A Modak is a sweet dumpling very popular in western and southern India. Modak has a special importance in the worship of the Hindu Elephant god, Ganesha. In India, Modak is considered to be the favourite food of God Ganesha, hence it is a age long ritual of making modak and offering them on the auspicious day of Ganesh Chaturthi. It is ritual of offering 11 or 21 modaks to the God Ganesha as "Naivedya".
Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated all over India, but it is celebrated with much enthuthiasm in Maharashtra where idols of Ganesha is brought home and the house and mandap( place where the idol is sitted) is decorated and people are invited to pray and take prasadhams. In Public places too large idols as long as 10 ft is sitted which is open to everyone irrespective of religion. The visarjan usually lasts as per people's preference . Some bid goodbye in 1 and half day, some for 5 days and some worship till the Ananth Chaturthi which falls on the 11th day after Ganesh chaturthi. During this period, the festival is celebrated with much enthuthiasm and happiness. And Modak is offered to the god and the people visiting him.
There are different kinds of Modak, but Ukadiche modak called as "Rice Modak" is considered the favourite of the God Ganesh. Hence, Ukadiche Modak is a must among many hindus on the first day "Ganesh Chaturthi".
Apart from Ukadiche Modak, there are different kinds of modak like Meva modak, Kaju Modak, Ghavan (which is prepared in konkan belt), Mango Modak etc. This Ukadiche Modak is a steamed rice modak, but there are some modaks which can be deep fried too. But do check the calories. Most of them prefer steamed modak, since it tastes declicious.
A Modak is called Modak in Marathi in Maharashtra, Modhaka in Kannada (karnataka), Modhakam in Tamil(in TamilNadu) and Kolukattai in Telugu (in Andhra Pradesh). The sweet filling is made of fresh coconut and jaggery the shell is of rice floor. The dumpling can be fried or steamed. But is would like to suggest you to go for steamed modaks, they are really delicious. Modaks can be prepared with the help of our hands, where the dough which is made from rice is shaped into cups and the puran is stuffed inside and the edges are closed like a potli. Or even a modak maker can be used which are easily available in stores. Use the modak makers which is a small mould which is used to shape the modaks. Just fill this mould with dough, with a hole in centre of it where the stuffing would be kept and then seal it from the bottom with dough. I have used modak moulds for making the modaks, since i love the shapes which it gives them. So here is the recipe for ukadiche modak, a favourite of Ganesha and kids.




Indregients:
For the dough (outer covering):
Rice or Rice Flour (Tandul Pithi) – 2 big bowls (heaped)...Read the method below for making the rice flour, or else rice flour available in market can be used.
Salt (meeth) – 1/4 tspn
Water – 2 big bowls
Clarified ghee – 2-3 tbsps.


For the stuffing (puran):
Grated Coconut (Khislela Naral/Nariyal khisa) – 2 big bowls
Jaggery crushed (Gul) – 1 1/2 big bowls
Cardamom powder ( Velchi) – 1 tspn.



Method:
For the dough:

1. Clean, wash and drain rice thoroughly.
2. Dry completely by spreading on an absorbent sheet of cloth. Use a clean Cotton towel for absorbing.
   
3. Grind dried to a fine powder. Pass it through a fine sieve. Seive it twice to get fine flour.
   
4. Bring one and a quarter cups of water to boil in a pan, add salt and ghee to it.
5. Turn off the flame and add the rice flour in a flow, stirring continuously to prevent lumps from forming.
6. Remove the pan from heat and keep it covered for ten to fifteen minutes. Place a wet cloth over it to prevent it from drying.
7. Grease your palms with a little oil and knead the cooked rice mixture to a soft dough. Knead to make a soft dough with a smooth finish which will give a shiny look.
8. Keep covered with a moist cloth. The pic below shows how the dough would look like when is how the dough would look like when kneeded.

For the stuffing:

1. Take grated coconut and jaggery together in a bowl and mix it well.
2. After combing them well, place a pan on heat and cook on medium heat for one or two minutes or till light golden brown.
3. Keep stirring them . After 10-15 min jaggery will start melting. Then add cardamom powder and stir well.
4. The mixture will start changing colour and become sticky; this means your mixture is ready.
5. Ensure that it is not overcooked. Remove it from flame and cool it slightly.
6. This is how the stuffing also called puran would look like when it is cooked. See the pic below.
   

