ENDURI PITHA

Ingredients:

1 & a half  cup rice (chaula)

1 cup black gram (biri)

1 cup scrubbed coconut (nadia kora)

100 gm cottage cheese (chhena)

150  gm jaggery (guda)

3 small cardamoms (gujurati / aleicha)

6 peppercorns (golmaricha)

Green turmeric leaves (haladi patra)

Salt to taste (luna)

Method:

Soak rice and blackgram for about 4 hours. Use only the skinless blackgram for the purpose. Wash the same thoroughly and then grind into a thick batter. It need not be a very fine paste. Grind leaving a little coarseness in the rice. Whip well. Leave the batter for fermenting for about eight hours. Add salt and mix well. Now to prepare the stuffing, place a frying pan on medium flame. Put the scrubbed coconut, cottage chheese and jaggery. Stir and fry the same till it becomes a little dry. Then add powdered cardamom and blackpepper. Mix well and keep aside. Now to prepare the pitha take one whole green turmeric leaf (If the leaf is of bigger size you may trim it). Put a little batter on the leaf and flatten the same.  Then put the required quantity of stuffing on the batter and fold the turmeric leaf lengthwise in such a way that the stuffing gets sandwitched in between two layers of batter. Tie a thread around the folded leaf to keep it secured. Now we are going to steam it in the traditional way. It is similar to the way we steam idli. But the round shaped moulds found inthe idli stands won't do. Because our pitha is long shaped. So if you are using an idli stand instead of using the round shaped moulds make suitable modifications. Other wise to follow an age-old Oriya method take a wide mouthed pot. Fill it upto half with water. Then tie a muslin cloth tightly around its mouth. Carefully place the tied leaf containing stuffed batter on the cloth. Cover it with a concave shaped lid. Steam it till done and fork comes  out clean. This way go on steaming pithas one after another. The delicate aroma of turmric leaf is a special feature of the pitha. In case of non-availability of green turmetic leaf, you could also alternatively use plantain leaf. But in that case the aroma of turmeric leaf would be missing.

Enduri pitha is a special delicacy of the Prathamastami festival. This has been a part of the traditional Oriya festivities. There is a striking similaity of the pitha with patholi, a popular dish of Kerala. It is surprising how this recipe found common acceptance in two different remote culinary cultures centuries back.