Instant Modak (ମୋଦକ)

Modak (ମୋଦକ) is offered to Ganesha during the Ganesh festival.  There are several different varieties of modaks, fried, steamed and a whole genre of fillings. Coconut is the most popular filling. I call my recipe instant modak coz it's very easy and simple to make. Most of the time I'm also constrained to the kind of ingredients I have at hand. I usually buy frozen shredded coconut to use in my recipes and I've used the frozen kind in this recipe, although there is no denying the taste of fresh coconut. The modak has two components, one the filling and then the outer covering. The outer covering can be made out of wheat flour or all purpose flour and the inner filling is usually made out of coconut, jaggery, or sometimes lentils. 

I like it when desserts take less time to make coz then you can eat them sooner than later. Life is short, who wants to wait for dessert right? ;) 

So here goes ...

PREP TIME	COOKING TIME	SERVES
5 minutes	20 minutes	Makes 7 - 8 medium sized Modaks

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients	Quantity
All purpose Flour	1 cup
Jaggery/Sugar - adjust the quantity based on your sweet cravings ;)	10 Tablespoon
Shredded Coconut	1/2 cup
Ghee	3 - 4 Tablespoon
Cardamom powder (Elaichi powder)	1 Teaspoon

PREP

• If you are using fresh coconut, shred them and keep them aside
• The kind of jaggery I get is usually comes in big pieces so I ground it to powder. I put the jaggery in a plastic bag and use a hammer to powder it down

PROCEDURE

• For the filling: In a small bowl, add your shredded coconut, powdered jaggery and elaichi (cardamom) powder. Mix and put it in the microwave for 10 seconds. This will met the jaggery a bit and makes it easy to mix in with the coconut. 

• For the outer shell: Add a pinch of salt to the all purpose flour, add a little water and make a dough. Same consistency as you will to make chapatis. 

• Take a small amount of the dough and roll it out to make a small circle

• Add a little of the filling in the centre

• Take it in your palms now and start pinching in the edges, when you've made a few pleats, pinch them all together. 
• Heat oil in a frying pan, test the oil by putting a small piece of the dough in it. If the piece starts sizzling, your oil is ready
• Add the modaks and fry them till they're golden brown
• Your modaks are now ready to be devoured 

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

Eat Modak on it's own, it's more like a sweet dumpling :) 

Feedback and comments always welcome! 

DISCO BHAJA - VEGGIE SKINS SIDE DISH (ଡିସକୋ ଭଜା)

Disco Bhaja (ଡିସକୋ  ଭଜା) is a kind of a byproduct of of Janhi Aloo Posto. My mom was here this summer and she taught me this recipe. I can remember so many of my grandma's dishes where she would take the pain to make sure all grandchildren ate their vegetables. She would add tasty twists to regular vegetables to make them not taste like they look. I remember when I was a kid anything green was off limits, but my grand ma taught her tricks to my mom too so I ended up eating my greens. 

The day we made Janhi Aloo Posto , I peeled the ridge gourd and potatoes for the dish, just when I was about to throw away the peels, my mom said she knows a tasty way to re-use them. See, the whole idea of re-using, recycling, reducing waste is so amazing to me that I jumped at the suggestion and was pleasantly surprised to see the outcome. Also if you have ever eaten at a Odiya home, bhaja is an integral part of the meal, the local saying for a wholesome Odia meal is "cha tiana naa bhaja" - which means 6 curries and 9 side dishes. Yes, we odias spend a lot of time cooking and eating. 

Bhajas are side dishes and are often eaten with rice and daal. They are usually shallow fried and taste best when prepared and served fresh. Why this bhaja is called "disco" bhaja no one will know, it's my aunt's invention and maybe she felt like boogying when she made this so the name - Disco Bhaja :) 

So here goes recipe for disco bhaja....

PREP TIME	COOKING TIME	SERVES
5 minutes	10 minutes	2 - 3

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients	Quantity
Ridge Gourd Skins	peels from 1 ridge gourd
Potato Skins	peels from 2 potatoes
Chopped Onions	1 Medium
Chickpea Flour (Besan)	5 - 6 Tablespoon
Rice Flour	2 Tablespoon
Chopped Green Chillies	3 - 4
Salt	To Taste
Amchoor Powder	2 teaspoon
Oil	3 Tablespoon

PREP

• Peel ridge gourd and potatoes, it would be best if you make this bhaja along with janhi aloo posto so you have the peel handy

• Coarsely grind the potato and ridge gourd skins

PROCEDURE

• In a bowl, mix in the coarsely ground veggie peels, chickpea flour, rice flour, chopped onions, amchoor powder, chopped green chillies and salt

• Take a shallow pan and splash some oil onto it, you can always less oil to make it a tad more healthy

• When the pan is hot, place small blobs of the mixture and flatten them out a bit like in the picture below

• Toast each side until they're golden brown and cook on medium heat

• When both sides look golden brown, take it off the heat and serve hot with rice and daal.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

This bhaja goes really well with pakhala bhata :) and ofcourse rice and daal. 

Feedback and comments always welcome!