For Making The Modaks:

1. Divide the coconut mixture into ten to twelve equal sized portions.
2. Divide the dough into ten to twelve lemon sized balls.
3. Now, take 2 -3 drops of oil and greese the palms well so that the modak can be made easily without any stickiness at hands.
4. With greased palms flatten each ball to form discs of three inches diameter.
5. Place a portion of coconut and jaggery mixture in the centre, form eight to ten pleats with fingers, gather them together to form a bundle and seal the edges at the top.
6. Or try to make bowls and place the stuffing, use the way you feel most convenient. For bowl method, try to make small bowl like shapewith the dough.
7. The sides of the bowl should be very thin and then make as many pleats as you can.
8. Place some stuffing into it and start gathering the pleats together in the centre.
9. Or for one more easiest method, opt for modak moulds which is available in stores. Just stuff some dough into the mould and with the help of fingers create some space for the stuffing the middle (the mould has a hole at the bottom, place the fingers into it to shape them like a mould within). The outer cover should be thin, so use greased fingers and press with the walls of the moulds and stuff the purans into it. Cover the bottom with some dough and remove it from the mould. Usually the edges of mould is joined with nails, where one is kept open to remove the modaks from the mould.
10. The below pic is just taken before it was removed from mould and was about to be steamed. You can the notice that this modak are not shiny, but the steamed modaks come out shiny and looks beautiful.
    

The Steames Modaks:

1. Now steam modaks you made in a pressure cooker(1/4th full water) without the whistle on. Or use a idli cooker too.
   
2. Just use a strainer with flat base which fits on your cooker and keep a fine cloth to place the modaks.
3. Steam them for 10-12 minutes.
4. It will look shiny when it is steamed. Look the pic below for the steamed modak. The edges too looks smooth when steamed.
   
5. Serve modak when hot with ghee, but dont forget to offer it first to God Ganesha.
   

Preparation Time: 1 hour
Cooking Time: 20 -30 minutes
Serves: 4 persons, makes about 12 -16 modaks
Shelflife: 1 day
Serving Suggestion:Serve Hot with ghee or without ghee as per choice.



Note:

• Apply oil or ghee before kneading and also while making modak.
• You can use idli steamer for steaming the modak. Before placing them in cooker for steaming deep them in water, as they wont crack.
• Make sure you keep the prepared modaks (before steaming) moist by using wet cloth to cover them else they will dry.
• In the pressure cooker you can use a banana leaf instead of cloth. Even turmeric leaf can be used, it gives a good aroma to modaks.

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Kheer is a traditional Indian sweet. Kheer may be called as Rice pudding in English. In India , Kheer is given high importance than any other food. It is symbolic to festive food and special occassions. Kheer is considered good luck in various as per indian values. There is saying called "Muh meeta karlo, Subh kaam shuru karlo" which signifies the importance of sweets in India.
Basically Kheer is a sweet dish basically made of rice, milk and sugar or jaggery as its main ingredients with added flavours of nuts which is also used for decoration.

The preparation of Kheer starts with boiling the milk and reducing it or skimming it, followed by adding nuts and sweetener. In India and its sub-continent, Kheer is used in major festivals in every religion. For instance, Hindus prepare it during Diwali, Holi , Karwa Chouth etc.. and muslims prepare it for Rajjab and Ramzan. Parsis Prepare a different kind of rice kheer for Novroze. Kheer is called Payasam in South India, Kheeri in Orissa, Khir in East India , Kheer is North India, Payesh in Bengal and Payasa in Some south eastern parts of India.

There are different kinds of Kheer like
1. Rice Kheer 2. Phirni 3.Gajrella (Carrot Kheer) 4. Lauki Ki Kheer 5. Zafrani Kheer (Saffron Rice Kheer) 6.Gur ki Kheer (jaggery Kheer) 7. Fruit Kheer.




Ingredients:
Cooked Rice - 1 cup
Whole Milk - 2 cups
Sugar - 3 tbsp or to taste
Raisins - 1 tbsp
Chopped Pistachios - 1 tbsp
Chopped Almonds - 1 tbsp
Powdered Cardamom - 1/8 tsp
Saffron - a pinch.



Method:

1. In a heavy bottomed pan, on medium heat, add in the the Milk and the Rice.
2. Grind the Saffron with a little bit of Sugar and add it to the Milk.
3. Meanwhile, soak the Raisins in a little bit of water to help puff them up.
4. Keep stirring the pan and make sure it does not burn at the bottom.
5. Cook till it is of desired thickness.
6. Once it reaches the desired thickness, add in the Sugar. Mix well.
7. Add in the Dry fruits - Raisins (without the water), Pistachios and the Almonds.
8. Turn off the flame and add in the Powdered Cardamom.
9. Serve hot or cold.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves : 4 persons
Shelflife: 1 day
Serving suggestion: Serve hot or chilled as per choice.



