Sweet Pongal

Ingredients:

1. Sona Masoori Rice/Raw Rice - 1/2 cup
2. Moong Dal - 1/4 cup
3. Jaggery grated - 1 cup
4. Cardamom powder - 1/2 teaspoon
5. Ghee - 2 tablespoon
6. Cashews - 10 no.
7. Raisins - 2 tablespoon
8. Salt a pinch

Method:

1. Rinse rice and moong dal in water. Strain the water completely.
2. Heat a pressure cooker and dry roast rice and moong dal for around 5 min until it turns out aromatic.
3. Add 3 cups of water and pressure cook for 4 whistles.
4. Meanwhile, take a saucepan and add grated jaggery and 1/2 cup water. Boil till the jaggery melts and turn off the stove.
5. Strain the jaggery syrup to remove any impurities. 
6. Once the pressure subsides in the cooker, slightly mash the rice and dal mixture.
7. Add the jaggery syrup and mix thoroughly. Add cardamom powder and a pinch of salt to balance the sweet. Simmer for 5 minutes.
8. Heat 2 tablespoons of ghee in a small pan and roast cashews and raisins. Add this mixture to pongal and serve hot. 

"Warm Desserts" was the theme for the January 2021 "Shhhhh Cooking Secretly" event. The theme was suggested by Rafeeda who blogs at "The Big Sweet Tooth". Do check her blog for a collection of delicious recipes. Some of the eye-catching ones include: "Easy Lime Cake", "Apple Crisp" and "Eggless Fruit Cake"

My partner for this month is Priya Iyer who blogs at 'The World Through My Eyes'. Check out her 'Carrot Kheer' and 'Omapodi'. Priya suggested jaggery and rice as my secret ingredient and I made this sweet pongal. I gave her raisins and sugar and she made a delicious Strawberry Rava Kesari. Do check visit her blog to get the recipe. 

Vettu Cake | Kerala Tea Time Snack

Vettu cake is a delicious tea time snack of Kerala. This deep fried snack is made using maida, sugar and egg and flavored with cardamom. It is very crisp from outside and soft and crumbly inside. 

 

Ingredients:

1. All purpose flour - 1 cup (plus few more tablespoons as required)
2. Sugar - 1/2 cup
3. Cardamom - 6 pods
4. Egg - 1 
5. Baking soda - 1/4 teaspoon
6. Ghee - 2 tablespoon
7. Salt - 1/8 teaspoon 
8. Turmeric powder - 1/8 teaspoon (for color)
9. Oil for deep frying

Method: 

1. In a chutney grinder of mixer, take sugar and cardamom seeds. Grind till cardamom seeds form fine powder. Take only seeds of cardamom and discard the skin.
2. Add one egg to this powder and pulse couple of times until egg is well combined with sugar powder.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine all purpose flour, salt and baking soda. Add 2 tablespoon of ghee and mix well to get a crumb consistency.
4. Add the egg-sugar mixture and knead well to make a dough. If the dough is very sticky, add couple of tablespoons of all purpose flour. 
5. Set the dough for resting for half an hour.
6. Divide the dough into two parts, make each part into a long log of 1.5 inch diameter. 
7. Using a knife, slice the dough into 1 inch thick pieces. Make a deep cut in the shape of a 'x' at the center of each piece.  
8. Heat oil and deep fry the pieces in low-medium flame until they turn golden brown color. 

Note: Never fry them on high heat as inside of the cake will not be cooked. 

For the month of October, the theme for "Shhhh Cooking Secretly" challenge is "Diwali Sweets and Savories". As part of this challenge a theme is selected at the beginning of the month by one of the participants. All the members are grouped in pairs. The participants will exchange 2 secret ingredients with their partners who are suppose to prepare a dish that matches the theme of that month.  October month challenge was suggested by Poonam Bachhav who blogs at Annapurna. Her Easy Motichoor Ladoo which is a No-Fry recipe is in my to-do list. Do visit her blog for a huge collection of traditional vegetarian dishes. 

My partner for this theme is Swaty Malik who blogs at Food Trails. She gave me cardamom and sugar as my secret ingredient and I gave her ghee and milk. She made these delicious soft melt in the mouth Kesar Pista Burfi. Meanwhile do check out her Crispy Masala Papdi and Custard Trifle recipes which caught my eyes. 

