August 24

First of all wish all my readers a very Happy Ganesh Chaturthi. may the lord bless you all with health and happiness all year round.

The festive season has started. Any other year this would be a time for fun and frolic. The mood would actually be festive. But this year it is a bit different. Last year it was for the first time Ganapati was celebrated in our brand new Housing society. So the entire ten days was like a fun fair, everyday there was some event, dress theme etc. This time however since Pune has now become the epicenter of the pandemic numbers, hence many housing societies are not even having the opportunity of hosting a communal Ganpati festival.

In my housing society however, they decided on a very low key affair with all the safety measures in place. Ganpati has gone virtual this time around. So everyday we are having the morning and evening aarti live telecast on Facebook Live. I really appreciate the concept because it still helps you get the feel of the aarti right from the safety pf your homes. Also the cultural events have gone digital. So everyone was asked to send in their dances or performance recording to the cultural committee for Ganeshotsav and  they would be streaming it on the designated day over Zoom meeting. That's a real clever thing to do. One can still feel the festival vibe but without any fear of mingling in the crowd. Especially its a hard year for the kids. They are the ones who are mostly missing out the fun in the festivities.

Frankly Speaking I had no clue till three days ago that I will be making modaks as prasad for the Ganapati at my home. I had thought to get some store bought sweets for the naivedyam. One of the reasons is that I am not much of a sweet lover and hence I have not experimented a lot with sweet stuffs. Traditionally the Ukadiche Modak are are steamed dumplings with an outer rice flour dough and a coconut-jaggery stuffing. Now for a person who is really not that hands on with sweet dishes, making a rice flour dumpling sounds a little tricky. Hence I had dismissed that idea of making modaks at home for the puja.

Then while browsing some articles I came across a video which was talking about instant mawa modak. Now mawa is something I am not really fond of. I don't like the taste or smell of it. But something that caught my eye was the process and how easy it was to make a modak at home without any mould.

So now the next thing on my agenda was to find a replacement for mawa. It had to be something which is easy and also readily available in my pantry. Then the thought came to use Rava as a replacement. But the next point in question was how to make rava into something as stiff as a modak? I referred to some videos by Ranveer Brar where he was making gulab jamuns with rava, but he fried them to make them hold. So then my mom suggested that I steamed them at last so that I can ensure the rava is cooked and it stands too.  So that is exactly what I did. I speculated with the flavor of the modak then. I was sure that I wanted to make one set with Rose flavour or gulkand (a sweet preserve of rose petals). The other set was something that took a little time to decide. Usually you would find indian sweets are always having cardamom as the preferred flavoring  agent. But I decided to go for a less traditional approach and included cinnamon as the star ingredient in my coconut- cinnamon modak.

So with much anticipation I started making the modaks on Ganesh Chaturthi and be it Bappa's blessings or my beginners luck they all turned out super awesome! Each of my tweaks worked and I ended up with 16 lovely modaks on my plate. Worth mentioning is that I did buy a modak mould but then I decided to go mouldfree as I wanted to make it look similar to handmade modaks. You can see the results in the pictures.

I never expected this would stir in so much interest across my friend and family. I got many queries and questions about how I made this. SO here is the recipe.

You can choose to play with whatever flavors you want. Please note that since I went mold free I didn't add any filling, instead added all the flavors into the dough. But if you are using a mould then you may as well add some filling in the center just like the original modaks.

Preparation Time : 20 minutes

First of all wish you a very prosperous Maha Ashtami. Just two days ago the much awaited Durga Puja started now already it's halfway over.  Today being a weekend will start our pandal hopping and eating out, rather pigging out even if I say so myself. And if we talk about food sweet is an inseparable part of any festival in India.

Who doesn’t love sweet? And Bengalis are famous for their sweet tooth. In earlier times a meal had to end with a sweet dish. My Grandpa loved  sweets. I remember whenever we visited Kolkata during the vacations there was not a single day when we had breakfast and at least two variety of sweets was not present in the side.  Dadu (grandpa) used to go to the market every morning and buy the best sweet available that day at the moyerar dokan (sweet shop).  The freshly made spongy hot Roshogollas dipped in thick sugar syrup which the moyera would pack in big earthen pots were my favorite.