Note:

• If you are making the rice just for the Kheer, over cook the rice just a little.
• This is a great recipe if you don’t have a lot of time but alternatively, you can add in raw rice and cook it in the milk and it tastes great. But be very careful and and keep stirring frequently.
• If you like a smoother texture of rice in the kheer, just mash it lightly before adding it to the Milk.
• If you are cooking in Microwave , then cook it at 850W after mixing milk, rice, cardamom, sugar and saffron in microwave proof dish.Then add some heated ghee and nuts and further cook for 10 minutes.
  

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The method of pouring Jalebis is shown below. This method is usually seen in shops and according to the mithaiwalas, this gives the batter smoothest flow. The man in the pic has used a cloth with hole at the centre of it and poured the batter in hot oil in coiled shape.




Jalebi or Jilebi is a deep fried Indian sweet which is popular not only in India but also in its neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and few other countries like Morocco and others. Jalebi was initially named as zalebi but the alphabet got replaces to 'J' instead of "Z". Jalebi was introduced during the Mughal era under the Muslim rule and was widely spread all ober middle east countries.
Jalebi is a traditional sweet which was first started from Uttar Pradesh, which is its birth place then got spread everywhere. Jalebi is a deep fried Indian sweet which is later soaked in sugar syrup with a touch of natural colouring ingredient called Kesar to add a ectastic look to it which makes it look orange or yellowish in colour. It looks like a coil and is usally large in shape but goes melting in mouth and leaves you drooling after having tasted once. It is served warm or cold. It ihas chewy like texture and is coated with crystalized sugar from outer side. There is a similar sweet called Imarti which is slightly different from it, which is also made in Uttar pradesh. But unlike jalebi, its coiled beautifully like a knitted design. Jalebis is Orissa are made of chenna (which is a dairy product). You can find them in my blog, i have posted oriya style jalebis in my blog in the name of Chhena Jalebi.
Intresting this sweet is popular in Govt offices where it is offered during Independence day and Republic day.
I came across few facts about Jalebi( through Surfing) which i would like share with everyone. The Persian word for jalebi is "Zoolbiah". In Maldives its "Zilebi, in Nepal its "jeri " or "jahangiri after the moghul emperor Jehangir in whose era Jalebi was prepared.




Ingredients:
For Jalebi Batter:
2 cups All purpose flour (maida)
11/2 tbsp fine grained semolina or rice flour or gram flour
1/4th tsp baking powder
2 tbsp curd (plain yogurt)
11/4th cups warm water.

For Sugar Syrup:
1/2 tsp saffron threads, slowly dry-roasted and powdered (or soaked in little amount of milk)
3 cups sugar
22/3rd cups water
1/2 tsp green cardamom seeds powder
11/2 tbsp kewra water or rose water
Ghee or vegetable oil for frying.



Method:

1. Mix the flour, semolina or rice flour, baking powder, curd and 3/4th cup of the water in a bowl (preferably a ceramic bowl). Mix well with a whisk.
2. Mix well and then add remaining water and 1/8th tsp. of saffron powder, and whisk until smooth.
3. Whisk them till it is of free flowing consistency.
4. Set aside for about 2 hours to ferment.
5. Whisk thoroughly before use. That is again whisk it before deep frying them.
6. Prepare one string syrup by dissolving sugar in the water.
7. Just before the syrup is ready add saffron and cardamom powder.
8. Heat oil in a kadai.
9. Take a pressable plastic bottle with a nozzle or place a hole at the top of it. Use this for making jalebis. Even coconut shell with a hole can also be used. Or a plastic cone with a nozzle can be used for the same.
10. Pour Batter with the help of the bottle in the kadai. Pour slowly and one by one. Pour them in the shape of coil. (see pic2)
    
11. Make just few at a time.
12. Deep fry them until they are golden and crisp all over but not brown.
13. Remove from the kadhai and drain on kitchen paper and immerse in the syrup.
14. Leave for at least 4-5 minutes so that they soak the syrup.
15. Take the jalebi out of syrup and serve hot.It can be served warm too. Enjoy the tempting delicious Jalebis.

Preparation Time: 2 and half hours.
Cooking Time: 25 minutes.
Serves: 4 persons, makes 16-18 jalebis.
Shelflife: upto 2 days.
Serving Suggestion: Enjoy it hot during monsoons and enjoy then warm during any time.



Note:

• The pouring consistency of batter should be smooth and free flowing.
• These days jalebis bottles are available in market, or else you can use sauce bottle with a hole at the top of it for pouring the batter.
• Garnishing can be added with few strings of kesar strings and finely chopped Badams.

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