Ganesh Chathurthi Special

Today is my daughter’s birthday.  Due to a cyclic coincidence that I am yet to learn about, today is also Ganesh Chathurthi, a special day of celebration for the elephant headed Hindu God, Ganesha, the remover of all obstacles; just as it was nineteen years ago on the day my daughter was born.

Every Hindu knows that Kozhakattai (also known as Modhakam - https://www.subbuskitchen.com/thengai-purana-kozhukattai-cocunut/) is Ganesha’s favorite sweet.  It is a sweet rice dumpling filled with coconut cooked in jaggery syrup.  Growing up my mom made this sweet offering and a savory counterpart every year on the God’s special day.  It was a time consuming process – soak, dry and grind the rice, make the filling, make the rice paste, form the kozhukattais and finally steam them. I was not a big fan of coconut and the sweet did not appeal to me much.

When I moved to the United States after my marriage, I still observed the special day but with simple fruit offerings to the God.  But somehow, somewhere my daughter got a taste of kozhakattais and when she was about seven, convinced me that we should make them for Ganesh Chathurthi with promises of helping in the kitchen.

Thankfully, by then, several Indian men and women were posting recipe blogs on the internet and I found a short cut method to make kozhakattais using store bought rice flour.  We made the rice paste and the filling and painstakingly made smalls cups out of the rice paste, placed the filling and finished up the cutest looking teardrop shaped kozhakattais.  Since we were running out of ‘auspicious’ time, I steamed the first batch of nine kozhakattais so that we could offer them to Ganesha on time.  But I made the rookie mistake of adding more than needed water to steam the batch and the nine kozhakattais came out looking a little shattered.  They also stuck to each other.

I am not a stickler for perfection when it comes to how food looks, especially when it comes to food that I make. So I proceeded to plate the kozhukattais and took them to the altar to offer them to Ganesha. WAIT! Screamed my daughter as she rushed into her room.  I wondered what she was up to when she came in with a piece of paper.  She had drawn nine perfect looking tear drop shaped kozhakattais. ‘So that Ganesha will know that this is how they were supposed to look, Amma!’ she says.  A visual aid to go with the misshapen kozhakattais. I’m sure Ganesha appreciated it.

None of us humans needed the visual aid as we stuffed our faces with the kozhakattais – yes, I have a grown up taste for coconut now.

This year, with daughter away at college, Ganesha will be receive healthy fruit offerings again.  I will make and offer kozhakkatis to daughter when she comes home over a weekend.