Modhagam is special, traditional recipe that is prepared on Vinayagar Chaturthi/Ganesh Chaturthi and offered to Lord Vinayagar. Last week we celebrated Vinayagar Chaturthi so I prepared the modhagam as prasadham. Very few ingredients are used to make this delicious recipe. The below recipe makes 30 – 35 lemon sized modhagam’s.

PREP TIME: 15 Mins

COOKING TIME: 30 Mins

Ingredients

Raw Rice – 1 ½ cups

Jaggery – 1 ¼ cups

Cardamom – 2 crushed coarsely

Grated coconut – 3 tea spoons

Ghee – 3 teaspoons

Procedure

STEP 1: Wash the rice and dry it on a paper towel for 2 – 3 hours or until the moisture from the washed rice is gone. You can skip this step and start with STEP 2 if you are in a hurry and if you believe the rice is clean.

STEP 2: Using a blender make a coarse power out of the dried raw rice.

STEP 3: Add 3 teaspoons of ghee in a pressure cooker, add the rice and 4.5 cups of water. Pressure cook for 4 whistles.

STEP 4: Take the jaggery in a microwave safe bowl, add 1 cup water and microwave for 2 minutes or until the jaggery melts completely.

STEP 5: Using a sieve, filter the melted jaggery to strain the impurities from the jaggery.

STEP 6: Mash the rice mixture well to make sure there are no lumps.

STEP 7: Heat ghee in a pan, add the cooked rice mixture and the filtered jaggery and mix well. Few lumps may form so mash well using a ladle or a masher. Cook till the mixture thickens and leaves the sides of the pan.

STEP 8: Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool down. Once cooled down add grated coconut and crushed cardamom to enhance the taste and the flavour.

STEP 9: Heat the idli pot to steam cook the modhagam.

STEP 10: Apply some oil/ghee on the palm and make small lemon size balls out of the mixture and place it in the idli plate and steam cook the rice balls.

STEP 11: The steaming can be done in batches of 10 or 20 depending on the size of the idli plate. It can take 5 – 7 minutes for each batch of rice balls to cook to perfection.

TIP: Garnish with some grated coconut on top and serve.