Ingredients

• For the filling:
• 1 fresh grated coconut
• 1/2 cup - sugar or grated jaggery
• 2 to 3 cardamoms, powdered
• For the pastry:
• 1/2 kg - rice flour
• 1 cup - water
• 1/2 tsp - unsalted butter
• a pinch salt

How to Make Feisty Ukdi Che Modak

• For the filling:
• Combine the coconut, sugar, and cardamom powder in a saucepan.
• Cook over a slow flame till much of the liquid has evaporated, but the filling is still moist to the touch.
• Otherwise it can get too dry by the time you are ready to stuff the pastry.
• For the pastry:
• In a saucepan, bring water to boil. Stir in butter and salt.
• When the water has boiled, reduce the heat and pour in the rice flour, stirring constantly to prevent it from lumping.
• Once steam rises from the mixture and it looks like glass, it is ready.
• Remove it on to a platter. It cools quickly. Immediately knead it into a dough.
• Divide it into balls of dough 1 inches in diameter.
• Using a rolling board and a pin, or your fingers, roll or pat each ball into an even, thin circle, 3 - 5 inches wide.
• Make the circular cover or pary as thin as possible. If it is too thick, it will taste doughy and over power the flavour of the filling.
• For steaming:
• Place 1 teaspoon full of filling in the centre of each path.
• Fold up the edges to create flattened, inverted cone atop the mound of filling.
• The result should resemble a fig. Ensure that the filling is tightly sealed in the cover, or it will ooze out during steaming.
• Traditionally, a vessel called the modak patra is used to steam the dumpling.
• As most people do not own one and it may be hard to locate, here is an alternative.
• When all the modaks are ready, arrange them (5 - 6 at a time) in a steel or brass sieve lined with a banana leaf, cheese cloth or plastic.
• Find the pan atop which the sieve sits comfortably, and can be covered.
• Boil water in it and place the modak filled sieve on it. Cover tightly.
• Steaming each batch of modak takes only 3-5 mins.
• As both dough and filling have been cooked previously.
• Again, the test to check if it is done is a glassy look to the pastry.
• If they look evenly glassy, they are ready. Remove to a platter, and put the next batch to steam.
• These modaks, unlike the deep-fried ones, must be eaten hot, or they will taste doughy.