Modakas / Kollukattai / Kadubu (Spiced)

One of the offerings for Lord Ganesha on the day of the Ganesha Chaturthi is Kadubu. This is done in quite a lot of varieties and here we look at the Spiced Version or the Khara Kadubu in Kannada. This is how my mom prepares Kadubus at home. Few do it with the Rice flour but this is the recipe that I got from my mom and it came out perfect at my first trial.

I made this with a variation. I added Peas to it so that its colourful and as i made this for dinner, didnt want this plain. In Karnataka as a variation they add avarekalu.

Ingredients :
Rice : 1 cup (Idli Rice / Parboiled rice) Oil : 1 tbl spoon Mustard seeds : 1 tea spn Urad Dhal : 1 tea spn Curry Leves : 2 stings Green / Red chilles : As per taste Peas /Avarekalu : Optional SaltMethod of preparation :
Soak Rice for about 4 to 5 hours and grind it into a smooth batter, add sufficient salt while grinding. You can chose to have it coarse also. Add a table spoon of oil in non stick deep pan, once its hot add mustard seeds followed by Urad dhal, Curry leaves and finely chopped chillies. Add cooked peas now if u wish. When you add peas you gotta add some salt to it and mix well, reduce the flame and pour in the ground batter into it and mix it continiously such that it becomes a thick dough. Remove from flame and rest it till you feel you can handle the dough with your hands.Now take small portions of the dough and mold it to the shape you wish, normally its done in the shape shown in the pic and is called as pidi kollukattai. Keep these in the idli cooker and steam cook it for about 7 to 10 min. I have microwaved it for 6 min.

WISH ALL MY VISITORY A VERY HAPPY GANESHA CHATHURTHI