Ganesh Utsav is one of my favorite Indian festivals and Ganpati is my favorite deity. Celebrated throughout India Ganesh Utsav was started by Lokmanya Tilak during the pre independence era. The reason behind starting this festival was to unite people and it is definitely serving it’s purpose even after 68 years of Independence.

Being born and brought in Mumbai, this festival is extremely close to my heart. The Ganesh Pandals, Aartis, Modak, Dressing up in saree, Dhol music, Visiting friends and family is the highlight of this festival. After moving to US,  I thought that I won’t be able to celebrate it in a same way as I used to do in India but I am so fortunate to have friends around me who love to celebrate each and every Indian festival with so much zest and enthusiasm.

Every year I celebrate this festival with my friend Shital. We got the Ganpati at her place. Did decorations the earlier night, made modaks, pedhas, barfis etc for the prasad to welcome the cutest Indian lord Ganesh 🙂 It felt just like India. This year I made Ukadiche Modak, Gulkand Pedha and Mango Kalakand!

This year the festive season is much more special as my Mother in Law & Mom started with www.mefestive.com which aims to get all the things available in US which will help us to celebrate festivals in a much more easy and grandeur way. The arti taal, modak moulds, ganesh chatri, mushak, mukut, garlands, rangoli stencils, nath, edible silver warkh, etc in the pics of this post were all available on mefestive.com. Join our Me Festive Facebook group to get further updates on upcoming festive items.

The best part was so many folks bought these items and celebrated the Ganesh Festival. A big thanks to them for sharing the pics with us on Me Festive Group.

Crave Cook Click Facebook Group also hosted the Ganpati Meetup on 13th September. CCC members came decked up in sarees and got amazing prasad delicacies. The highlight of the meetup was the Clay Ganpati idol demo give by Ritu Shrivastava. So many of the members followed the demo and made their own clay and eco friendly Ganpatis. Click here to see more pics of this meetup.

Overall this year’s Ganesh Utsav was so much fun and fulfilling..Ganpati Bappa Morya <3

Here are the recipes of the prasad.

Gulkand Pedha Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 cup condensed milk

1/2 cup gulkand

1 tbsp rose essence

red color as required

Silver Warkh for Decorations

Method

In a pan mix all the ingredients mentioned above together and cook for 30 minutes. Keep stirring continuously while it is being cooked. After 30 minutes let it cool down. Once it is cooled down refrigerate it for 4-5 hours. Remove it from fridge and roll it into pedhas. Add silver warkh on top for decoration.
In case if you don’t have silver warkh, you can order on mefestive.com

Mango Kalakand Recipe

Ingredients

8 cups or 2 quart milk

1/2 cup sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice (for making paneer)

1/2 cup mango pulp

1 tablespoon sliced almonds or pistachio for garnishing

Silver warkh for garnishing

Method

For Making Paneer

Mix lemon juice in ¼ cup of hot water and put aside.

Boil the 4 cups of milk in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, making sure not to burn milk.

As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice gradually and stir the milk gently. The curd will start separating from the whey, turn off the heat.

Once the milk fat has separated from the whey, drain the whey using a strainer line with cheesecloth, or muslin cloth.

Wrap the curds in a muslin cloth, rinse under cold water, and squeeze well. This process takes out the sourness from the lemon.

To take out the excess water, squeeze the wrapped paneer. Do not knead the paneer.

For Making Kalakand

Boil remaining 4 cup of the milk in a heavy bottom frying pan on medium high heat until the milk reduces to about two cups.

Make sure to frequently stir the milk as the milk burns easily in bottom of the pan.

Add the paneer in the milk and keep stirring till the mixture thickness and form a soft dough consistency.

Add the sugar and continue to cook and stirring until the mixture become soft lump and start leaving the pan from sides. Add mango pulp and mix well. Stir for 15 more minutes.

Pour it over greased plate keeping about half inch thick.

Let it cool for about one hour. Cut the kalakand in squares.

Garnish it with pistachios and silver warkh. In case if you don’t have silver warkh, you can order on mefestive.com

Ukadiche Modak Recipe

Ingredients

To make ukad

2 cup Rice Flour. I use idiayyam rice flour

2.5   cup of water

pinch of Salt

2 tsp Ghee

To make stuffing

2 cup shredded Coconut

2 cup Jaggery

4 tbsp Poppy seeds

Cardamom powder

Roasted cashewnuts and raisins

Method

To make ukad

Mix rice flour and glutinous flour well and seive 2 to 3 times.

Boil water, to that add pinch of salt and tsp of ghee and pour rice flour and mix well.Cover with damp cloth and keep for 10 mts.

To make stuffing

In a pan, roast the poppy seeds.

Once they are roasted well add the shredded coconut and jaggery. Mix everything well.

Finally add cardamom powder and cashewnuts. The stuffing is ready.

To make modak

Take ukad, wet hands with water as well as some oil and knead ukad in soft dough.

Now start to pat ball in to small bowl size shape, now stuff filling and start to make plates around stuffing.

Gather all plates at the center of stuffing and try to seal edges. Keep the modaks covered with a wet cloth as they can dry out.

Heat up 1 inch of water in Idly cooker, put one small round pot, over that place small thali or chalni. On top of the chalni place a banana leaf.

Now place modak on the banana leaf, leaving enough space around each modak.

Steam for 10 mts over medium heat.

Modak are ready to be served:)

Here is the video link of making using of Me Festive modak moulds to make modaks

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/q_cOeX1HxQg” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Today is Ganesh Visarjan and here in pic by my friend Ritesh Haldankar

Click on the below gallery to view all pics from my this year’s celebration

[Show slideshow]

◄ 1 2 3