Vattayappam - Kerala Style Steamed Rice Cakes

Vattayappam is a very soft and spongy steamed rice cake popular in Kerala. 

Vattam in Malayalam means "round" and appam translates to pancake. Hence the name 'Vattayappam' for these round spongy cakes.  This traditional snack is a oil free, vegan and gluten-free. It is made by grinding rice and coconut. The batter is fermented and then steamed. Sugar is added for sweetness and cardamom for flavoring. This sweet cake is usually eaten as an evening snack or dessert. It can be made savory by omitting the sugar and can be served with curries. 

Ingredients:

1. Raw rice/Sona Masoori - 1 cup
2. Coconut grated - 1 cup
3. Cooked rice - 1/4 cup
4. Instant Yeast - 1/2 teaspoon
5. Sugar - 3 tablespoon
6. Cardamom - 3
7. Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
8. Oil for greasing

Method:

1. Wash and soak raw rice for at least 4 hours. 
2. Grind soaked rice, grated coconut, cooked rice and cardamom into smooth paste. The batter should be thick as that of idli batter.
3. Add salt, sugar and instant yeast to the batter and mix well until sugar dissolves.
4. Set aside the batter for fermentation for around 3 hours.
5. Use a round vessel for steaming the vattayappam. Grease it well with oil (preferably coconut oil).
6. Pour the batter in a round vessel and place it in a steamer. Steam for 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.
7. Cool for 15 mins and then invert the vessel to remove the vattayappam.
8. Cut into wedges and serve.

Note: 

1. The round vessel to steam can be either a deep steel plate, wide mouthed steel tiffin box, round pyrex box or even a cake pan. 
2. You can replace cooked rice with thin poha. Soak the thin poha for around 5 minutes before grinding.
3. With 3 tablespoon of sugar, this snack is mildly sweet. You can adjust the sweetness according to your preference. 
4. For the sweet version, you can sprinkle cashews and raisins to the batter before steaming. 

I made this recipe as part of the "Sshhh Cooking Secretly" event. This is an event started by Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipe. At the beginning of the month a theme is chosen by one of the participants and all the participants are grouped in pairs. The participants will exchange 2 secret ingredients with their partners who are suppose to prepare a dish that matches the theme of that month. 

I got the opportunity to choose this month's theme and I selected "Steamed Foods". 

My partner for this month is Archana Gunjikar Potdar and she shared me coconut and cardamom as my secret ingredients and I gave her flour and water as her ingredients. She made "Kankiche Dive". Do visit her blog to check out an amazing collection of recipes. She also has a wide variety of exotic desserts like Easy Mocha Semifreddo, Popcorn Rocky Road Dessert, Layered Angel Cake the British Version to name a few. 

Homemade Ice cream - No Sugar | No Condensed Milk | No Cornflour

Homemade ice cream served in store bought cone

This homemade ice cream is made without added sugar, condensed milk, cream or cornflour. It can enjoyed guilt free. 

Ingredients:

1.  Banana(Chiquita) - 3
2. Dates - 10 count
3. Almonds - 25 count
4. Vanilla essence - 1 teaspoon

Method: 

1. Make thin slices of banana and freeze for at least 4 hours.
2. Soak almonds and dates in water for 1/2 hour.
3. Take a blender and add soaked almonds, dates and 2 tablespoon of water and grind to a fine paste.
4. Add frozen banana slices and vanilla essence and blend till they form a smooth paste. 
5. Add the mixture in a freezer safe box(preferably glass) and freeze for at least 8 hours. 

Serve this ice cream in a bowl or store bought cones.

Koat Pitha - Mizoram cuisine

Koat Pitha is a sweet snack from Mizoram. These fritters are made using rice flour, jaggery and banana.

For the month of March, the theme for "Shhhhh Cooking Secretly" event is a cuisine from Mizoram.
Mizoram is one of the North Eastern States of India. The name is derived from "Mizo", the name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", means land, and thus Mizoram means "The land of the Mizos".

For the event, I am paired with Pavani Gunikuntla who gave me rice flour and banana as my secret ingredients. I gave her green chilies and ginger. She blogs at "Pavanis Kitchen". Do check out her blog for a wide collection of recipes.

