Tuesday 14 April 2020

L for Litti Bharta

 L for Litti Bharta

Baati Chokha





Next in the series would be from L. So the most common complete dish  with L is Litti Bharta. But before we talk about this exquisite cuisine from Bihar just take a look on other items as well.


Laapsi - It is an Indian sweet dish with its origin from Gujarat and is made of broken wheat pieces (dalia) fried in ghee along with nuts, raisins and dried fruits.Its commonly used on festivals etc. and tastes lovely.

Luchi as it is called in West Bengal and Assam is deep fired flat bread or Puri as we commonly call and use across India. Puri and Aloo ki sabzi is common breakfast in most of the Northern states.

Ladoo - or round ball shaped sweet dish - offered to God and devoured through the entire country. Its variety can be innumerable- from Besan, to Boondi, From Atta to Dry fruits, Gond, Sonth etc etc...

Now - Litti Bharta or Litti Chokha - a complete meal with its origin from the state of Bihar. It is also popular in Jharkhand and parts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh by the name of Bati Chokha. It is a  very healthy and filling food. These are Floor Balls stuffed with sattu (Roasted Gram Floor) baked in Cow-dung cakes that gives it a different roasted taste.

Baati:
Ingredients:
Wheat Floor: 250 gms.
Roasted Gram Floor (Sattu): 100 gms.
Salt: As per taste
Garlic: 10 – 15 cloves (finely chopped / optional)
Green Chilly: 2 finely chopped
Dried Mango Powder: As per taste
Green Coriander: Finely chopped for garnishing
Preparation of Stuffing:
Add the finely chopped garlic, green chillies, green coriander to the roasted gram floor. Add salt and dried mango powder as per taste. Sprinkle a few drops of water and mix it as a loosely bound stuffing.
Preparation of Baati:
Knead the wheat floor into a semi hard loaf, adding small amount of water. Divide this in 12 balls. Make each ball into a cup shape pressing at the center of the ball with your thumb. Fill 2 to 3 spoons of the sattu stuffing in this and close the ball tightly. Prepare all the twelve balls like this.
Roasting of Batti in Cow-dung cake:
Cow- dung cakes are very common fuel in this part of country. 5 to 6 cakes are sorted and arranged to form like a pyramid, with one or two pieces forming the base. It is then ignited. Once the whole pyramid is in flame leave it for a  3-4 minutes. The flames would recede and the cakes would now appear red. Turn the cakes that form the peak of the pyramid with a tong and place the Baati balls on the red hot base of the pyramid. Put the cakes that were removed on these balls again. Let it roast for a few mins.( 4-5). Once it starts appearing pink again remove the cakes from the top, and turn the ball with tongs to have all the parts roasted equally. It would appear light brown. Remove it from the fire and rub all of them with a clean cloth to remove the burnt portion of the balls and the ashes. Your Baati is ready to be served. Serve it after dipping it thoroughly in Pure Ghee with Chokha / Baigan Ka Bharta. The special Bharta here is prepared by roasting Brinjal & Tomato and adding Boiled Potato to it and mashing together adding a tsp of mustard oil towards the end.
For its complete Recipe visit Bharta .
(Alternatively Litti it can be roasted in a OTG)

In Bihar Litti &Bharta is also served with Ghughni (a curry made with Black Gram).

Other Recipe as part of A to Z challenge 


Other Genres in the Challenge : 



Aditya Sinha
14.04.2020

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