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

Method:

1. For the filling:
2. Combine the coconut, sugar, and cardamom powder in a saucepan.
3. Cook over a slow flame till much of the liquid has evaporated, but the filling is still moist to the touch.
4. Otherwise it can get too dry by the time you are ready to stuff the pastry.
5. For the pastry:
6. In a saucepan, bring water to boil. Stir in butter and salt.
7. When the water has boiled, reduce the heat and pour in the rice flour, stirring constantly to prevent it from lumping.
8. Once steam rises from the mixture and it looks like glass, it is ready.
9. Remove it on to a platter. It cools quickly. Immediately knead it into a dough.
10. Divide it into balls of dough 1 inches in diameter.
11. Using a rolling board and a pin, or your fingers, roll or pat each ball into an even, thin circle, 3 – 5 inches wide.
12. 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.
13. For steaming:
14. Place 1 teaspoon full of filling in the centre of each path.
15. Fold up the edges to create flattened, inverted cone atop the mound of filling.
16. The result should resemble a fig. Ensure that the filling is tightly sealed in the cover, or it will ooze out during steaming.
17. Traditionally, a vessel called the modak patra is used to steam the dumpling.
18. As most people do not own one and it may be hard to locate, here is an alternative.
19. 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.
20. Find the pan atop which the sieve sits comfortably, and can be covered.
21. Boil water in it and place the modak filled sieve on it. Cover tightly.
22. Steaming each batch of modak takes only 3-5 mins.
23. As both dough and filling have been cooked previously.
24. Again, the test to check if it is done is a glassy look to the pastry.
25. If they look evenly glassy, they are ready. Remove to a platter, and put the next batch to steam.
26. These modaks, unlike the deep-fried ones, must be eaten hot, or they will taste doughy.

Recipe courtesy of Anita Raheja