Modak and Undrallu · Recipes and What to Do Instead
Modak is not a hard recipe. It is a slow one, and it wants hands that have done it before. Here it is properly, and an honest answer for the year you cannot.
Ukadiche modak, steamed
Filling. Cook one cup grated coconut with three quarters of a cup of grated jaggery on low heat until it comes together, about eight minutes. Add half a teaspoon cardamom powder. Cool it.
Dough. Bring one cup water to a boil with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of ghee. Take it off the heat, stir in one cup rice flour, cover and leave five minutes. Knead while warm until smooth. Warm dough is the whole trick, cold dough cracks.
Shaping. Roll a ball, flatten into a cup in your palm, pinch pleats around the rim, fill, then draw the pleats up and seal into a peak.
Steam ten to twelve minutes. Serve with a spoon of warm ghee.
Undrallu, for Vinayaka Chavithi
Dry roast half a cup of rice rava. Soak two tablespoons chana dal twenty minutes and drain. Boil one and a quarter cups water with salt and a teaspoon of ghee, add the dal, then the rava, stir, cover and cook until it absorbs. Cool slightly, roll into small balls, steam ten minutes. This is the naivedyam Telugu homes will not do the festival without.
Why twenty one
Twenty one is Ganpati's number, which is also why twenty one blades of durva are offered. Five or eleven is fine. The count matters less than that something was made and offered.
The year you cannot
Most people abroad cannot make twenty one modaks on a Monday with work at nine. That is not a failure of devotion, it is a Monday. Offer something else that was made properly, by people who have made it for decades.
Questions people ask
How do you make modak at home?
Make a dough from rice flour and boiling water, a filling of grated coconut cooked with jaggery and cardamom, shape into pleated parcels and steam for 10 to 12 minutes. Ukadiche modak are steamed, fried modak use a wheat flour shell.
How many modaks are offered to Ganesha?
Twenty one is traditional, matching the twenty one blades of durva grass. Families who cannot make twenty one offer five or eleven, which is entirely acceptable.
What are undrallu?
Steamed rice flour and chana dal dumplings, the specific Vinayaka Chavithi naivedyam in Andhra and Telangana homes. Kudumulu is the same offering by another name.
What if I do not have time to make modak?
Offer another traditional sweet made properly. Motichur laddu, boorelu and bobbatlu are all accepted naivedyam. Desify ships them fresh from the halwais in India in three to five days.