Poha and jaggery modaks: an easy no-khoya recipe ready in 10 minutes

With Ganpati Bappa home for the festival, most households make fried, steamed or khoya modaks for the offering. This year, try a different option: soft modaks made from poha (flattened rice) and jaggery. The recipe is simple to make, tastes excellent, needs very few ingredients, and everything required is likely already in the kitchen, so there is no need for a special trip to the market.

The ingredients are one bowl of poha, one bowl of milk, three-fourths of a bowl of grated jaggery, one teaspoon of ghee, half a bowl of desiccated coconut or dry grated coconut, a little salt, cardamom and nutmeg powder, a few pieces of cashew and almond, and a modak mould.

First, clean the poha, sieving out any fine debris two or three times; it can also be rinsed once with water if needed. Take one bowl of milk in a pan, add the poha, and keep the flame very low, since a high flame will cause the milk to stick to the bottom. Stir continuously for two to three minutes so the poha softens in the milk and absorbs all of it; covering it partly helps it soften further. Turn off the flame once the milk has been fully absorbed.

Once the poha has cooled slightly, transfer it to a mixer jar and add the grated jaggery. Using grated rather than whole jaggery helps it blend quickly, and the sweetness can be adjusted up or down. Blending this mixture makes it soft and sticky. No sugar should be added at all, since the jaggery alone gives it its colour and sweetness.

Next, heat the ghee in the pan again, add the coconut, and roast it for just two minutes without letting it turn too brown. If desiccated coconut is not available, dry grated coconut or fresh coconut can be used instead. Once the coconut is lightly roasted, add the poha-jaggery mixture and stir continuously on a low flame for four to five minutes, since it can otherwise stick to the bottom. The mixture will gradually thicken and start to leave the sides of the pan. At this point, add a pinch of salt, which brings out the sweetness further, then the cardamom powder and grated nutmeg, which pair well with the jaggery. Pieces of cashew and almond can be added if desired.

Once the mixture has cooled a little, grease the hands and the inside of the modak mould with ghee. Fill the mould with small portions of the mixture and press down; opening the mould gives a neatly shaped modak. If a mould is not available, small laddus can be shaped by hand instead. These modaks keep well in the fridge for two days, making the recipe useful for sudden guests or when something sweet is needed quickly for the offering. Made without khoya or mawa, in little time and at little cost, these jaggery-poha modaks are worth trying this year.