Pumpkin Modaka

Pumpkin Modaka or Pumpkin rice dumpling is a traditional Indian dish with a pumpkin twist !!! This sweet dish, prepared especially during Ganesh Chaturthi festival is considered very dear to Lord Ganesha and is thus offered to Him on his birthday – Ganesh Chaturthi. This #nosugar sweet dumpling is made with rice flour, pumpkin, jaggery and coconut as the main ingredients and thus is #glutenfree.

Ganesh Chathurthi is one of the high spirited and widely celebrated festivals in India which brings people from all communities together. No wonder that it is considered as the festival of the masses. People come together and prepare for the festivities much ahead of time, by arranging for pandals, decoration, music and a beautiful statue of Lord Ganesha, which is then installed, decorated, performed pooja upon, prasadam distributed, bhajans sung, and the list goes on. People forget all differences and come together, and spend time together for about 3 to 10 days and finally, bid a teary farewell to Lord Ganesha before immersing the idol in water.

As we all know, Lord Ganesha is very fond of sweets. And Modaka tops the list. Due to this very reason, he is dearly called as ‘Modakapriya’.

I am sure, most of the newbees in the world of cooking avoid preparing this dish with the sheer fear of not getting the shape of the modaka right. Well, I can totally understand and relate to it. But it certainly is not as difficult as it is considered to be. I would like to say it again, that if I can do it, so can you 🙂

Like with any other dish, I wanted to bring in a small difference in the traditional modaka preparation. Well, the autumn is the time when pumpkins are harvested. I thought, why not prepare modaka with pumpkin filling? Yes, it makes this sweet dumpling even more tastier and sweeter. A sweet dish with loaded with nutrition 🙂

Pumpkin seeds are high in nutrients. Do not discard them, after using the vegetable for the dish preparation. You can either cook them or sun dry, peel and consume the seeds raw.

Other dishes for Ganesh Chaturthi :
Karjijai|Karanji

Wishing all my dear friends celebrating the festival, a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi 🙂

Let‘s look into this simple yet delicious modaka recipe, with minimum and healthy ingredients :

Total Time: 40 minutes

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Makes: 14 -15

Main Ingredients:

Rice flour: 1.5 cup

Water: 2 cups

Salt: little

Ghee: 1 tbsp.

For filling/Stuffing:

Grated pumpkin: 1.5 cup

Grated fresh coconut: 1 cup

Jaggery: 0.75 cup

Cardamom: 5-6 (1/2 tsp. powdered)

Cashew nuts : 10 (Broken and ghee roasted)

Ghee: 1 tbsp.

Khuskhus / Poppy seeds: ½ tsp. (Dry roasted)

Quick Video:

Method:

Dry roast khuskhus / poppy seeds and keep aside
In a small pan, take a little ghee and fry broken cashew nuts until golden brown and keep aside
Heat ghee in a pan. Add pumpkin and saute until water evapourates (About 3 to 4 minutes)

Add grated coconut, jaggery, cardamom powder, poppy seeds and ghee roasted cashewnuts. Mix well and cook for about 3 to 6 minutes. (until jaggery melts and binds all the ingredients together). Remove from heat and keep aside

Heat a pan. Add 2 cups of water and bring it to boil. Now add rice flour and keep stirring. Add little salt and continue mixing until the water mixes well with the rice flour. Close the pan and let it cook under low heat for about 5 minutes

Remove from heat and transfer the contents to a glass bowl. Wet your hands / grease your palm with ghee and knead it well until it forms a smooth dough

In a steam cooker, take enough water and keep on heat (low flame)
Now, wet your hands again, take a small ball of the freshly prepared dough and make a smooth ball. Once again wet your fingers and make a small crater in the center. Now, slowly pleat the edges and bring it in the shape of a small container. Wet your hands frequently and make sure not to break the flour.

Now, scoop out a tbsp. of the freshly prepared pumpkin filling and add to it. Once again, wet your fingers and form small pleats around. Carefully, bring the pleats closer and pinch at the top to lock the modaka

Place these freshly prepared modakas in the preheated steam cooker and cook it for about 10 minutes or until the modakas are cooked well with a glazy finish

Fresh steam cooked pumpkin modakas form a great offering to Lord Ganesha on Ganesh Chaturthi

Tips to make the outer covering:

Wet your palm well before you pinch a small ball out of the freshly prepared dough and with your wet palms make a smooth ball
Now, wet your finger tips and create a small crater in the center
Once again, wet your finger tips and carefully press the edges to make the crater more wider and deeper. Do ensure to wet your fingers regularly
Once the crater is big enough, scoop out a spoonful of the filling to it
Now, once again, wet your finger tips and carefully pleat the edges as shown in the video.
Once the above step is completed, while carefully, rotating the modaka, bring the pleated edges together and slightly twist and pinch it to lock.
Tadaa… Modaka is ready to be steam cooked. Isnt it easy ?
Yes, the only key here is to keep the dough moist and not let it break

Note :

Preparing the filling / stuffing doesn’t take much time. Infact, it is the simplest step in the making of modakas. The more time-consuming task is to shape the modakas carefully. Care should be taken while pleating
Make sure to keep your fingers wet while shaping the modakas
The more you knead the rice flour, the more softer the dough will get and more easier it is to shape the modakas

Modaka Stories:

Ganesh Chaturthi brings in lot of memories and great stories to hear.

As kids, we always looked forward to visit Ganesha pandals. Each pandal would be different and very beautifully decorated. And of course, it also meant lot of Modakas and prasadam to eat !!! My mom would always warn us everytime we step out of the house on that day, to not look at the moon!!!

(You can refer to the Ganesh Chaturthi Stories ).

Back in our childhood days in Mangalore, Ganesh Chaturthi meant Sanghaniketan. Those days, Ganesh Chaturthi meant practicing to make the Ganesha idol. Mom would give us chapathi dough to practice for the Ganesha idol-making competition for kids at Sanghaniketan, which was a regular event every year. Mom used to give us a free hand to try out the Ganesha of our imagination. But every time, we would run behind dad to help us make the face, and he would gladly give us some helpful tips. But on the day of the event, we used to end up doing something else!!!

And on the day of the event- Ganesha Idol making competition for kids – each one of the kid would get a slab of clay. Me and my sister made use of the entire slab, with no wastage! Now ask us, what is it that we did gladly!!! Numerous bowls of laddoos and modakas of different sizes and shapes and one really had to search for the Ganesha idol in the midst!

Those memories are so beautiful and will be cherished for ever.

People came to Sanghaniketan from in and around Mangalore. As per the tradition, the size of the Ganesha idol installed here had to increase in size by the year, even if it meant in millimetres. From the day the idol was installed, to its immersion, Sanghaniketan always witnessed a series of festivities, second to none! Pooja, bhajans, prasadam, events, competitions, prizes, get-together, processions, people, colours, flowers and what not, made Sanghaniketan the hub of Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations. We used to love the modakas offered to Lord Ganesha, and then distributed as prasadam to us there. My fond memories of Modakas started from Sanghaniketan.

Back in our native place, there is another significant event which happens on Ganesh Chaturthi day. Paddy is harvested and a small bunch of the harvested paddy called ‘Kural’ in Tulu is tied in front of the house and all significant places around like the rice mills, cow shed, the well and so on. It is also said that the freshly harvested rice is cooked and the day is celebrated. As kids, we used to travel to our ancestral home during this time of the year without fail.