Ganesha means ‘Lord / Chief of the Ganas’ (an army of divine beings) also the ‘Lord of the people’.

The festival Ganesh Chaturthi involves celebration and worship of one of the most favored deities of Hinduism Lord Ganesha.

Lord Ganesha is also known as Vinayaka, Ganpati, or Vighnaharta which means the remover of obstacles. Lord Ganesha is the younger son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.Ganesh Chaturthi / Vinayaka Chaturth is is the most popular loved festival in India ,celeberated with great fervour in many states but most importantly in a very grand manner in Maharashtra.

The preparations for the festivities begins as early as in the month of Ashada , getting the various idlols of different sizes ready for the installations in various Ganesh mandals in Maharashtra. Ganesha is the most beloved deity in Hinduism. This year, it is falling on 7 th September 2024

Aalso called as Vinayaka chaturthi ,it is a 11 days long festival and believed to be the time when Lord Ganesh is on the earth to bestow his divine blessings and grace on his ardent devotees.

During the period of 11 days, people worship the idol of Lord Ganesha and on the day of Anant Chaturdashi, that’s the tenth day, the idol of Ganesha is immersed in the nearest water body which is called Visarjan.

Date and Time

Every year, Ganesh Chaturthi falls on the Chaturthi Tithi of Shukla Paksha of Bhadra Month. This year, it is celebrated on 18 th September 2023

Significance

According to Hindu beliefs, Lord Ganesh is considered the god who is worshipped first before any other god in any puja or ritual. It is also believed that fasting during this time removes all the obstacles. 

Ganesh mantra

“Om Gam Ganpataye Namah”

Meaning: It means bowing down to the Almighty Ganpati with all our existence and accepting all his great qualities in our self-being. 

"Om Vignanaashnay Namah"

Meaning: Ganpati is also worshipped to remove obstacles from one’s life. Here vigna means obstacles and nashnay means One who removes obstacles.

Most important neivediyamoffered is modaks /modalam/kozhakkatai in various types like sweet ,jaggery ,sesame, coconut,dal, savoury , fried and steamed varieties .

The no of modakams depends on each family customs and ones ability from a minimum of 9 to 108 or even more .

The recipes below is a typical south Indian style rice kozhakkatai prepared easily by using ground ricebatter or rice flour .

Both sweet and salt kozhukkatais are very easy to prepare .This is a pretty simple recipe and easy to make. Traditionally this is made by soaking raw rice in water for few minutes and then draining it off water and spreading on a clean cloth to dry off naturally.

Then this is powdered, sieved and the superb soft , slightly damp flour is used to make these dumplings.

For neivediyam purpose it is better to prepare the flour at home ,and for bulk,you can use store bought flour .

As we are now pampered by all these branded store bought flour ready to use and I have fallen prey to this due to lack of time and convenience. topreparekozhakkatai as tiffin on many days .

Personally Iam never satisfied with the store bought flour as I do not get the pure white colour to the dumplings but having no choice , have used it many times .On certain occasions like Sankatahaara chaturthi , I make it the old traditional way as we do not have to prepare other varieties of snacks and it is not a festival time either.besides being a prasadam or neivediyam , store bought flour is ot recommended .

Another way is to soak rice in water for 3 hours, grind to a smooth paste , dilute and cook the paste in a pan till it comes together to a smooth non sticky dough . i will be posting these recipes in the blog .This method is also very suitable for preparing kozhakkatai for neivediyam .

To prepare rice flour at home , soak required qty of rice after washing well , draining it in a colander , spread on a cotton cloth and allow to air dry , but not completely, then blend this in home mixer, till it is fine , sieve it well once or twice to remove grits , use this super fine smooth rice powder to prepare kozhakkatai .

Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour

1/ 2 cup jaggery powdered

3/4 cup coconut flakes, either dry or fresh coconut

pinch of cardamom

small pinch of salt

Water as needed to make the dough.

1 tsp oil

Method:

Instead of making jaggery syrup it is much easier to prepare a good jaggery pooranam by adding palm jaggery or native jaggery powder directly to grated coconut and stir with cardamom powder . it makes it faster and less messy .

If you want to prepare pooranam with regular jaggery then , First prepare the jagggery coconut filling ready by preparing the melted jaggery syrup, in a pan . Let the jaggery melt competely with little water and when it starts bubbling add the coconut and cardamom powder and quickly stir, or else it will start crystallising. You can add litltle water if you think the filling is getting to be too brittle and sticky.

Let the filling cool and make small balls of it ready to be used a s filling. Just roll the filling ingredients into small soft balls.

To prepare the dough for the outer cover …tips mostly for beginners only.

• Take a pan of water , boil well, and keep the flour ready,

• add the salt, 1 tsp oil and and when the water has come to a good boil, pour it in small quantities as you keep mixing the flour with a spatula.

• Keep stirring the flour with hot water , just enough to make a dough.

• Cover and keep for few minutes till the dough is just warm enough to handle and then take the whole dough,

• knead well with little oil if need be and make small balls of it .

• Apply little oil in the palm and take a small ball of dough and make a deep depression with your thumb in the middle,

• you will get a deep crater, then work with both your hands around the depression to enlarge the cup, to get a deep cup and keep turning around till the layer is thinned and then keep the filling in the centre ,

• cover with the dough and bring it together like a potliin the middle.. Make several such modaks as will fit in your idli steamer.

• Keep the prepared modaks covered , dont allow to dry out or else the modaks will get cracks while steaming.Keep the idli steamer with water ready and boiling , pace the prepared modaks in the cooke container or idli stand and cover and steam for 15 minutes till they look shiny and beads of water on the cover will indicate they are done.

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