Ingredients
Makes 15 modaks. Scale using the Modak Calculator. Tap any ingredient to tick it off.
Method
Roast the sesame seeds
In a heavy dry pan, roast sesame seeds on low-medium heat, stirring constantly, until they turn light golden and begin to pop — about 4–5 minutes. They will darken quickly, so watch carefully. Transfer immediately to a plate to cool.
Make the filling
In the same pan, melt jaggery with 2 tbsp water. Add coconut and cook 5–6 minutes until dry. Add roasted sesame seeds, cardamom, and dry ginger. Stir well. Add groundnut powder if using. Cook 2 more minutes. The mixture should be fragrant and dry. Cool completely.
Make the dough
Standard method: boil water with salt and ghee, add rice flour all at once, stir vigorously, rest 5 minutes covered, knead 2–3 minutes with greased hands.
Shape
20g dough portions (slightly smaller than usual, as the sesame filling is denser). Standard disc-and-pleat method — 4–5 pleats gathered to peak. The filling may feel stiffer than coconut-only — this is normal and actually makes shaping easier.
Steam 10–12 minutes
Steam on banana leaf at medium-high heat. The sesame filling generates slightly more steam than coconut-only, so lift the lid carefully. The shells will be translucent and the peaks firm when done.
Tips & Variations
Til (sesame) is the sacred ingredient of Makar Sankranti — the January harvest festival. Til modak is particularly appropriate as a Sankranti offering: the sesame honours the harvest, the modak shape honours Ganesha. Many Maharashtra families make til modak specifically for both Ganesh Chaturthi and Sankranti.
Black sesame seeds can replace half or all of the white sesame for a dramatically different visual result — the filling turns almost black with a more intense, slightly bitter flavour. Beautiful and bold.
The sesame-jaggery-peanut combination in this filling is essentially the same as til ladoo — the Sankranti sweet. Some cooks make a large batch of til ladoo mixture and use half for ladoos and half for modaks. Logical, efficient, and delicious.
Sesame seeds are rich in calcium, iron, and healthy fats. At 168 kcal per modak with 4g protein and 2.8g fibre, til modak is the most nutritionally dense of the traditional steamed varieties.
About This Recipe
Sesame — til in Hindi and Marathi, ellu in Tamil and Kannada — is one of the oldest cultivated oilseeds in India, with a history stretching back to the Indus Valley Civilisation. It appears in the Rigveda as a sacred ingredient. It is used in Ayurvedic medicine for its warming properties. It is the essential ingredient of Makar Sankranti.
Til modak brings sesame into the Ganesha tradition — not as a stranger, but as a food with its own ancient sacred credentials. The combination of sesame and jaggery is one of the oldest in Indian cooking, predating the British period by millennia. Together they create a filling that is darker, more complex, and more warming than coconut-jaggery alone.
In winter — when Ganesh Chaturthi and Sankashti Chaturthi observances continue monthly and sesame is at peak quality — til modak is the modak of choice for many Maharashtra households. The warming quality of sesame is not just culinary preference: in Ayurveda, sesame is considered heating (ushna in nature), making it the appropriate food for cold months.