Sri
Vinayaka Chathurthi special recipes
Modak
| Ingredients |
Method |
|
100 gms. almonds
100 gms. pistachios
200 gms. sugar
1kg. powdered sugar
1 kg. khoya
4 drops of rose essence.
|
Put the khoya in a big and deep metal plate.
Add the powdered sugar and drops of essence of rose.
Mix together and knead together to make a soft dough.
Without blanching the almonds and pistachios, chop them into small bits.
Rub them and husk them.
Mix 200 gms. sugar in the chopped bits.
Lightly grease the palms, take out a small lump from the prepared dough of khoya, roll it in between the palms and shape into a ball.
Make a hollow in the middle of the ball and place about a teaspoonful of the almond-pistachios mixture.
Carefully pull up the sides and gather them at the top, giving it a conical shape.
When ready the modak should resemble a fresh fig, thus make all the modaks.
|
Sundal
| Ingredients |
Method |
|
500 gms. Channa
Coconut pieces - 1 cup
Red Chile - 4
Curry Leaves - 1 bunch
Salt
Oil - for seasoning
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
asafetida - 1 pinch
|
Soak Channa for 10 hours.
Cook in a cooker with salt.
Heat oil in kadai season with mustard seeds, curry leaves and red
chiles.
Put in the cooked channa and mix well.
Add the chopped coconut pieces.
|
Aval Urundai (puffed rice
laddus)
| Ingredients |
Method |
Aval (Puffed Rice) - 250 gms
Coconut (scraped) - 1 cup
Sugar - 100 gms
Elaichi - 1 - powdered
salt |
Soak puffed rice in water for 15 minutes. Squeeze out the puffed rice. Add salt, sugar, coconut and elaichi powder. Mix well.
Roll the mixture into
lemon
sized balls.
|
Kozhukattai
Kozhukattai, (Mothagam in Sanskrit) is the most favorite dish of Lord Ganesha. Ganesha is referred to as Mothagapriyan, denoting his liking for this sweet.
| Ingredients |
Method |
Rice Flour: 1 measure in a 200ml cup
Coconut: One coconut
Jaggery: 200 gms. |
For the outer cover:
Wash and soak raw rice for an hour.
Drain the water completely and spread the rice on a cloth and allow it to dry. The rice can be allowed to dry in the shade itself.
Grind the raw rice to a smooth flour.
For 1 measure of rice flour take 2 measures of water. Boil this water in a kadai (a shallow thick bottom vessel). Add a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of seasame oil.
Allow the water to boil. When the water starts boiling add the rice flour to this, stirring continuously without allowing any lumps to form.
When the mixture has formed into a smooth thick batter, remove from the fire. The batter must be thick enough like chappathi batter.
|
Alternatively... |
Soak raw rice for 2 hrs. Grind the rice into a smooth consistency, with water in a mixer grinder like a dosa batter.
Boil this batter adding a pinch of salt, stirring continously to make a smooth thick batter. |
For the filling... |
Grate fresh coconut.
Add a teaspoon of milk to the grated coconut and grind it in a mixer grinder lightly. (This is optional).
For one measure of grated coconut you need one measure of powdered jaggery.
Add a little water to the powdered jaggery and keep on low fire and stir for some time. When the jaggery has dissolved completely in water add grated coconut to this and keep stirring for some time. Then remove from fire and add powdered cardamoms to this. |
For the making
Kozhukattai cups... |
Smear your hands with a little seasame oil. Smoothen the prepared rice flour batter with your hands.
Make small balls (the size of a lemon).
Make cups out of these balls which is an art! If you can't get it, forget Kozhukattai!
Fill these cups with the prepared coconut-jaggery filling.
Put these filled up cups on an idli-plate and pressure cook
them
|
Anbarasi
M Singh |
