Ukadiche Modak / Kozhakattai

Come Ganesh Chaturti and my hubby starts fantasizing about modaks or kozhakattai as they call it in Tamil. My mom makes them with a sugar-coconut stuffing but my MIL makes it with a jaggery-coconut stuffing. So, i eventually end up making both :) .....More modaks were never a bad thing eh! :D Enjoy the recipe.


Stuffing:

Ingredients:

1) 1 cup grated fresh/frozen coconut (not dried coconut)
2) 3/4th cup sugar/jaggery
3) 1/2 teaspoon cardomom powder


Directions:

Heat a pan and start warming up the coconut. Once it is warmed up (not screaming hot/burning), add the sugar/jaggery and heat till it melts and mixes with the coconut. Turn off the gas/burner and add in the cardamom powder and mizx thoroughly. Let it rest for a few minutes

Modak Covering :

Ingredients:

1) 1 cup rice flour
2) 1 cup water
3) 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Add salt to water and boil. Once it is boiling with bubbles rising, add the rice flour to it and stir continuously while the heat is still on. The objective is to cook the rice flour a little and you can see that it is cooked when it stop looking like four and starts looking more like dough. Get the dough off the heat and dump it onto a working surface. The trick is to start kneading it while it is still hot. If you are scared of burning it wait a couple of minutes. Oil yours hands a little before you start kneading to prevent it from sticking to your hands.


Modak making procedure: Make a ball half the size of a tt ball and flatten it into a circular disk. Place a spoonful of the coconut mixture into the dish and try closing in the ends of the circular disk. Once you have them together, mould the top to be pointy and place aside. Keep your hands well oiled to prevent sticking.

Now place all the modaks into a steamer and steam until the outer covering turns translucent. Eat with some ghee if you aren't on a diet. Enjoy!!!