BENGALURU: As the new year dawns with a rainy January, it can only be a good portent for the farmers for the rest of the year. January is the month of harvest festivals across the country with Makar Sankranti marking the beginning of the harvest season. Known by different names in different parts of the country, this all-important festival in the Hindu calendar is celebrated with a profusion of food. Makar Sankranti, also known as Makara Sankramana in Karnataka, Bihu in Assam, Sakrat in Bihar, Maghi in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, Uttarayan in Gujarat and Pongal in Tamil Nadu has a range of special recipes for the occasion. This week we bring you a special Sankranti recipe from West Bengal. Collectively, these special dishes for the occasion are called Pithe Puli, a form of refined flour and semolina pancakes, cooked and filled with a range of elaborate stuffings. These pithe are traditionally made with date tree molasses or date palm jaggery also known as nolen gur or patali gur (available in either viscous liquid form or as solid chunks which can be grated into food) that lends the pancakes a unique sweetness and aroma. These sweet treats are essential to any Makar Sankranti celebration, also known as Poush Parbon in Bengal. Chandana, a Kolkata-based home cook who specializes in traditional and modern Bengali dishes, shares with us a recipe for the occasion:
Patishapta Ingredients:
For the pithe:
Maida - 1 cup
Suji - 1 cup
Milk - 2 cups
Powdered sugar - 2 tbsp
Powdered saunf - 1/2 tsp
Ghee to cook
For the stuffing
Coconut - 1 (grated)
Gur - 200 gms
Condensed milk - 200 ml
Milk - 1/2 litre
Almond slivers - 2 tbsp
Raisins - 2 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
For the rabdi (optional)
Milk - 2 litres
Jaggery - 3 tbsp (grated or in the liquid form)
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Method
For the stuffing
Heat the ghee in a wok and add the grated coconut and milk and sugar. Keep stirring and cooking it till it dries up.
Add the condensed milk. After it becomes a semi-solid put the nuts and raisins and stir a couple of times and take it off the flame.
For the rabdi
Boil the milk and then keep it on a slow fire, stirring constantly so that it doesn’t burn, until it thickens and reduces to one third of its original amount.
Add the jaggery to the thickened milk and sprinkle the cardamom powder.
Take off the flame and cool.
For the pithe
Mix together all the ingredients for the pithe batter apart from the ghee.
Heat a tsp of on a flat tawa/pan. Lower the flame and pour one to one a half ladles of the batter on to the tawa.Try and keep the shape round and cover the pan.
After 2 mins open the cover and drizzle a little ghee from the sides so that it doesn’t stick. Flip the pithe over and wait for it to cook.
After it has browned, add two tsp of the stuffing at one end of your pithe. Roll the pithe into a pancake like roll carefully. Take off the flame.
You can serve this just as it is or pour a ladle of rabdi over the pithe.