bowl, add the ingredients listed for the batter — flour, rice flour, little salt and sufficient water to make a thick batter. Heat oil for deep frying. Dip each of the date-sesame balls in the batter and carefully drop in the oil. Reduce heat to low and fry for few minutes until golden brown. Serve hot.