We usher in the new year with a lot of hope and happiness. The Hindu God 'Ganesh', is known to remove all the obstacles from our lives and is called Vignaharta. We always pray to the Lord Ganesh at all auspicious occassions and at the start of any significant event. Modaks or sweet dumplings are his favorite food. This is made in odd numbers of 11, 21 or 51.

This year i made them as a token of thanks and to pray to the Lord to be ever so merciful.

So here goes the traditional recipe of sweet steamed dumplings...
For Filling
Coconut scrapped 1 cup

Heat ghee in a pan. Add jaggery to it and wait for it to get syrup consistency. Keep stirring so it does not burn. Stir for 5-7 minutes. Add grated coconut and mix on slow flame. Mix for another 5 minutes till the mixture thickens. Add in cardamom powder and remove from stove. Filling is ready.

For the cover
Rice 1 cup
Milk 1 tbspn
Oil 1/2 a cup
Water

Soak the rice for 20 minutes. Drain the water and grind the rice with few tbspns of water. Make the batter to dosa texture. Add salt and 2 spoons of milk to it.

Heat a pan and add in few tspns of oil. Put the batter in it and stir the batter till it leaves the sides and thickens. This will become like a thick roll. Takes about 6-8 minutes.

Remove from stove and put in a plate to cool. Wait for 4-5 minutes and knead well like chapati dough. Add in few tspns of oil and knead. Now wrap the dough in a wet handkerchief or muslin cloth. This is the secret to keep the dough from cracking. Also the dough will remain white and soft.


Now steam all modaks for 15 minutes. Offer to Ganapati and enjoy the blessed modaks. Modaks are steamed and hence very healthy, so dont stop yourself from gulping them down !!