Recipe source: betterbutter

Ingredients:

1. Rice flour - 1 cup
2. Jaggery - 1/2 cup
3. Banana - 1 (I used Chiquita/robusta banana)
4. Water - 1/4 cup
5. Salt - a pinch
6. Oil - for deep frying

Method:

1. Melt jaggery in 1/4 cup water and sieve to remove any impurities. Allow it to cool down.
2. Mash the banana with a fork into a smooth paste.
3. Add in rice flour, jaggery syrup and a pinch of salt to the mashed banana. Mix well and make a thick batter.
4. Heat oil in a pan and drop in a tablespoon of batter in hot oil. Fry on medium flame until the pitha turns golden brown in color.
5. Drain the excess oil on a paper towel and serve. 

Sharkara Varatti | Sharkara Upperi

Ingredients:
1. Raw plantain - 2 nos.
2. Dry ginger powder - 1 teaspoon
3. Jaggery - 1 cup
4. Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon
5. Salt - 1 teaspoon
6. Sugar powdered - 1 tablespoon
7. Oil for deep frying

Method:
1. Remove the skin of plantain and cut them lengthwise along the center, then cut them into 1/2 inch thick slices.

2. Take 3 cups of water in a bowl and add cut plantain pieces and a teaspoon of salt. Let it rest for 10 minutes.

3. Drain the water completely and lay them on a paper towel to remove all the water.

4. Heat oil for deep frying. When the oil is hot enough, reduce the flame to low-medium and add the plantain slices. Do not overcrowd the vessel.

5. Fry on low-medium flame until they turn crisp. It takes around 35-45 minutes to turn crisp. To test you need to remove a piece from oil and break it half, if it still soft in the center it is undone and needs more frying.

6. Once done, remove from pan and drain excess oil in a paper towel.

7. Now let's make jaggery syrup. Take jaggery and  2 tablespoon of water in a heavy bottomed pan and bring it to boil. Cook until jaggery syrup forms into 1 string consistency. To check, add a drop of syrup in cold water and it should form a ball rather than dissolving in water.

8. At this stage, reduce the flame to low and add fried plantain, cardamom powder and dry ginger powder and give it a good mix. The jaggery will coat the chips well. Now add powdered sugar and give it a final mix.

Before frying

After frying

Pineapple Kesari

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
1. Rava/Semolina - 1/2 cup
2. Sugar - 1/4 cup
3. Pineapple pieces - 1/2 cup
4. Ghee - 3 tablespoon
5. Raisins and Cashews - 2 tablespoon
6. Salt - a pinch
7. Turmeric powder - a pinch for color

Method:
1. Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a pan and fry raisins and cashews and set aside.

2. In the same pan, add pineapple pieces and 1/2 cup of water and cook until all the water evaporates.

3.  In a different pan, boil 1 1/4 cup of water and add salt and turmeric powder.

4. Reduce the flame to medium and add semolina and stir continuously. Make sure there are no lumps.

5. Now add cooked pineapple, 2 tablespoon of ghee and sugar and give it a good  mix. Cover and cook for few more minutes and finally add fried cashews and raisins.

Serve hot or cold.
Turmeric powder can be substituted with saffron or yellow food color. Sugar quantity can be adjusted as per your taste.

Banana Bread

Recipe Source: Grandma's Banana Bread

Ingredients:
1. Ripe Bananas - 3 large
2. All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cup
3. Butter (melted)- 1/3 cup
4. Egg - 1
5. Sugar - 1 cup
6. Baking soda - 1 teaspoon
7. Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F/180 deg C. Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan.

2. Combine salt and baking soda to flour and set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together melted butter and mashed bananas.

4. Add sugar, egg and vanilla extract.

5. Add flour mixture and mix well.

6. Pour the batter in greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Kulkuls | Goan Christmas Sweet

Ingredients:
1. All purpose flour/ Maida - 1 cup
2. Sugar - 1/3 cup
3. Melted butter - 1/4 cup
4. Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
5. Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon
6. Oil for deep frying

Method:
1. Add sugar and vanilla extract to melted butter and mix well.

2. Take flour in a mixing bowl and add salt and butter mixture. Rub the flour between your palm to get a course texture.

3. Add water little by little and knead the flour into a soft dough.

4. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.

5. Take small marble sized portion of dough and shape into a ball. Place the ball on the back of fork, flatten it and gently roll to form a shell shaped kulkuls. Do the same with remaining dough.

