Fresh off my successful Modak making experience, I hunted around for more kinds of stuffed dough – sweet filling foods. I had left over shira (Suji ka halwa in Hindi) from Thursday and some pizza dough from Whole Foods in the refrigerator.I sectioned my pizza dough into 8 parts, lugged out my little used panini press and stuffed the shira and cooked them with some olive oil brushed on both sides. They turned out remarkably well – a bit like stuffed pita – the pizza dough puffed out gratifyingly and ended up chewy inside and crispy outside. Perfect!
Ukdiche Modak (translated to sweet rice flour coconut and jaggery dumplings) are Lord Ganesha’s favorite food. Naturally, when he visits our homes during the 10 days of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, we make some for him. This is my version (there are as many versions as there are Maharashtrian households)
Recipe makes 12 Modak- if you double them, make the dough in batches. This dough is unworkable once it’s cold.
Filling
Heat 2 tbsp ghee, add 1 6 oz packet of grated frozen coconut (Birds eye is the only one I use- it tastes just like fresh coconut)
Roast coconut till it turns slightly dry
Add 1/8 cup of jaggery (unprocessed sugar-available in the Indian store or online), ½ tsp of ground cardamom and 1/8 cup chopped cashews.
(You can add poppy seeds, raisins, saffron and use 1/8 cup of sugar in place of the jaggery if needed)
Cook for 5 minutes on low heat and cool completely
Ukad or dumpling dough:
Boil 1 cup water with 1tsp salt and 1 tsp ghee.
Add 1 cup rice flour, mix
Remove from heat and cover for 2 min
Knead on medium in your stand mixer for 3 minutes
Divide into 12 pieces. Make dumplings in Modak shape with 2 tsp of filling in each Modak
Delhi Girl Meets Food 