1. Start by dry roasting both the daal on low flame on a tawa for about 2 minutes. Add the red chillies and jeera at this point. Toss them around for another 2-3 minutes. Take care not to burn them. 

Tip: Vary the chilli quantity and type according to your heat tolerance.

2. Now add the shredded coconut and sesame seeds. Toss it along with the rest of the elements on the tawa for about 1 minute. Switch off the heat and toss it for a couple of minutes more till everything starts to brown a little. The heat from the pan will help in roasting them. When they are fragrant, take them off the tawa and keep them to cool down



3. Now in the same tawa take a spoon of oil, heat it on medium. Once the oil is heated a bit add the dried curry leaves. Lower the heat. Toss it around for 30 seconds. It will sizzle and give off a nice aroma. The leaves will start turning crispy. Now add the coriander seeds. Toss them around for about a minute and take off the heat.

Tip: Always take fresh, mature curry leaves without any infestation. The mature leaves are more fragrant. This recipe demands 

Tip 2: If you want you can add one clove of garlic here. Saute the garlic in the same oil till fragrant.



3. Make sure all the ingredients are completely cooled before grinding. Now take them all in a grinder and add salt as per taste, a pinch of hing and lemon juice. Now pulse them and make it into a fine powder. 

Tip: Some prefer adding tamarind. For me the lemon juice worked fine.



Store this in an airtight jar, preferably in a glass jar. This powder if made with all dry ingredients has a good shelf life. I made it last month and still the fragrant and taste is same.

This goes well with just about everything. You can have it along with idli, dosas, upmas or even along with rice and daal. It piques the taste of anything it is added to.

1. Take a frying pan and keep it on low flame/ low heat. Add one cup of fine (barik) rava and fry it over low flame for 2-3 minutes, taking care it is not browned.

Note: If you do not have barik rava, then you can just take the big grained rava in a grinder and pulse it a couple of times to get the fine grains.

Note 2: Standardize the cup you use. The same cup has to be used for measuring the rava and the milk.

2. Take one cup of milk (same cup size as you measured rava in). The milk should be warm if not boiling. I warmed the milk I used for about 50 seconds in the microwave before using. Now add this warm milk to the rava in the pan stirring continuously to avoid getting lumps. The flame should be on low at all times. Keep folding in the rava into the milk for about a minute or so and the milk will start getting absorbed into the rava.

3. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of warm milk to the rava and again fold everything in. Cook for a minute and when the rava becomes a sticky lump remove it it a plate. I had oiled the plate beforehand to avoid sticking the rava to the plate. Now let it cool down to room temperature before you start kneading. 

Note: I started kneading almost after 2 minutes of removing the rava. But be careful it might be hot.



4. Now comes the hardest part. Kneading the rava atta. Be ready to knead it with all your strength for about 6-8 minutes. 3 minutes into the kneading, add 1 tsp of desi ghee and keep kneading.

Tip: Desi ghee or buffalo ghee would impart a richer flavor.

Tip 2: Add a little oil to your palm when your kneading, this will prevent the dough from sticking to your fingers

Start Kneading

Add Ghee

5. At the end of 6-8 minutes you will have a near smooth dough. Now add the castor/ powdered sugar. Powdered sugar will be easy to incorporate with the dough. Again repeat the kneading process like before. The sugar will release water and make the dough sticky. So oil your palms and if required add  1 tsp of refined oil or ghee into the dough for easy kneading. Knead it until you have a nice smooth dough.

Tip: If you don't have castor sugar then take normal sugar and grind it to powder.

Note: Add sugar to the dough only if you are making a filling - less modak like me. Otherwise you can skip this step as your filling will be sweet.


6.  Now divide this sweet dough into two equal parts. First we will make the coconut-cinnamon modak as it is colorless.

Divide the dough into two equal parts

Cinnamon -Coconut Modak Recipe

7. In a skillet take the shredded coconut and dry roast for about 2-3 minutes until fragrant. No oil needs to be added to this. Coconut will release its own oils. This process is done to make the coconut more fragrant and to dry up the moisture in it. Make sure it doesn't get browned or burnt.

Dry Roast the coconut till lightly fragrant

8. Flatten the dough on the plate with fingers and add this roasted coconut to the dough portion and also add the cinnamon powder. Now knead this well to incorporate the ingredients. Add a little oil whenever you feel the dough is hard to handle and is becoming sticky.

Add the dry roasted coconut

Add the cinnamon powder

9. Now make small lemon sized balls from the dough. It will make approximately 8 small balls with this portion.

Make balls from the dough

10. Now with your oiled hands slowly pinch the top of the ball and make the top of the ball tapered like a modak. Now press the ball lightly to flatten its base. Don't worry if you don't get it in the perfect shape at the first try. Just roll it into a ball again and start over.

11. Now with a fork, start making half moon grooves on all along the side so that it starts resembling a modak. Again don't worry too much about perfection of the grooves.

Gulkand Modak Recipe

12. Now we will make the gulkand modak. Flatten the other half of the dough and add the gulkand and rose petals. Also add two drops of beetroot juice or light pink food color to the dough. Knead the dough nicely till a smooth texture is formed.

Tip: If you have rose syrup you can use 1 tsp of that instead of gulkand to give it a rosy flavour and light pink color. But still I would recommend using Gulkand as it gives a nice flavour to teh modaks

Note: You may vary the color or the amount of gulkand as per your liking.

Note 2: You can also use 1/4th tsp rose water in the dough. This is completely optional. I didn't use it.

Note 3: I have used dried rose petals. I found that these rose petals are lovely in terms of flavor and color. I have used them for making my own rose tea pre-mix also.