6. Heat oil for deep frying on medium flame.

7. When oil is hot, fry the kulkuls until they turn golden brown. Drain excess oil on a paper towel.

8. Cool them completely before storing in an air tight container.

Lemon Pound Cake

Recipe Source: onceuponachef.com

Ingredients:
9x5 Loaf pan

For the cake:
1. All purpose flour - 1.5 cup
2. Baking soda - 1/4 teaspoon
3.Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
4. Buttermilk - 1/2 cup
5. Butter unsalted at room temperature - 1/2 cup
6. Egg - 1
7. Sugar - 1 cup
8. Lemon zest grated - 2 teaspoon
9. Lemon juice - 1 tablespoon

For the syrup:
1. Sugar - 1/4 cup
2. Water - 1/4 cup
3. Lemon juice - 1 tablespoon

For the glaze:
1. Confectioners' sugar - 1/2 cup
2. Butter(unsalted) - 1 teaspoon
3. Lemon juice - 2 teaspoon
4. Water - 1 tablespoon

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 deg F and grease the loaf pan with butter and sprinkle little flour over it.

2. Sift flour, salt and baking soda and keep them aside.

3. In another bowl, combine buttermilk, lemon zest and lemon juice and keep it aside.

4. In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and butter using a hand mixer until light and fluffy(medium speed for 5 minutes). Add the egg and beat again.

5. Change the mixer speed to low and add 1/3 of the flour and 1/3 of the buttermilk mixture and mix well.  Repeat with rest of the flour and buttermilk mixture by adding only 1/3rd of the portion each time. Do not overmix the batter lest the cake becomes dense.

6. Carefully spoon the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

7. While the cake is baking, make the syrup by boiling 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar. After the sugar melts, turn off the stove and add a tablespoon of lemon juice.

8. Once the cake is out of oven, place it on a wire rack and pour the sugar syrup all over. Let it cool completely before we apply icing on the cake.

9. For the icing, mix together the ingredients specified in icing section and apply on top of cake.

Banana Halwa - Kerala Style

Ingredients:

1. Nenthra pazham / Kerala banana - 2 large well-ripened 

2. Ghee - 1/4 cup

3. Sugar - 1/2 cup

4. Cardamom powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Method: 

1. Take a heavy bottomed vessel and add sugar and 1/4 cup of water. Turn on the stove on medium flame.

2. Once the sugar melts, add finely chopped bananas and cook until bananas are soft. Stir occasionally to avoid sticking to the bottom of vessel. This takes around 15 minutes. 

3. Add ghee and mix well. Cook on medium flame and stir continuously. Cook until bananas turn dark brown in color and the ghee starts to separate from halwa. It takes around 45 minutes to get to this stage. 

4. Add cardamom powder, mix well and turn off the flame.

5. Transfer the halwa on a greased cookie sheet or similar container, level the halwa and allow it to set for around 1 hr. Cut into desired shape and serve.

Ari Unda | Rice Ladoo

Ingredients:

1. Red rice/Parboiled rice - 1 cup

2. Coconut grated - 1/2 cup packed

3. Jaggery - 2 cubes or 1/2 cup grated

Method:

1. Wash the rice and drain the water completely. Spread them on a kitchen towel and allow it to dry for 1 hour.

2. Take a heavy bottomed pan and dry roast the rice on medium flame until they turn crisp. It takes around half and hour to roast the rice.

3. Powder the rice into coarse powder(just like puttu podi).

4. Mix rice powder, grated coconut and grated jaggery and pulse in a blender for few seconds.

5. Shape them into lemon sized balls and enjoy.

Chickpea flour and Wheat flour burfi

Ingredients:

1. Chickpea flour/Besan - 1/2 cup

2. Wheat flour - 1/4 cup

3. Fine rava/semolina - 2 tablespoon

4. Butter - 4 tablespoon

5. Brown sugar - 4-5 tablespoon 

6. Salt - a pinch

7. Cardamom - 2 

8. Milk - 1-2 tablespoon

9. Oil - 1 teaspoon for greasing pan

Method:

1. Grease a plate/baking tray with oil and keep it aside.

2. Heat butter in a pan on medium heat and add chickpea flour, wheat flour and semolina. Stir continuously and fry until the flour turns light brown in color. Check if you get the bitterness of chickpea flour. If yes, continue roasting for few more minutes. Uncooked chickpea flour tastes bitter.

3. Once the flour is well roasted, add a pinch of salt, brown sugar, powdered cardamom and a tablespoon of milk. Mix well and check for sugar. Once the sugar melts, the flour mixture turns into a thick paste. 

