Modakam

I made modakam for first time for the Ganesha homam we did at our place. I thought they were really tough to make so I never tried....and I was correct;). But the mould I got from India came in as my life saver. I asked the recipe from one of our Tamil friend. To be frank they were very pretty to look at (coz of the mould) but taste wise little more jaggery would have been perfect. But overall not too bad for first time.


INGREDIENTS:
Rice flour: 2 cups
A pinch of salt

For filling:
Channa dhal: 1/2 cup
Jaggery
Elaichi: 3-4
Grated coconut: 1 table spoon

METHOD:
Filling: Pressure cook Channa dhal till it becomes soft and well smashed. Now melt the jaggery with very little water in microwave or stove and add Channa dhal + grounded elaichi + grated coconut. For me there was too much water in the boiled dhal, so the mixture came out to be very watery. So I kept the mix on medium flame on gas and kept stirring it till it became a very thick paste. The I made small balls out of this mixture.

Batter: Mix the rice flour and pinch of salt with water. The consistency is really important. Be care full even 3-4 drops of water makes it thin.

Now fill the mould with the rice flour batter and spread it inside the mould, so that all the walls are covered, now keep the filling ball in the center and seal it with little more rice flour batter. Then steam cook the mould in an idli cooker for 5min.