THE CHEF and HER KITCHEN: Ganesh Chaturthi Recipes

Showing posts with label Ganesh Chaturthi Recipes. Show all posts

Monday, August 21, 2017

Fried Modak Recipe | Ganesh Chaturthi Recipes

Fried Modak recipe with step by step photos.Ganesh Chaturthi is nearing by and we are all excited to welcome Ganapati Bappa to shower his blessings on us.Ganesh Chaturthi or Vinayaka Chavithi is one of the major festivals in the south and Maharasthra and is celebrated in a grand manner.Every year I wait for this festival as it is one of my favorite festivals which I have thoroughly enjoyed celebrating it from my childhood.Though the pooja process is bit lengthy it was really fun as this is the only festival where our entire family sit together and do pooja till the end with so much of attention.The menu for this festival is almost fixed every year due to the restrictions of the ingredients to be used and also they are apparently lord Ganesha's favorites.

Our usual menu on this festival includes Nooka Idli(not the regular idli rawa one) with coconut chutney for breakfast and of course kudumulu are served along with breakfast and the lunch menu varies with different vegetables,sundal,rasam,dal and also we make different lentil dumplings for this festival especially.We prepare various Kudumulu varieties like Steamed Kudumulu - with 3 fillings, karida kayi kadubu and Undralla payasam.

Check out other important recipes for Vinayaka Chavithi:

Steamed Kudumulu - with 3 filling

Karida Bele Kadubu | Fried Modak

Bellam Kudumulu | Vella Ammini Kozhukattai

Paal Kozhukattai | Undralla Payasam

Puran Poli

For a complete list of various options for Ganesh Chaturthi menu, check out here.

Here is how to make modak recipe with step by step photos:

Fried Modak Recipe:

Yields12-14 pieces

Prep time:30 mins | Cooking time:30 mins | Total time: 1 hr
Cuisine: South Indian | Category: Sweets/Festival Specials

Ingredients:

for outer layer:

1 cup Maida/All purpose flour

1/2 cup Chiroti Rava(fine rava)

a pinch of Salt

1 tbsp hot Oil

for stuffing:

1 cup grated Coconut

1 cup grated Jaggery

1/2 tsp Elaichi powder

Oil,for deep frying

Method:

for covering:

Mix maida,rava,salt and oil and add enough water to form a stiff dough.It should be stiffer than the regular chapati/poori dough.
Keep aside for 1/2 an hour and cover it with wet cloth.

Knead the dough well until it becomes soft and pliable.Make small gooseberry sized balls and keep them ready.

for coconut stuffing:

In a kadai mix grated coconut and jaggery and cook it on a low-medium flame until the jaggery melts and coats the coconut and form a thick dry and sticky lumpy mixture.It takes 10-12 minutes and keep stirring it occasionally.

Add cardamom powder to it and mix well and let the mixture cool completely and store it in air tight container.Make small gooseberry sized balls and keep them ready.
You can make it on the previous day itself and store at room temperature which eases the process on the festival day.

for fried modak:

Make small balls from the maida dough and roll it out to very thin chapatis of 3" diameter.

Place a tablespoon of stuffing in the center and start making the pleats like how we do for momos and bring it to the center and pinch it slighlty to seal the pleats so that stick to each other.Refer the pictures for details.You can even pinch the edges and bring all the pinched folds to the center and gently pinch again to let them stick at the center.Seal the edges nicely else the filling will come out while frying them in oil.

Repeat the process and prepare all the modaks.

Heat oil in a thick bottomed kadai and once the oil is hot enough add 6-7 modaks slowly in the hot oil and let them fry over low-medium flame until they are golden brown and cooked thoroughly.Turn them in between so that they are evenly fried.
Drain them on a kitchen towel.

Serve them hot/warm or room temperature.

Notes:

You can even use wheat flour in the recipe and avoid chiroti rawa in the recipe.But chiroti rawa makes the modak's outer layer crispier.
You can even add sesame seeds or finely chopped cashewnuts to the coconut filling for extra crunch.
Seal the edges nicely else the filling will come out while frying them in oil.
You can even replace jaggery with sugar and follow the same recipe.

Sogasu Poli | Sogasu Obbattu | Holige Recipes

At my mom's place,any major festival is incomplete without a holige and hence we prepare various holige varieties at home.While the most popular one are Hoornada holige(Pappu Obattu) and Coconut Holige,my mom prepares various other holige varieties like Til Poli(Nuvvula Obbattu), Shenga Holige(Groundnut holige), Dates Holige etc. While these holiges are fried on the tawa there are few holiges which are deep fried like Paala Obattu(Haalu Holige), Sajjige Obattu(Sajjappa),Garugu Obattu, Sogasu Obbattu and every holige tastes best on its own and has its own importance for the festivals.

