Rose Gulkand Modagam

Happy Vinayaka Chaturthi! - May Lord Ganesha bestow you power, destroy your sorrow and enhance happiness in your life.

This year I made the ever so trending turmeric pillayar. Below is my version of the eco-friendly pillayar. As for the modagams, I used to love this gulkand milkshake that we used to have back in India. I was missing it so much during these covid times, so I incorporated the gulkand flavour to our modagams this year. Scroll down for the recipe.

Yields: 25 small modagams

Ingredients:

1 cup – Fresh Grated Coconut
½ cup – Rose Gulkand
1 cup - Rice Flour
Few drops of Rose Syrup (depends on the brand of syrup used)
1 teaspoon – Rose water
Poppy Seeds – 2 teaspoons (Optional, I used White sesame seeds instead)
1 teaspoon - Salt
1 cup or more – Water
1 tsp + 2 tsp - Ghee

Method:

1. Heat 2 teaspoons of ghee in a pan. Add the sesame seeds and roast it briefly.
2. Add the fresh grated coconut to the pan and fry for a few minutes on medium flame. Now add the gulkand, mix and sauté for 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat. Gulkand stuffing is ready.
3. For the outer layer: In a pan, heat about 1 cup water along with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon ghee.
4. As the water begins to boil add the rice flour and keep stirring. Make sure there are no big lumps.
5. Switch off the flame and cover the pan and let it rest for 5 minutes.
6. Now transfer the rice flour to a bowl and add the rose water and rose syrup.
7. While the mixture is hot, crumble and knead well to form a soft dough. Sprinkle some water if the dough is too hard.
8. Divide the dough into small portions and make the outer layer, add in the stuffing and crimp the edges together to form the modagam shape. If using a modagam mould: Grease your mould with ghee. Close the mould and place a dough ball inside, press down the sides of the mould to make space in the center. Fill in the coconut stuffing and with a small portion of the dough, cover the base of the modagam. Gently unmould the modagam and repeat with the rest of the dough.
9. Steam the prepared modagams for 10 minutes. Rose gulkand modagam is ready.

 

Recipe adapted from sakhisolutions.com.

Ragi ladoo

Ingredients:

1 cup -  Ragi flour

1/2 cup - Sugar (I used unrefined cane sugar)

1/4 cup - Ghee

1 and 1/2 tbsp - Cashews

1/4 tsp - Cardamom powder

Yeilds: About 10 ladoos

Directions:

• In a pan, heat half of the ghee (1/8 cup) and roast the cashews till golden brown. Remove and set aside.
• Add ragi flour to the same pan and roast it until it gives out a nice aroma. It will become sandy in texture.
• Roast in low flame for 5-7 mins, keep stirring so as not to burn the flour. 
• After the roasted flour has cooled down, add in the sugar, cashews, cardamon powder and the remaining 1/8 cup of ghee.
• Mix well so that it is evenly mixed, and then shape the mixture into ladoos. 
• Store in a dry container. Keeps well for more than a week.

 Notes:

Let the mixture cool down before adding in the sugar. If you add sugar to hot mixture it might turn gooey. You can add any sweetener of your choice, white sugar, jaggery or cane sugar. 

Recipe adapted from: sharmispassions.com 

3 Ingredient Aval Kozhukattai

This 3 ingredient kozhukattai is perfect for a healthy hot breakfast or evening snack.

You can follow the recipe here https://youtu.be/2ZvVVkDpBPA. 

I powdered 1.5 cups of aval and used ¾ cup of Nattu Sakkarai instead of vellam. 

This yielded 18 kozhukattais. 

I then steamed the kozhukattais in the rice cooker steam setting for 10 mins.

Beetroot and Coconut Burfi

I have been putting off making my deepavali snacks for such a long time. After some motivation from some work colleagues, I started to search for some easy recipes to make. I saw this recipe from the blog Yummy Tummy and feel in love with it. The deep and rich colors of beetroots were so enticing that I couldn’t wait to start making these bite sized gems.

The burfi was quick and easy to make, and my colleagues enjoyed it!

Beetroot and Coconut Burfi

Yeilds: 36 bite size pieces

Ingredients:
Beetroot- 2 cup grated
Coconut - 2 cup grated
Sugar - 2 ¾  cup (reduce according to taste preference)
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Cashews - 4 tablespoons
Cardamom essence – few drops

Method:

• Grease a square tray or a flat plate, and set aside.
• Heat ghee in a pan, add in nuts and fry till golden.
• Add the beetroot and coconut to the pan. Stir fry for 5 mins till raw smell leaves from the beets.
• Now add the sugar and keep mixing, the sugar will melt and the mixture will get thick. Keep stirring.
• Once the mixture starts to leave the sides of the pan, add in cardamom essence and mix well.
• Spoon the mixture in a greased tray and spread evenly.
• Let it cool down and set. Then cut it into squares.

Using a grater to grate the beetroots.

Frying the grated beetroot and grated coconut in ghee.

Adding in the sugar.

The mixture becomes watery after adding the sugar, keep stirring.

Keep stirring until the mixture becomes thick and ghee oozes out.

Spread the mixture evenly in a greased tray. And let it cool down.

Cut into bite sized pieces.