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!