Add Gulkand

Add Dried Rose petals

The dough

13. Now just like the other modak, shape these too, and use to fork to make grooves into it.

Modaks Before Steaming

Steaming the Modak

14. Once you are done with the grooves sprinkle some cinnamon powder over the coconut -cinnamon modaks and now place them on the steamer stand. You can use a normal idli steamer like me. For the gulkand ones, you don't need to sprinkle anything, just place them also in the stand.

Steam them in batches for 5 minutes each.

Note: You need to keep enough gap between the modaks so don't try to shove in all at once, otherwise they may stick.

Putting the modaks in the idli steamer

15. Now open the steamer and let the modaks sit on the stand before it is a bit cooled. Then remove them onto a plate. They will cool down and take the look and feel of an authentic modak.

Garnish with cinnamon powder, fresh coconut and rose petals and enjoy!


Re-heating the Modak

The best part of these modaks is that they can be easily stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. So if you have extra modaks do not worry, just put them in the refrigerator. When you are ready to eat them, just pop them into a microwave safe covered container and heat for 30 seconds. It will be as good as new.

If you do not have a microwave oven you can again steam it for 5 minutes and consume.

1. In a mixer grinder take the shredded fresh coconut, green chilly, ginger and a little salt. Add water as per preferred consistency. E.g for thick chutney add half a cup of water, for runny chutney add more.

Tip: If the coconut is not naturally sweet I like to add about 1/4 tsp of sugar while grinding. It is optional ingredient.



2. Now to prepare the tempering/ tadka. In a frying pan heat oil. When the oil is hot add the hing, mustard seeds, dry red chilli, curry leaves, Urad daal and a pinch of red chilli powder. Stir everything about a minute or two untill fragrant. Turn off the heat.

Note: The red chilli powder gives a nice reddish hue to the chutney. Its is optional, if you want a natural white color you can skip it.

3. Take tadka and por it over the ground coconut paste. Fold in everything and enjoy with you Dosas, Idlis or Uttapams.

Some Variations you can try when you are making the coconut paste in your grinder:

1. Corriander/ Mint : Throw in some corriander or mint along with the coconut when you are grinding and it will result in a nice fresh chutney.

2. Peanut - You can dry roast the peanuts and then add it to the coconuts while grinding. It will result in a peanutty flavor.

3. Sesame - Same goes for sesame as well. You can dry roast sesame to bring out their nutty flavor and add it to the grind.

4. Curry Leaves - Fry the curry leaves in a little oil and grind it with coconut. It will give a nice flavor and color.

5. Dried Red chilli - dry roast the chillies and add to the coconut for a nice lovely red color and heat.

6. Onions - Dry roast onion, till its pale pink and use it along with the coconut.

1. Wash the Kochu with skin on nicely in water. Make sure you are rinsing off the dirt from its skin properly. Now take a medium/small pressure cooker and add 1 and 1/2 cup of water and add the Kochu with skin on. Cook it for one or max two whistles depending on the quality of taro you get. Let the steam die out then open the pressure cooker and drain the water. Fish out the boiled taros and carefully take off the skin. The skin will very easy come off the taro.

Note: We don't need to overcook the taro. It should still be a little stiff when peeled. So accordingly adjust the number of whistles.

Note 2: If you are going to add potato, then boil the potato also with skin on along with the taro.

Note 3: Many people prefer not to boil the taro first and cook it in the wok itself. But that takes a lot of time hence I use the shortcut way to pressure cook it first.

2. Now dice the taro into medium pieces. Keep aside. Cut the boiled potato also in same size.

3. Take a wok and heat the mustard oil. When oil is hot add the bay leaf and dry red chilli. When they are fragrant add the ginger and tomato. Saute it in oil till the raw smell of tomatoes and ginger is gone and they start turning darker. 

4. Now add all the spice powders (coriander, cumin, red chilli and turmeric), salt and sugar. Fold in and keep sauteing till the masala starts to release oil in the wok. Take care not to burn the masala.

5. Add the boiled taro and potatoes and cook them with the masala for about 2-3 minutes.

6. Now add about a cup and a half of warm water to the wok. Or you can adjust the water level as per the gravy consistency you want. It is recommended you don't make it too runny. Give it a nice stir and let the taro and the masalas incorporate into the gravy. Cover and cook on low flame. Keep checking the dish as it tends to dry out and stick very quickly.

Note: Do not stir too much as it might break the taros and your gravy will become a mushy mess.

7. When the gravy is thick, add the garam masala and ghee and fold everything in. Cook for about 30 seconds and turn of the heat.

Note: I prefer using Sunrise garam masala because it adds a very authentic rich Bengali garam masala flavour to the dish. If you do not have it use any garam masala of your choice.

Serve it with steamed rice.

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat

2. Whisk in flour and continue whisking for 30 seconds . Take care that it doesn't brown.

Note: The butter and flour serve to thicken the sauce and create a rich Alfredo sauce.

3. Whisk in the garlic for about 30 more seconds till a little golden.

4. Add the garlic powder, salt, Italian seasoning and pepper and whisk in

5. Slowly add the cream and milk (room temperature), whisking constantly until smooth thickened and bubbly.

6. Add the Parmesan cheese and whisk it for about 20 seconds. Remove the saucepan from the heat and keep whisking till the cheese is completely melted and the sauce has taken a smooth texture.

Now toss it with your favorite pasta or let it cool and then add it to the pizza base and enjoy.

Do try this out and tag me (@curriesnstories07) on Instagram on your photos whenever you try the recipe and I will give a shout out to you.