‘Ukadiche Modak‘ is a classic Indian recipe from a coastal state – Maharashtra. Modak’s are prepared as offering to lord Ganesha for festivals; especially for ‘Ganesh Chaturthi‘. Beautifully shaped modak’s not just look pretty but tastes amazing too. These ukadiche modak’s are prepared using rice flour with stuffing of coconut and jaggery. This stuffing is lightly flavoured with cardamom and nutmeg powders. To make a modak, rice flour needs to be steamed first. Steamed rice flour is further used to stuff and shape the modak. This process of flour steaming is known as ukad in local language and thus recipe is known as ‘Ukadiche Modak’.

In this post, I am sharing my recipe of ukadiche modak which I inherited from my mum. This recipe is simple and straightforward when ingredients are used precisely. Although little practice and patience requires to shape them which one can master over the time. Nowadays, moulds are easily available in market to shape the modak, but handmade one’s look and tastes better too😊. Check out detailed step-step recipe as below:

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups of rice flour

1 and 1/2 cups of water (Water & flour ratio should be 1:1)

2 tbsp of ghee (clarified butter)

2 cups of shredded coconut

1 cup of jaggery

1 tsp of cardamom powder

Little pinch of nutmeg powder

Little pinch of salt

1/4 cup of milk (Optional)

Few strands of saffron (Optional)

Water for steaming

Method:

Start with heating 1&1/2 cups of water in a saucepan.

Once water starts boiling, gradually add rice flour and keep stirring it continuously.

Once rice flour is added, you can switch off the gas. Flour will soak all the water.

Please ensure no lumps are formed and you can kneed the dough properly.

Add milk, salt and 1 tbsp of ghee to it. Kneed the dough thoroughly until it,s soft.

Cover the dough and keep aside for few minutes. (Tip : Knead the dough when its warm enough which will help to shape the Modak properly.) Our ukad is ready now.

Next step is to make stuffing. Heat a pan over medium heat and add mixed coconut – jaggery into it.

Keep stirring the mixture but do not overcook it. We just need to remove excess moisture from grated coconut. (If overcooked, this stuffing will turn too hard and it will be difficult to mould the Modak).

Add 1 tbsp of ghee, cardamom and nutmeg powder to stuffing. Let the mixture cool down to room temperature.

Next is a moulding process, take the dough and kneed it again just to ensure it is not too soft or hard.

Make small lime sized balls of the dough and roll it like small round shaped puri.

Take a single puri on your palm and start pinching these puris from outer edge towards the centre to form petals.

Add stuffing at the centre and again pinch each petal from the edges towards the centre to secure the shape.

Now roll these little petals together in anticlockwise direction to form a Modak.

(Instead you can use moulds as well to shape the modak.)

Below video illustrates how to shape the modak, I hope it helps.

Once all Modak’s are ready, arrange them over a plate for steaming. You can use banana leaf or cotton cloth below to ensure they won’t stuck to steaming plate.

Add saffrons strands into little warm milk and put 1 saffron strand over each Modak. Though this is completely optional, it will give nice look and flavour to our Modak.

Meanwhile heat water in the steamer over high heat.

Once steamer is ready, transfer modak plate into steamer and steam for around 10 minutes.

Check after 10-12 minutes, lightly touch the modak with wet fingers. If dough is not sticking to fingers, means our ukadiche modak’s are ready.

Serve them hot with little ghee over the top.

If you enjoyed this recipe then do check out my other recipes here. If there are any suggestions, questions or feedback then do let me know in comments.

As always thanks for stopping and reading this post. Also, you can follow me on Pinterest || Instagram || Twitter for amazing food.

---

Recipe