Today I am posting Sogasu Poli recipe which is very similar to Garugu Obattu and Sajjappa.They all look similar and all are deep fried but the filling,taste and texture of each holige is different from each other. Sogasu Poli and Sajjappa uses rawa filling which is made differently for each holige and where as Garugu Obattu uses rice flour filling.I know that it is very confusing if you are hearing all these names for the first time but once you go through all the recipes you can easily differentiate them.The best part about these holiges is that they can be stored easily up to a week, if they last that long!! These can be made ahead and serve as prashad for Navaratri Golu prasadam too, also tastes best when eaten hot as they are super crisp.This is apparently one of my favorite holiges and would gulp a couple of them at one go.As it is Sankranti tommorow, try this different traditional holige recipe to impress your family.
Check out other Holige recipes in my blog:

Sogasu Poli | Sogasu Obbattu :

Shelf life: 2 days | Yields: 10-12 polis

Prep time:20 mins | Cooking time:40 mins | Total time:60 mins

Cuisine: South Indian | Category: Sweets

Ingredients:

for Stuffing: 1 cup fine Chiroti(Holige) Rava

1 cup fresh grated Coconut

1 cup Sugar,preferably slghtly fine

1/4 cup finely chopped Cashewnuts

1 tsp Ghee

for kanaka(outer cover):

1 cup Chiroti/Holige rawa(baarik rava)

a fat pinch of Salt

1/2 cup Oil(to soak the kanaka)

Oil for deep frying

Method:

for filling:

Mix chiroti rava, fresh grated coconut, chopped cashewnuts and sugar in a large bowl nicely until everything is nicely mixed and keep it aside for 2-3 hours.
Now the mixture would have become wet and soft.Mix it nicely again.

Grease your palms with ghee and make big lemon size balls out of the filling and keep them aside.

for Kanaka:

Mix chiroti rawa with a pinch of salt to it and add water to it and knead in to a very smooth dough.The consistency of the dough should be very loose than the regular roti dough.
Now using your fist hit the dough for few mins to get the softer dough.

Now place this dough in a deep vessel and pour oil over it until the dough is completely soaked in oil.Let the dough rest for a minimum of 1 hr and up to 2 hrs.Drain the excess oil and use it for other purpose.
See the pics to get to know the consistency of the kanaka.

for making Sogasu Poli:

Cut the holige paper into a round and place it on the rolling stone which we use to roll rotis.Grease holige paper or banana leaf or a plastic cover with oil.

Pinch a small amla sized dough and flatten it a bit using your hands as shown in the pics and place one round of filling and seal it properly from all the edges like how we do for parathas.

Now flatten it slowly with hands to get 3" diameter circle to the size of big pooris.It should not be very thick like paratha nor thin like rotis.See the pictures for clear idea.
Meanwhile heat oil for deep frying in a kadai and gently slide the patted holige from the sides into the oil taking care that oil would not splutter.

Deep fry them until they are slightly brown on both side.
Drain them on kitchen towels to remove the extra oil.

Repeat the process for making holiges,smear the holige paper liberally with oil and follow the same procedure.

Serve them hot/warm or at room temperature.You can store them at room temperature for upto a week.

Notes:

Always make kanaka before proceeding to make filling which helps in saving time.
As these can be stored for a week you can make them ahead if you want.But the fresh ones are more crispier and tastier.
The addition of nuts is entirely optional but it adds a nice taste to every bite of holige.
If you are a health freak instead of deep frying you can even fry it on tawa like how we do for parathas,they taste still good but the deep fried ones taste anytime better.

Technorati Tags: holige recipes, sweets, traditional sweets recipes, poli recipes, sogasu poli recipe, sogasu obbattu recipe, navaratri recipes, festival recipes, ganesh chaturthi recipes, andhra recipes for vinayaka chavithi festival, karnataka recipes for ganesh chaturthi ,arya vysya recipes

Varan Bhaat | Maharasthrian Varan Recipe | Dal Chawal | Ganesh Chaturthi Recipes

'Varan Bhaat' is a simple recipe that gets featured everyday in most of our houses with few variations. 'Varan' means dal (lentil curry) where as 'Bhaat' stands for Rice. Varan Bhaat is most commonly offered to Lord Ganesha along with Modaks during Ganesh Chaturthi in most of the Maharasthrian homes.It is a tradition even at my place to offer a simple tempered toor dal to Lord Ganesha and it is also served as one of the side dishes during festivals and functions.

There are so many variations to this simple Varan like the addition of tomatoes, garlic , red chili powder etc. I am posting a simple Varan recipe which one can alter according to their taste buds. We do not add garlic to the dal if we are preparing it on a festival day , otherwise we do add garlic in tempering which gives a nice taste to the dal. Varan Bhaat is the most comfort food for many of us,a big ladle of Varan served on a bed of piping hot steamed with a dollop of ghee and a vegetable fry(or fryums/papads) is what I crave at times especially after coming back from a vacation or if I am lazy cooking anything elaborate.

