I don't think I can explain it better than the recent 1 minute emal post on Food52. I just couldn't resist sharing the recipe after seeing the short film. <br />This dish is a must do every year for the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi.. It celebrates the elephant headed god of all good , auspicious beginnings, (and I would include, the absolute patron of all things related to food). <br /> <br />Ganesha is depicted as holding a bowl of 'modaks' in his left hand. These sweet confections resemble little bags of money. These modaks are basically a sweet filling with either a fried wrapping made out of wheat flour or a steamed variety with a covering made of rice flour dough. The word modak is thought to be a corruption of the Sanskrit Madhu golaka (Madhu- sweet/ honey; golaka: sphere / ball). <br /> <br />Getting ready to make the steamed version always induced a low level anxiety in my mother every year. She used to say that the lord's mood determined if the modaks (or kozhakattai, as they are known in Tamil) would emerge perfectly steamed or turned out to be a disintegrated mess. The solution: always make a tiny 'Ganesha' by pinching a bit of dough between the thumb, index and middle finger. <br /> <br />The toughest part of making the modak is getting the rice flour dough right. too much water and the dough does not wrap itself well around the filling, too little and the skin cracks up while steaming. <br />The modaks invariably are made in odd numbers, usually 11, 21 and usually the amount of rice flour made far exceeds the amount of filling. The remaining dough is then seasoned with mustard, asafetida, chile and curry leaf. The mix is 'pinched' off into tiny bits and then steamed to make what are known as 'ammini' or 'mani' kozhakattai. These tiny morsels are highly addictive, don't know why, they just are! <br />

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