Labor Day weekend is here and so is Ganesh Chaturthi. This is the time when we pay homage to the elephant Lord, Lord Ganesha and pray for a fuss free life sans obstacles. And get to eat Modkas! Here is my sugar free modak recipe with banana and dates.
The traditional offering or prasad for Lord Ganesha is of course modak! Modak is a kind of dumpling or stuffed parcel primarily made with coconut. Fresh coconut is scraped and cooked with sugar, milk and cardamom to create a sweet stuffing. In my family, this stuffing is placed inside small ‘parcels’ made of flour which are then deep fried. Another type of modak is the steamed modak or ukadiche modak. A similar coconut stuffing is placed inside parcels or dumplings made of steamed rice flour and steamed again.
Both the methods have something in their favor, because they both give us a tasty sweet treat which is enjoyed only once a year. Traditionally, these modaks are always made in batches of 21.
In the past few years, there has been a flood of ‘modern’ or ‘fancy’ modaks in the market, with chocolate, nuts and even savory modaks doing the rounds.
IMHO, it is not sufficient to shape something like a modak to call it one. Otherwise, veg momos, or dimsum could also be called modak.
One of the must have ingredient of the modak is fresh coconut. And so I have taken a stab at trying out a modern modak. Since I am going out of the box anyway, I decided to go all the way and make it sugar free and vegan.
Was I successful? I will let you decide.
Modaks, especially the steamed variety, are generally eaten with loads of ghee. These modaks do not have ghee, and I made a chocolate sauce to go along with it.
Bananas and dates make the filling sweet and quite meaty. This is my first attempt at making ukadiche modaks, so they are a bit rustic :).
I have used cinnamon to flavor the modak because I just love the whole banana-cinnamon-chocolate combination. But you could keep it traditional and just use cardamom.
Naturally sweetened without artificial sweeteners, dairy free, and steamed – how much healthier could these Banana & Date Modaks get?
Banana Date Modak Recipe
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:179]
Give these a try and let me know how they turned out. Have you checked out my latest book Chai Street yet? Read all about it here, and get plenty of ideas of scrumptious Indian food like pakoras, Chaat, Pav Bhaji, Dahi Bhallas etc. for your Labor Day party.