Varan Bhaat reminds me an incident which happened many years ago when I was new to Mumbai. We had gone to a famous Maharasthrian joint for lunch and I wanted to try something new as I was new to Mumbai then and also new to the cuisine. My TH had ordered poori with a side dish which was safer bet where as an adventurous foodie ie., me wanted to try something new and was fancied by the name ' Varan Bhaat ' and chose the same to order. I knew that it would be a kind of rice variety as we are familiar with various bhaat varieties like Vangi bhat, Bisibelebath, Kharabath. But it was a total surprise for me when the waiter got me a plate of Varan Bhaat which consisted of simple Toor dal with a bowl of white rice and a dollop of ghee. TH could not stop laughing at me that day and had ordered another plate of puri for me too. The idea of trying something different had ended up making me tasting a humble dal chawal in the restaurant.

Varan Bhaat | Maharasthrian Varan Recipe:

Serves 3-4 | Author: Prathibha

Prep time: 5 mins | Cooking time: 25 mins | Total time: 30 mins

Cuisine : Maharasthra | Category: Side dish for Rice

Ingredients:

1 cup Toor dal/ Arhar dal

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

1.5-2 cups of water

Salt, to taste

few Coriander leaves, to garnish

Lemon wedge,to serve

ghee,to serve

to temper:

1 tbsp Ghee/Oil

1 tsp Cumin seeds

2-3 Green chillies,slit

6-7 Curry leaves

1/4 tsp Asafoetida/Hing

for bhaat:

2 cups Rice(raw ponni or Sona masuri Rice)

4- 4.5 cups Water

Method:

Wash and soak the toor dal in enough water for 15 mins. Add turmeric powder and pressure cook it for 3-4 whistles.

Once the pressure drops remove the extra water(if any) and mash it nicely using a wooden ladle.

In a small pan heat ghee/oil and crackle cumin seeds and add slit green chillies, curry leaves ad hing and fry until done and add dal to it and let it boil for 3-4 mins.
Add coriander leaves to the dal.

to make bhaat:

Wash the rice a couple of times and soak it in water for half an hour. Drain the water and add 4-4.5 cups of water.Pressure cook it for 3 whistles.

I usually do it in rice cooker then I add 2.5 cups of water for 1 glass of rice. If you are doing it in pressure cooker you can add 4 cups of water (for 2 cups rice) if you want separate grains of the rice.If you want it soft add 4.5 cups for 2 cups of rice.

Serve the varan with piping hot steamed rice with a dollop of ghee and a lemon wedge.You can serve a simple vegetable fry or pickle and papad along with it.

Notes:

If you want you can add tomatoes while cooking the toor dal.
You can add garlic in the tempering if you want. But if you are preparing for naivedyam skip garlic in it.
Instead of green chilli you can add red chili or red chili powder in tempering.
You can add mustard seeds in the tempering.
Few versions of varan has coconut in it.You can add either ground coconut paste while simmering the dal or add grated coconut at the end.
You can even use basmati rice for bhaat, in that case add 2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice.

Technorati Tags: varan bhaat recipe, varan bhaat recipe for ganesh chaturthi, ganesh chaturthi recipes, simple dal recipe, arhar dal recipe, dal bhaat recipe, maharashtrian recipes, maharasthrian varan recipe

Vinayaka Chavithi Recipes | Ganesh Chaturthi Recipes 2016 | Vinayaka Chaturthi Menu

'Vinayaka Chavithi' also known as 'Ganesh Chaturthi' is on 5th September. I have mentioned many times before that this is one festival I always look forward to from my childhood. It is a major festival in south India and Maharashtra. In Karnataka this festival is called as Gauri Ganesha where the previous day before Ganesh Chaturthi - is celebrated to worship the Goddess Gauri and we have a tradition to distribute the Vayanam(a set of items laid together) among the married ladies.

I am reposing my recipe collection with few updated recipes so that it is helpful to plan the menu.

The menu differs from state to state. In Andhra, the menu would be like Undrallu, Bellam Kudumulu, Undralla Payasam, Chintapandu Pulihora, Medu Vada, Semiya Payasam or Sago Kheer along with sundal, stir fry, Pappu Chaaru etc.

In Karnataka we prepare Holige for Gowri Habba and on Ganesh Chaturthi we prepare Kudumulu with various fillings or Karida(Fried) Kadubu, Idli with rice rava, Undralla Payasam, sundal, Kosambari, stir fry, Kandunta Majjiga Pulusu, rasam etc. Whereas in Maharasthra Modak or Puran Poli are prepared as main sweets and along with Varan Bhaat and other items on the menu.

I am compiling various set of recipes from all the regions so that it would be convenient to choose according to your preferences.