Dida(Grandma) would make Chaler Payesh (Rice pudding) with a generous seasoning of Raisins. She would add Nolen Gur instead of regular sugar which enriched the taste. Chaler payesh was always more flavorful than the Sevaiyan payesh (Roasted Vermicelli pudding) because of the Gobindobhog Chal (a type of flavored rice like the Basmati).  Once we visited North Bengal during the Durga Puja and my mother got hold of some “Choshi” from the local market. Till then I had never seen or known about Choshi - little dull white colored rice flour cylinders with bulging centre and tapered ends. Ma made Choshir payesh with them and it turned out to be one of the most delectable Payesh I have ever tasted. Add Nolen Gur to it and you will be in paradise. Choshir Payesh is a very old traditional fare, which is hardly made now-a-days and I bet there are a handful of people in our generation who has had the good luck to taste it.

During the summer vacation it was Dadu’s regular practice to have Aam-Dudh-Bhaat(Mango+Milk+Rice). A portion of the rice was kept aside, at the end of the meal he used to mix sugary ripe orange mangoes and warm milk with the rice and a pinch of sugar/sondesh. The aroma of the king of fruit was too tempting but the looks of it deterred me from trying it. The elders of the house however relished it with much joy. Now when I look back it seems I should have had tried it. Since Dadu passed away we don’t have such big family get-togethers anymore where all the family members would sit together and have their meals, interspersed with the usual adda and sharing of interesting stories.

As a kid I was a real Sweet freak. I loved anything sweet and hated anything salty or spicy. Mom also liked to have sweets. The love for sweet was in the blood. Whenever Dad used to go to the market I would tag along with him to go to the Sweet shop – Bimala Sweets (I still remember the name!). To admire the array of mouthwatering sweets arranged on the glass shelves was a very exciting thing for me. I would look out if any new type of sweet was on display and ask my dad to buy it. When I was very small dad used to leave me at the shop while he fished his bajar. I would happily stay in the shop and mingle with the shop owner and his workers. Sometimes he would offer me a sweet or two just like that. I would sit on the counter and witness the mundane activities inside the sweet shop. As I grew up a bit I became a bit shy of the surroundings and would not stay back in the shop, just buy the sweets and come back. Bimala sweets was a part of my growing up years- my metamorphosis from absolutely loving sweets to just about liking them. It was the only Sweet shop within the IIT campus during those days. During Durga Puja my entire friends group would flock there and have Matka Kulfi or Chocobars while catching up.


My Ma is a very good cook, got her culinary skills from Dida. Her culinary skills enhanced meeting my ever increasing demands of making new dishes and sweets. Now when I look back I wonder how she managed to cook 3 times a day plus interesting snacks during evening, I get worn out if I have to make 3 meals in a day. So all my evenings were filled with interesting snacks or sweets. I absolutely loved the bread Malpua she used to make more than the traditional malpua, because the former was much softer and succulent in texture and taste. Though the dish was a bit sweeter, the loving traces of malai on it was absolutely  irresistible. I am drooling even now thinking about it.

At times when there was no sweet I would resort back to Bourbon biscuit. They were always there in our home as I loved them. When I was not yet inducted to tea I would most of the times wait for ma to settle down with her evening tea so I could dip it and eat. This irked ma to no extent because my constant stirring with the biscuit would make the tea cold or sometimes even too much stirring would result in breaking the biscuit which would sink into the tea. But I never gave up and finally Ma gave up. So cleverly she permitted me to have tea so that I have my own tea to stir the biscuit in. If it was not tea time and I wanted to have Bourbon biscuit, I would separate the two biscuits, lick off the chocolate cream inside and then eat the biscuit separately. There was this friend of mine who would lick off the chocolate inside and throw away the biscuit! I was of course a better behaved kid :D.

