Welcome the Elephant God with a healthy dry fruit modak.

Recipe by Chef Vijesh Modi, Senior Sous Chef, The Deltin, Daman.

Ingredients:

• 400 gm seedless dates
• 100 gm almonds
• 100 gm cashew nuts
• 100 gm walnuts
• 100 gm raisins
• 100 gm dry coconut
• 30 gm poppy seeds (khus khus)
• 1 tsp ghee

Method:

• Chop cashew nuts, almonds and walnuts. Finely chop seedless dates and dry coconut pieces. Dry roast the chopped nuts one by one separately for 1-2 minutes taking care to see that they do not get burnt. Remove from heat and keep aside in a plate.
• Dry roast the coconut pieces until they turn slight brown in colour. Keep aside. In the same pan add poppy seeds and roast slightly until they start popping. Remove from heat and keep aside.
• Heat ghee in the same pan and add chopped dates and raisins. Fry continuously till it becomes a thick mass. This takes 4-5 minutes roughly. Do not leave it unattended as the raisins might get burnt. Switch off the flame and let it cool slightly.
• Grind the roasted nuts, dry coconut pieces and poppy seeds to a coarse powder. Remove the mixture and keep aside in a plate.
• Add the date-raisin mixture and pulse it in the mixer to get a coarse mixture. Add coarsely ground nuts and mix well. Place on flame and stir continuously for 2-3 minutes until the mixture becomes slightly sticky and holds the dry fruit mixture nicely.
• Remove the mixture into a plate and let it cool slightly. Press the mixture to form a sticky mass. Make gooseberry sized balls out of it and place them in a modak mould to get modak shaped laddoo. Prepare all the modaks and store in an air tight container.