It's Ganesh chaturthi and its very grandly cellebrated in Mumbai.Like everyone we bought a ganesh idol home on the eve of the chaturthi. I was determined to celebrate ganesh chaturthi as elaborately as i could this year.
1.Ganesha idol with an umbrella and poonal(thread)
2.cotton garland
3.arukampul and erukam poo
4.lots of flowers
5.cloth piece
6.camphor
7.incense sticks
and other items for puja .
Neivedhyam dishes:
1.modaks -sweet
2.modaks-salted
3.appam
4.vada
5.payasam
6.idli
7.fruits
8.rice
Recipes for neivedhym dishes:
1. Modak sweet
Ingredients:
rice 2cups
coconut grated 1 cup
jaggery grated 3/4 cup
cardamon chopped 2-3
On the contrary to the two day procedure of making the modaks our south indain mamis have reduced the job to a single day easy finish one.
-soak 2 cups of rice early in the morning for about 2 hrs.
-Grind the soaked rice in a mixer to a smooth paste neither thick nor thin like a flowing consistency.
-Take a one and a half part of the paste and keep the remaining aside.
-Take a large nonstick kadai and add a tablespoon of oil and a pich of salt and then add the mixture.
-mix well then keep it in the flame and keep stirring.
-keep stirring without break till the dough gets a bit thick and its cooked.
-If its too thick and is still very white that is not yet cooked add some water
-it forms a dough and its color changes from bright white to dul white indicating its cooked.
-keep this aside.
Now for the filling,
-Take a nonstick kadai and add 1 cup of grated coconut and 1/2 cup of grated jaggery.
-mix in low flame.
-After it mixes well add cardamin pieces and keep aside.
To make the modaks,
-Take some oil in a cup for greasing
-make small balls of the dough
-make a cup out of the dough ball by flateening thin the edges and make a cup.
-put small amount of the poornam in the cup and bring the edges together to make a dome shaped or that of a raindrop..
-do the same till all the dough is used.
-Take a steamer usually a idi steamer and add water at the bottom
-grease the plates and place the modaks
-let it steam cook for jsut 5-6 mins and not more.
-If its kept for more time the odak 'll get hard and dry
-the modak turns a bit translucent on being cooked.
2. salted modak /urad dal modak.
Here the same dough can be used for making this modaks.
The filling is the paste made for vada(see vada preparation)
The modaks are made flat like a coral shell with the filling inside.
They are stamed the same way as above.
3. Vada
Ingredients :
urad dal-1 cup
green chillies 3-4 chopped
salt to taste
-soak the urad dal for about 2 hrs
-grind it along with chillies and salt to a smooth paste
-paste should neither be thick nor be loose
To make vadas,
-take a lump of the paste and pat it flat on a plantain leaf greased or any plastic cover greased.
-pat it not so thin and not too thick it should be like a donut.
-heat oil in a deep bottomed kadai
-wet your hands slightly and pull the patted dough carefully and put in the oil
-fry till it turns yellowreddish brown
-keepaside a part of the paste for the urad dal modak
Ingredients:
half the part of the ground rice paste (check above)
same amount of jaggery grated
same amount of coconut grated
same amount of wheat flour
cardamon chopped
To make appam..
-mix all the above till it becomes a smooth paste without lumps
-let the paste be thin like dosa batter
-use the same oil used for the vadas
-take large tablespoon
-pour a tablespoon of the batter in the hot oil but be careful and keep the gas on a low flame
-it automaticlly comes up like a poori ,fry a bit more then take it off.
do the same till all the batter is used.
5.Payasam
Ingredients:
moong dal -1/2 cup
grated jaggery -11/4 cup
cardamon pieces
cashew nuts broken
Method:
-pressure cook mong dal
-mix jaggery and the cooked moong dal and let it boil over a low flame.
-after it mixes well remove from the flame and add cardamon pieces
-fry some cashwes in ghee and pour into the payasam.
6.Idli (made of raw rice)
Ingredients :
rice 2 cups
urad dal 1/2 cup
-soak rice in hot water the previous day
-soak urad dal for not more than one hour
-grind urad dal first the raw rice
-pour in greased steamer plates and steam cook for 10 min
For the remaing part of the ground rice paste use it for making rangolis
dab a cotton piece in it and use it to put rangoli
do the puja and keep the idol and adorn with the cloth piece, a piece of jwellery and
poonal and the thread garland..
Offer all the neivedhayam dishes along with cooked rice with some dal and ghee
