Modak season begins: four ways to make Bappa's favourite sweet at home this week
Ganesh Chaturthi falls on Monday, 14 September this year, and across Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and beyond, kitchens are already stocking rice flour, fresh coconut and jaggery. The modak, a sweet dumpling regarded as Lord Ganesha's favourite offering, is the centrepiece of the festival's prasad, and this year's trend, according to a Deccan Chronicle feature published on 11 September, is firmly towards making it at home rather than buying from sweet shops.
The classic: ukadiche modak
The traditional Maharashtrian version is steamed. The outer shell is made by cooking rice flour in hot water with a pinch of salt and a little ghee until it forms a soft dough. The filling combines grated fresh coconut with jaggery, cooked down with cardamom and a touch of nutmeg until it holds together. Small portions of the dough are pressed into cups, filled, pleated closed at the top and steamed for about ten minutes. A spoon of warm ghee poured over the modak before eating is considered essential.
The Deccan Chronicle feature draws its recipes from celebrity chef Ranveer Brar, whose versions keep the classic proportions but stress that the dough must be kneaded while still warm to avoid cracking.
Fried modak for longer shelf life
Where steamed modaks are best eaten the same day, the fried variety keeps for several days, which is why many families make it in bulk for guests over the ten-day festival. The shell is a stiffer dough of wheat flour or refined flour with a little ghee, filled with the same coconut-jaggery mixture, sealed and deep-fried on a medium flame until golden. Some cooks add roasted poppy seeds or chopped nuts to the filling for texture.
For the children: chocolate modak
Fusion modaks have moved from novelty to staple over the past few years. The chocolate version is the simplest of the lot: condensed milk is heated with milk powder and cocoa powder until it thickens into a fudge-like mass, then pressed into greased modak moulds while still warm. No steaming or frying is needed, and the mixture sets within an hour. Marathi dailies this week have listed as many as ten variations, from Oreo to dry-fruit, aimed at younger devotees.
Mawa modak
The mawa or khoya modak sits between the traditional and the modern. Crumbled milk solids are cooked briefly with sugar, cardamom and a few strands of saffron, cooled slightly and shaped in moulds. It is rich, keeps for two to three days refrigerated, and is popular in north Indian homes where rice-flour modaks are less common.
A few practical tips
Modak moulds in plastic and brass are widely available this week in local markets and online, and make pleating far easier for beginners. Fresh coconut gives a noticeably better filling than desiccated coconut. And if you plan to offer modaks as naivedya on Chaturthi morning, the steamed version should be made that day, while fried and mawa modaks can be prepared a day or two ahead.
Whatever the variety, the tradition is to offer 21 modaks to the deity before the family eats. Ganpati Bappa Morya.