Modaks for the Modakapriya

Good afternoon Camille,

It's Ganesha! I am in a bit of a crisis. I have damaged many of my modaks and I need a quick recipe to make more. I made a fresh batch last night, but I damaged them this morning (totally not my fault though). This morning was the first day in a while the sun was out. When I woke up, I knew I needed to take advantage of the beautiful weather and spend all day outside. I ate a big breakfast to prepare......like a really big breakfast. I couldn't stop eating my morning modaks. Let's be honest, I can never stop eating them. Anyways, with a modak-filled belly, I took Kroncha out on a ride. You remember Kroncha, right? He is my giant rat. Okay, back to the story, Kroncha and I started our journey on this beautiful day. Everything was going great at first. Then a huge snake came out of nowhere. I am not scared of anything, but Kroncha on the other hand......well.....he hates snakes. So Kroncha gets spooked AND HE BUCKS ME OFF. When I hit the ground guess what happens......my stomach explodes. All the wonderful modaks fall out of my tummy. Some were squished, some were broken open, and some were covered in dirt. I instantly picked them all up and put them back in my tummy. To close my busted stomach, I tried to find a bandage or rope, but there was nothing except me, Kroncha, and a snake. I took the snake and wrapped it around my belly. Modaks were secured, but damaged. I instantly came home to write to you. I know....I know.....I should be taking this as a sign to chill on the jaggery filled dough, but they bring me so much joy. I am frustrated and I need to make more and more and even more. Please send me a recipe as soon as you can.

From your dear friend Modakapriya

How to Make Modaks

Hello everyone!

The first recipe we will be cooking up are.......Modaks!

Ganesha loves modaks. He loves them so much that his nick name is Modakapriya, meaning modak lover.

Step 1 Stuffing: Place coconut in a heavy bottom pan GENTLY roast the coconut on medium/low heat for about 2 minutes. Keep an eye on it because it will burn quick. Add jaggery, saffron, nutmeg powder, and cardamom powder. Mix well. Cook on LOW for 2 more minutes. ( I did not do this so my mixture got a bit....umm...crunchy.....it is supposed to be a light gold color) Take off the heat.

Step 4 Mold the Modaks: I do not have a modak mold so I decided to hand make the modaks. I pressed the dough into a circle and added the filling. I folded in the edges and used my hands to form the dough into the correct hershey kiss shape. I then took a tooth pick to create the lines that modaks traditionally have. I also got kinda bored and made different shapes haha.

Step 5 Steam the Modaks: Here is another substitution. I do not own a steamer, so I had to makeshift my own. I took a big and deep sauce pan and added in 3 balls of aluminum foil to the bottom. I set a heat safe plate on top of these balls and added water to the base of the pan. Bring the water to a boil and set the modaks on the dish. Drop the heat to medium. Cover the sauce pan with the lid and let them steam for 10 minutes. Then they are done!

Additional Notes (Author's Note)

Let me start with a disclaimer......they were not how I hoped haha. I am wanting to recook them and try a few different things. The jaggery (which is a sugar used to make them) has a distinct burnt caramel and nutty flavor. It would be awesome in a coffee, but I was not prepared for how strong it would be in the modaks. If you love jaggery then these are awesome, but if not, I would try to recreate them with half jaggery and half brown sugar.

I retold the story in an email format. As for the story itself, I actually found the original story from high speed googling. My original story I was planning to use was taken offline and I could no longer access it. It actually worked out great though! I still found a great story about modaks and Ganesha. The story I found lacked a lot of detail and emotion. I did not want to simply retell it as I found it. I got the idea to create an email set up that I will continue with the other stories. This gives more room for adding detail. For this story in particular, I decided to focus on how Ganesha felt during his entire day. What is it like to love modaks as much as he does and then lose them?

Other than this difference in retelling, I kept the characters the same and the plot the same. I was originally going to just retell the story from third person, but I went with first person to add more style and personality to it. Please let me know if you like the style of story or if you have any other ideas. Any advice is helpful! Thank you for reading.

Bibliography: Ganesha's Adventures from Ancient History Encyclopedia (November 25, 2012), written by Mark Cartwright. Link Here

Images without captions were all personal images taken by Camille Fichera