Showing posts with label Farra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farra. Show all posts

Saturday 18 April 2020

P for Pittha from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh

P for Pittha from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh



So almost half way down ... Its P for today. Lots of common as well as uncommon dishes. To start with it is Poha - the morning breakfast from MP especially Indore.



Puran Poli - we already talked about when we discussed Obattu yesterday. Difference is that it has its taste towards Maharashtra style wherein Chana dal & Jaggery is used for stuffing.

Pork with bamboo shoot is a characteristic food of Nagaland.
Pongal is from Tamil Nadu a popular rice and lentil devoured in breakfast. 
Pootha Rekulu is  a popular Sweet East Godavari region of Andhra Pradesh where in wafer-thin rice starch layer like paper is stuffed with sugar, dry fruits and nuts. 
Papaya Khar is synonymous to Assam. 
Pav Bhaji is enjoyed as a street food across India . But a relatively healthy regional food is Pittha as it is called in Bihar & Jharkhand. or alternatively called Farra in MP, Chattisgarh & UP. 

Peettha (Pittha ) or Farra is enjoyed as snacks as well as complete food in dinner with green chutney or ghughni.


Ingredients:

For Covering :
2 cup Rice , soaked for 4 hours, strained and ground in a fine paste or 1 cup rice flour

For Stuffing :

1 cup Chana dal (Bengal Gram Dal) or Masoor Dal, soaked for 3 hours
2 Green Chillies , chopped
1 inch Ginger, peeled and chopped
3 cloves Garlic
1/2 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
1/4 teaspoon Whole Black Peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon Ajwain (Carom seeds)
1 teaspoon Sunflower Oil
Salt , as per taste
Finely chopped Coriander (Dhania) Leaves for garnish

Oil for greasing

Prepartaion

Preparation of Dough
Take the rice paste and dilute the batter by adding water to make it thin and free flowing batter. Add salt and oil 2 tbsp to the batter and mix well.

Transfer the batter to a heavy bottom kadai cook on a low flame stirring the batter constantly. Take care that no lumps are formed. Keep stirring till it turns into a soft dough. This may take 15 to 20 minutes on low flame.
Alternatively dough can be prepared by slowly adding warm water to rice floor and salt mix and kneading to fine dough.

Prepartaion of Stuffing
Take strained soaked dal and grind dal along with green chillies, ginger, garlic, salt, carom seeds cumin seeds and pepper corns to make a coarse paste. Avoid additional water.
Heat a kadhai over low flame, take a tbsp of oil and add add the ground paste. Keep stirring till the dal cooks well and they get a powdered/crumbly texture. This step will approximately take 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and add the chopped dhania leaves. The stuffing is ready

Prepartaion of Pitthas
Grease your hands with oil and take lemon size portions of the rice dough and using your hand shape them into balls. Work when the rice dough is still warm for better result. Keep the rice dough covered with a damp cloth or a lid to keep it moist while you are making balls. Make a cup and fill one spoon full stuffing. Seal the ends gently by pinching the ends using greased fingers. Repeat the same for the entire batch.

Cooking of Pitthas
Take a large wide base kadhai or cooker and take three to 4 glass of water and boil. In the boiling water place the pithas one by one and boil them for 10 –15 minutes. Once they rise they would be cooked. Drain water and serve hot with Green Chutney or /and Ghooghni .

                                          

Pithas can also be fried with rai & curry leaves tadka after cutting in pieces to be used as a tea time snacks.

Enjoy.
Aditya Sinha
18.04.2020

Other Recipes as part of A to Z challenge 2020 :