4. Transfer this mixture into a greased plate and let it cool completely. 

5. Slice the burfi into desired shape and serve. 

Strawberry Sauce

Delicious and simple sauce recipe. This sauce can be

• poured over pancakes
• mixed with milk to make strawberry milkshake
• mixed with yogurt to make homemade strawberry yogurt
• sauce for icecream
• eaten as it is - my fav way

Ingredients: 

1. Strawberries - 1 cup

2. Sugar - 1-2 tablespoon (adjust according to the sourness of strawberries)

Method:

1. Combine strawberries and sugar in a blender and blend until smooth. 

2. For storing, place in an air tight container and refrigerate.

Peanut Ladoo

Peanut ladoo is one of the easiest snacks to make. It contains only 2 ingredients: peanut and jaggery. Jaggery is a good source of Iron and Calcium. Peanuts are good source of protein. This healthy dish can be prepared in less than 15 minutes.

Serving: Makes 1 dozen ladoos

Ingredients:
1. Roasted Peanuts - 1 cup
2. Jaggery grated - 1/3 cup

Method:
1. Peanuts can be roasted on stovetop or in microwave. For stovetop method, take a heavy bottom pan and heat on medium flame. Add the peanuts and keep stirring until you see dark brown spots. This method takes around 15-20 minutes. Roasting in microwave oven is quick and easy. The steps are mentioned in my other post: Roasting Peanuts in Microwave.

2. Add roasted peanuts(I prefer to add skin as well) and grated jaggery in a blender and make a fine powder.

2. Take a handful of powder and shape into balls. The moisture content in jaggery and oil in peanuts is sufficient to make ladoo and there is no need to add additional water/milk/ghee.

These ladoos stay fresh for a week when stored in a airtight container under normal temperature.

Peanut ladoo

Wishing everyone a very Happy Sankranti/Pongal. Sankranti or Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated during the end of harvest season. 

Peanut and Sesame ladoo and chikki are famous during Sankranti.

Peanut Ladoo is made with just 2 ingredients: Peanuts and Jaggery. It is one healthy snack packed with proteins. 

Serving: Makes 10 ladoos

Ingredients: 

1. Peanuts unsalted - 1 cup

2. Jaggery grated - 1/2 cup

3. Oil - for greasing hands

Method:

1. Dry roast peanuts on medium flame stirring continuously until you get nice aroma of peanuts and they turn golden brown in color.

2. Remove from stove and let it cool for around 5 minutes. Remove the skin of peanuts by rubbing the peanuts between your palm.

3. Slightly crush the peanuts using a pestle and mortar and then keep them aside.

4. Heat a large pan and add grated jaggery and 2 tablespoon of water.

5. Boil until jaggery melts and the syrup thickens. Turn off the flame when the syrup has the consistency of honey.

6. Add roasted peanuts and mix well. 

7. Allow the mixture to cool for few minutes and then make small balls by greasing your hand. Instead of making balls, you can also spoon the mixture on a greased plate. 

The ladoo thickens after cooling completely. 

Rava ladoo

Serving: Makes 15 ladoos

Ingredients:

1. Rava/Semolina - 1 cup

2. Coconut - 1/2 cup

3. Sugar - 1/3 cup

4. Milk - 1/4 cup

5. Cardamom powder - 1/4 teaspoon

6. Raisins - 1 tablespoon

7. Ghee - 1 tablespoon

Method:

1. Heat a large pan on low-medium heat, add ghee and rava. Roast rava for 10-12 minutes with continuous stirring.

2. Add coconut and sugar. Mix well.

3. Add milk, cardamom powder and raisins, mix well and turn off the heat after 2 min.

4. Allow the mix to cool for 5 min and then shape into small balls.

Unniappam

Unniappam with baking soda

Unniappam is a very popular Kerala snack.

This unniappam recipe is one of the best of what I have tried and easiest as well. Make sure you use dark brown colored jaggery to get these golden colored unniappams. This can be made with or without baking soda and both the versions tastes equally good. Baking soda gives extra softness and fluffiness.

Unniappams tastes best when eaten the same day. They can be stored in air tight container for upto 5 days. Usually they tend to become little hard over time but reheating in a microwave makes them soft.

