Ganesha specials
As per ancient tradition, hindus worship the elephant-headed god Ganesha the first during every ritual. Ganesha, the remover of all obstacles, is the son of Shiva and Parvathi. He represents wisdom, goodwill and most importantly, the art of living a balanced life.
Ganesha is also portrayed with sweets in his hand, depicting him as a sweet-lover. His favourite sweet called the modak, is made and served to guests during Ganesha Chathurti.
Modak
Ingredients: Rice flour — 2 cups, water — 3 cups, salt — a pinch, maida — 2 tbsps, oil — 2 tbsps (This is for the outer covering called the kanaka).
Filling (Hurana): Coconut gratings —1 and half cups, fried gram (huragadale) — 1/4 cup, jaggery (powdered) — half a cup, and cardamom powder.
Method: In a pan, add three cups of water and boil it with salt, maida and oil. Add rice flour to this and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Take it out, mix it well with a wooden spoon and while it is hot, prepare the modaks.
Method for filling: In a bowl, mix grated coconut, fried gram powder, jaggery, cardamom powder and mix well.
To prepare the modak: Divide the rice flour dough into lemon-sized balls, flatten them and fill them up to half a moon. Grease an idli stand with oil and place the modak bits in them in a pressure cooker with water. Steam it for 10 minutes without the weight. Serve with ghee.
Sprouted Gram Usali
Ingredients: Mixed gram (alasandhe, chana and moong gram) — 2 cups, hing — a little, oil — 2 tbsps, mustard seeds —1 teaspoon, curry leaves — a few, green chillies — 6 to 10 (chopped), dry red chillies — 2, coconut gratings — half a cup, lemon juice — 1 tbsp, salt — to taste and coriander leaves.
Method: Soak the grams in water for four hours. In a pressure cooker add the grams with one-and-a-half cups of water and salt. Pressure cook this till the first whistle goes off and turn the stove off. Cool and strain. Heat some oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds, hing, green chillies, curry leaves, red chillies and fry them well. Add the cooked grams and mix well. Add the coconut gratings coriander leaves and lemon juice as garnish.
Pancha Kajjaya
Ingredients: Fried gram — 1 cup, copra— quarter of a cup, jaggery or sugar — half a cup, cardamom powder-little, nutmeg and clove powder — a little.
Method: In a mixie, blend all the ingredients coarsely and serve.