Su's Recipes: Kudumulu

Kudumulu is the main sweet dish during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. It is very famously called 'Modak'. In other languages it is. Called Modakam, Modaka and so on. Kudumulu is a dumpling made from rice flour with various stuffing, with main ingredients for stuffing being Jaggery, Coconut, Groundnuts and Sesame seeds. Modak is considered a hot favourite of the legendary foodie, Lord Ganesh, who is also known by the name 'Modakapriya'. The offerings to Lord Ganesha is called Naivedyam, which not only includes the steamed modak, but also various other dishes.

Jaggery, groundnuts, roasted gram, sesame seeds, poppy seeds and cardamom

Ganesh Chaturthi is the festival celebrated on the birthday of Lord Ganesh, the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. The festival is celebrated by sculpting the Ganesh Idol with mud or turmeric (traditionally), and decorated with flowers and lights. After the festival, it is returned back to the Earth by immersing it in a nearby water body.

As for the recipe of Modak, there are various stuffing, namely the sesame stuffing, groundnut stuffing, Mixed stuffing and coconut stuffing. Traditionally the ingredients are roasted and instead of blending it in the mixture, it was together pounded to release the flavours and especially the nutty flavour of sesame seeds and sweetness of jaggery, which calls it for the much awaited dish, Modak during the Ganesh Chaturti Festival. So, here in the post, I shall present four recipes with different stuffing.

For outer cover:

1. Rice flour - 1 to 1 1/2 cup

2. Salt to taste

3. Clarified butter/oil - 2 tbsp.

1. Ingredients for Mixed Stuffing:

1. Poppy seeds - 1/4 cup

2. Jaggery - 1 1/2cup

3. Groundnuts - 1 cup

4. Cardamom - 3 to 4 no.

5. Fried Bengal gram - 1 cup

6. Sesame Seeds - 1/2 cup

2. Ingredients for Groundnut Stuffing:

1. Groundnuts - 1 cup

2. Jaggery - 1/2 cup

3. Ingredients for Sesame Seeds Stuffing:

1. Sesame seeds - 1 cup

2. Jaggery - 1/2 cup

4. Ingredients for Coconut Stuffing:

1. Coconut - 1 whole or 1 cup grated

2. Jaggery - 1/2 to 3/4th cup

3. Cardamom - 2 to 3 no.

Cooking Method:

1. For the Mixed stuffing, roast the groundnuts until it turns light brown and remove the outer cover once it becomes chill. Then roast the sesame seeds and poppy seeds too seperately and keep aside. Grate the jaggery and keep this aside too. In a mixer one by one in order blend poppy seeds, sesame seeds, roasted dal, fried groundnuts, cardamom and mix everything in a large bowl along with jaggery. Now again mixing everything, blend it in a mixer so that the stuffing is even.

2. For the Groundnut stuffing, fry the groundnuts until it turns light brown and remove the outer cover. Blend this groundnut finely in a mixer. Grate the jaggery and mix it together and again combining jaggery and groundnut blend it in the mixer evenly.

3. For Sesame seed stuffing, roast the sesame seeds blend it in the mixer. Grate the jaggery and mix it along with the sesame seeds in the blender.

4. For coconut stuffing, scrap the outer layer of the fresh coconut, which is brown in color, grate the coconut and keep it aside. Grate the jaggery too and mix it along with the coconut. Now in a pan, take this jaggery and coconut mix, and keep stirring until both are combined well and cooks till soft.

5. There are 2 ways to make the outer cover for modak with the rice flour. For the already steamed rice flour, here follows the recipe. Keep the water to boil in a container. In a bowl, take the rice flour and add salt to it. Then pour the boiling water to the rice flour and make a soft lump stirring with a spoon. The second way for the fresh rice flour, keep the water to boil adding salt and clarified butter or ghee of 1 tbsp. in a container and when the water reaches the boiling point, add in rice flour stirring continuously until a soft dough is formed without lumps. Let it cook on a low heat. Take it out onto a plate and once it is warm, knead the dough well greasing your palms.

6. Take a small size of the rice flour dough and pat it. Now working round the corners first making it thin in the corners and then using both hands make a cup shape. Then add the filling of your choice and keep aside. Follow this for the rest of the dough and stuffing. You can also combine the dough after you add the filling in the cup shapes and give it a shape, which is called 'Ukadiche Modak'.

7. Steam these modaks in a steamer and serve it for the Ganesh Chaturti festival as Naivedyam.

Note:

1. Use of black sesame seeds makes the stuffing more tastier since its got a stong flavour. The stuffing can also have a mix of both black and white sesame seeds.

2. For even stuffing mixture, as the ingredients are blended finely, sieve it and again follow the process, and repeat it until an even mixture is formed.

3. For the already steamed rice flour, there is no need of modak getting steamed again though it is purely optional.