Temple Prasadams ~ Pillayarpatti Modakam

Tamilnadu is known for it's century old temples and I had a hunch that probably I could find a treasure trove of traditional temple recipes if I looked at in the right place. After a few searches on the web, I ended up on a page where I found a list of popular temples in the state and the food associated with them. Yesterday's Azhagar kovil dosa was on that list too though I found it before this search. There was a mention of Karpaga Vinayagar temple of Pillayarpatti on that list, which happens to be an ancient rock cut temple, near Karaikudi. The name of the town is derived from the word 'Pillayar', a Tamil word for Ganesha and obviously the presiding deity of the temple is Lord Ganesha.
This modakam / mothagam is made and distributed as prasadam in the Pillayar temple and when I looked for the recipe, I landed at Sharmi's Place. It sounded similar to Andhra's undrallu recipe albeit a sweeter version. I halved her recipe as there was no one else to share with me and got about nine modakam. They were subtly sweet and in spite of that they were so yummy that I ended up eating a few skipping my lunch. I went by my regular undrallu making method and ended up adding more water than the original recipe mentioned. However still mine were not looking that moist as in the original recipe and I am guessing it is because of the coarser rava I used. 

Ingredients: (Yield 9 modakam)
1/2 cup rice (uncooked) / rice rava
2 tbsp. yellow moong dal
6 - 8 tbsp. jaggery
2 tbsp. fresh shredded coconut
1 tbsp. ghee + extra for greasing

Method:
* Dry toast rice for a couple of minutes and set aside. This step can be skipped if using rice rava. Dry roast moong dal until it starts to turn golden brown. When both rice and moong dal are at room temperature, transfer them to a grinder and coarsely powder them, like rava. (I used the store bought rice rava and just coarsely ground the moong dal.)

* Heat a tsp. of ghee and lightly toast the rava mixture for a couple of minutes.
*  Dissolve jaggery in about 1&1/2 cups water and strain for any impurities. (I skip this step as the jaggery I buy usually is good.) Heat the jaggery water until it starts to boil.
* Lower the heat and add the rice-moong mixture in a slow flow, continuously stirring. 
 
 
* Cover and cook until the mixture looks almost done. Add the ghee, coconut and cardamom and stir for about a minute.
* Turn off the stove and let the mixture cool enough to handle.
 
* Grease your palm with ghee and shape the mixture into lime sized balls. Place them in a greased container.
 
* Steam them for about 10 minutes and serve warm.



This is my post under 'Traditional temple Recipes'. Check the blogging marathon page to see what my fellow marathoners are cooking for BM#52.

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