Make your annual modak binge-fest exciting with these fun recipes courtesy Maharaj Jodharam Choudhary, corporate chef, Khandani Rajdhani, a chain of thali restaurants serving Rajasthani food.
The chocolate-infused Bounty Modak is stuffed with a sweetened coconut and chocolate syrup is drizzled over it before serving.
Make the Motichoor Modak from scratch with homemade boondi dipped in sugar syrup.
This recipe for Coconut Modak is a cute twist on the classic nariyal laddoo.
Photographs: Kind courtesy Khandani Rajdhani
Chocolate Bounty Modak
Servings: 6-8 pieces
Ingredients
For the outer covering
- 1 cup or around 200 gm rice flour
- 1½ cups water
- 1 tsp ghee or oil
- Salt to taste
- 10 gm cocoa powder
- Oil for greasing the plate
For the filling
- 100 gm fresh grated coconut
- 50 gm sugar
- 2 gm green elaichi or cardamom powder
For the garnish
- Chocolate sauce, to serve
- Chopped pistachios
Method
For the outer covering
- Boil the water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
Add a pinch of salt and the ghee or oil.
Once the water comes to a boil, reduce heat and add the cocoa and rice flour, one tbsp at a time.
Mix well.
Take off heat and keep the saucepan covered for 4-5 minutes.
Place the rice dough on a plate/thali and knead it well.
The dough will be very hot when you start kneading, so rub some water on your palms and then knead.
If the dough looks too dense, add few more teaspoons hot water and knead.
Make small lime-sized balls out of the dough.
Place the balls on a plate and cover with a damp cloth.
The balls should be smooth, without any cracks.
For the filling
- Place a heavy-bottomed kadhai or pan over low heat and add all the filling ingredients.
- Once the sugar melts, take off heat and let it cool.
Keep aside.
For making the modak
- Place a steamer with water over medium-low heat.
- While the water is heating in the steamer, grease the palms of your hands and flatten each ball to give it the shape of a tiny bowl.
Press the edges to reduce the thickness.
- Place a portion of the stuffing in the centre, pleat the edges of the dough and gather them together to form a potli or bundle.
- Once all the modaks are ready, place on a greased perforated plate in the steamer and steam for 10-12 minutes.
- Take off heat, drizzle with chocolate sauce and garnish with chopped pistachios before serving.
Motichoor Modak
Servings: 6-8 pieces
Ingredients
- 1 bowl besan or gram flour
- 1½ bowl sugar
- 1½ bowl water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- ½ tsp green elaichi or cardamom powder
- 1 tbsp chopped pista
- Few strands of kesar or saffron
- Oil or ghee, to fry
Method
- Combine the gram flour along with half bowl of the water to make a thin batter of flowing consistency.
Make sure there are no lumps.
Add 1 tbsp oil and whisk it for 5-7 minutes to get a fluffy batter.
- Warm up the ghee or oil in a heavy-bottomed kadhai or wok over medium heat.
Once the oil/ghee is hot, place a big round spoon with multiple small holes or perforated spatula (jhara) over the kadhai and pour the batter through it.
Fry the boondis for 5-7 minutes and drain excess oil.
Transfer onto a tissue or paper towel-lined plate and keep aside.
- In another heavy-bottomed pan, heat 1 bowl of the water.
Add the sugar and boil for 10-15 minutes over medium heat and keep stirring till it dissolves and a one-thread syrup (please see the note below) is formed.
Add the cardamom powder, chopped pista and saffron. Stir and remove from heat.
Add the fried boondi into the sugar syrup and keep it aside for 10-15 minutes to cool and thicken.
- Spoon out some boondi and using your palms shape into a modak.
First roll it into a ball and then shape the top like an inverted cone (please see the pic above).
Repeat for the balance mixture.
If you have a mould, stuff it with the boondimixture, press tight, shut and then release it. Repeat.
- Serve warm.
Note: A one-thread syrup is sugar syrup viscous enough to pass the one-thread test.
It is important to keep testing for consistency while the sugar syrup is boiling.
The test for this is: Dip a spatula, preferably wooden, into the boiling sugar syrup and take out.
Some syrup would have coated the spatula.
Let it cool.
Touch the cooled syrup with your forefinger. Some syrup will come onto your finger.
Touch that with your thumb and separate thumb from forefinger.
When one little continuous delicate thread is formed by the syrup, when the coated forefinger is pulled away from your thumb, you have one-thread consistency sugar syrup.
Coconut Modak
Servings: 6-8 pieces
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh grated coconut + extra for garnish
- 200 gm mava or milk solid, crumbled
- 1 cup sugar
- Seeds of 4 pods of green elaichi or cardamom
- 2 tbsp ghee
Method
- In a mixer jar combine the cardamom and sugar. Grind until the sugar is powdered.
Keep aside.
- Heat the ghee in a heavy-bottomed kadhai or wok placed over medium heat.
Once the ghee melts and the wok starts to smoke, reduce the heat and add the grated coconut.
Keep stirring until there is no moisture left in the coconut and it is dry and changing colour.
Add the crumbled mava and powdered sugar-elaichi mixture.
Keep stirring until the mava and sugar have thoroughly combined with the coconut.
Do not add any water or milk to melt the sugar or mava as it will affect the consistency of the modaks.
Over low heat keep stirring all the ingredients until the mixture starts to combine and the ghee begins to separate.
Take off heat and transfer to a bowl. Allow it to cool a little.
Before the mixture cools completely, start shaping it into modaks.
If you are using a modak mould, spread it out evenly in the mould, shut and release.
Repeat for the rest of the mixture.
Garnish with fresh coconut and serve warm.