Unniappam without baking soda

Serving: Makes 35 unniappams

Ingredients:

1. Rice(Sona Masoori) - 1 cup

2. Jaggery grated- 1/2 cup 

3. Small banana/Cherupazham - 2

4. Cardamom - 1 pod

5. Wheat flour - 2 tablespoon

6. Baking soda - 1/2 teaspoon(optional)

7. Oil - for frying

8. Salt - a pinch

Method:

1. Soak rice in water for atleast 3 hours. 

2. Wash the soaked rice and grind it by adding 1/4 cup of water.

3. Add jaggery, bananas and cardamom to rice batter and grind again until all the ingredients are well combined. Transfer the contents into a bowl. 

4. Add wheat flour and a pinch of salt to rice batter and mix well. The batter must be thick. Thinner batter tends to absorb more oil.

5. Add baking soda and mix well. 

6. Heat oil in a unniappam pan on medium heat.

7. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Pour the batter in each of the holes so that they are 3/4th full.

8. Turn and cook on both sides till they golden color.

Unniappam pan

Cherupazham/Small bananas

Small bananas are best for unniappam but other varieties like Cavendish/Robusta can also be used.

Modakam

Ganesha Chaturthi is celebrated as a birthday of Lord Ganesha. The favorite sweets of our dear Lord are ladoos and modakam. 

Modakam also referred to as Modak is a steamed sweet dumpling made of rice flour stuffed with coconut and jaggery. There is also deep fried version of modak with outer-cover made of all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour. The filling can be varied with sugar-coconut, sugar-poppy seeds or sugar-coconut-poppy seeds combinations. 

Today I prepared steamed version using coconut and jaggery as filling. Even though this is a very time consuming dish, there is always a feel-good factor when you are preparing this as a prasadam for our dear Lord.

Happy Ganesha Chaturthi

Servings: Makes 9 medium sized Modakam

Ingredients:

For outer-cover:

1. Rice flour fine - 1/2 cup

2. Salt - 2-3 pinches

3. Ghee - 1/2 teaspoon

4. Water - 1/2 cup 

For the filling:

1. Coconut grated(fresh/frozen)- 1/2 cup

2. Jaggery grated - 1/3 cup 

3. Cardamom powder - 1/4 teaspoon

4. Water - 1 tablespoon

Method:

For the filling:

1. Heat a wide pan and add grated jaggery and 1 tablespoon water. 

2. Allow the jaggery to melt completely, then add grated coconut.

3. Keep the flame on medium and stir continuously. Cook until all the moisture evaporates and the mixture becomes dry.

4. Add cardamom powder and turn off the flame. Keep it aside.

 For the outer covering:

1. Boil 1/2 cup water in a heavy bottom vessel and add salt and ghee.

2. When the water starts to boil, slowly add in the rice flour little by little. Stir continuously. After adding all the rice flour, turn off the flame. It is fine if you notice any lumps in the rice dough.

3. Cover the vessel and allow it to cool for 3-4 minutes. 

4. Place the rice dough on a working surface and knead it well. At this stage, you should be able to break all the lumps. Once the dough is smooth, place it covered.

Assembling: 

1. Take a small lemon sized ball of rice dough and flatten it as a small disc on your palm.

2. Take a lemon sized coconut-jaggery filling and place it in the middle of the disc.

3. Pinch the corners of the disc(see picture below) and close them to form a garlic pod shape.

4. If required make vertical groves on the modakam using a fork.

5. Similarly make modakams with rest of the dough. Keep both the rice dough and finished modakams covered at all times.

Final Steaming:

1. Boil water in a steamer/idli steamer. 

2. Place them on a steamer plate or idli plate.

3. Cover and steam for 12-15 minutes.

Modakams are ready to serve.

Types of Ladoo:
1. Boondi Ladoo
2. Coconut Ladoo
3. Coconut Ladoo with Jaggery

Coconut Ladoo with Jaggery

Serving: Makes 12 ladoos

Ingredients:
1. Coconut grated(fresh/frozen)- 1/2 cup

2. Jaggery grated - 1/3 cup 

3. Cardamom powder - 1/4 teaspoon

4. Water - 1 tablespoon

Method:

1. Heat a wide pan and add grated jaggery and 1 tablespoon water. 

2. Allow the jaggery to melt completely, then add grated coconut.

3. Keep the flame on medium and stir continuously. Cook until all the moisture evaporates and the mixture becomes dry.

4. Add cardamom powder and turn off the flame. Allow the mixture to cool down.

5. Make small balls and these delicious ladoo are ready to eat.