As I grew up my love for sweet dishes decreased exponentially. I began loving salty and spicy things better. As of date I only have sweets in form of cold desserts, gajar ka halwa or if it’s a very tempting looking dessert. The other day I was flipping some recipes on the net and came across the recipe of Sahi Tukda. It’s a bread pudding soaked in hot milk and spices, a north Indian specialty which has its roots in Pakistani cuisine. It is particularly prepared during the festive month of Ramadan and on Eid Some people say it’s similar to Double ka Meetha which is a specialty from Hyderabad.

It’s easy to make but is too much calorie packed and involves quite an amount of work in the preparation. Assembling is the easiest part. For this festive season it’s the perfect reason to indulge. This one reminds me very much of the Bread Malpua that my mom used to prepare.

• Bread (White / Brown) - 4 slices
• Full Fat Milk - 1/2 litre
• Dry Fruits ( Pistachios, Almonds, Cashew) - 1/4 cup
• Sugar - 1/3 cup
• Cornflour - 1 tsp
• Ghee - 3/4 cup
• Rose essence - 2 drops
• Saffron - 4-5 strands

Method:


1. Remove the edges of the bread and slice them diagonally into two triangles. You will get 8 triangles from 4 slices.

2. Chop the nuts. Heat a non-stick pan and add 3 tsp of ghee over it. Add dried fruits and toast for a couple of minutes and keep aside. 

3. In the remaining ghee fry the bread triangles till they turn uniformly golden on both sides.


4. Take milk in a thick bottomed pan and bring to a boil. Cook on medium flame and allow the milk to reduce to half its original quantity and get a Rabri like texture. Add sugar as per taste. The mixture will be sweet enough. Add saffron strands and stir. Mix cornflour with 2-3 tbsp milk and add it to the reduced milk and mix. Add the rose essence and roasted chopped nuts.  Cut off heat and let it cool down to room temperature. Chill it in the fridge till serving time.


5. In another pan take some water and sugar. Boil it till the sugar dissolves and the mixture becomes a bit thick. Turn of heat and let it cool to room temperature.

6. Soak the bread pieces in the sugar syrup as you fry for a couple of minutes only and take them out and place on a serving dish.



7. While serving, pour the chilled rose flavored thickened milk over the bread slices, garnish with some more toasted nuts, bits of silver foil, rose petals, drizzle some rose syrup and serve.


The desert tastes better when chilled.



Sending this recipe to Pari & Jiya's "Only Traditional Recipe", Priya's and Spicy Treat's "Diwali Delicacy" event, Recipe Junction's "Spotlight : Festive Treats",Guru's "Vegan Special'13", Merry Tummy's "Cook with White", Motion and Emotions' "Theme Party" event, Gayathri and Asiya's WTML event, Simply Tadka's and Swetha's foodabulous fest .
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So much green all around it almost hurts the eyes!

View of the building (my Mom in the pic)                                                                                   My Kitchen

The Dak-bungalow

More from my backyard

1.    Clean the chicken and place it in a big bowl. Add lemon juice to it

2.    Take Curd in a bowl. Add salt, red chili powder, turmeric powder  and whisk the curd into uniform consistency. Add the curd to the chicken and mix well. Marinate the chicken for an hour.

3.    Fry the potato till sides are lightly browned. Keep aside.

4.    Take oil in a deep bottomed skillet and heat it. Add bay leaf and coarsely pounded garam masala (Cinnamon, Cardamom and Clove)

5.    When the spices are aromatic add the sliced onions and half a spoon salt. Fry the onions till golden brown. Add the ginger and garlic paste.

6.    Grate the tomato and add the tomato pulp ( You may skip the tomato if you feel the curd is sour enough)

7.    Add the marinated chicken, mix well with the fried onion in the skillet. Add the cumin and coriander powder. Cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.

8.    Adjust the salt at this point and add a cup of warm water ( or according to the quantity of gravy required). Add the fried potatoes. Cook on high heat for 5-6 minutes stirring occasionally, then reduce the heat and cover and cook the chicken till done (About 25- 30 minutes)

9.     If you desire you can garnish it with chopped cilantro

Bon Appétit!



Sending this recipe to Cooking 4 all Seasons' "Side Dish Mela" event.