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.

BUDHA CHAKULI

Ingredients:

2 cups rice (arua chaula)
1 cup black gram (biri dali)
1 table spoon refined edible oil (rifaain tela)
salt to taste (luna)
1 cup molasses (pania guda)
1 cup grated coconut (nadia kora)
10-15 small pieces of thin coconut slices (nadia khandi)
2 ripe banana (pachila kadali)

Method:

Soak rice and black gram seperately in water for about 4 hours. For this purpose you should use only the skinless black gram. Grind the softned rice and black gram to a fine paste. Then mix the batter. Add salt. Then add grated coconut and small pieces of thin coconut slices. Then smash the ripe banana and add to the batter. Now add mollasses to it. (In case mollasses is not available, you may manage with sugar.) Then add water to get a semiliquid batter and whip well. Heat tawa  (non-stick tawa is most suitable) on medium flame. Spread a little oil on the tawa. Lower the flame. Take the batter in a big spoon and do not spread the same on the tawa or karai . Cover the lid. Turn the pitha upside down. Then take the same out carefully. This way go on making pithas one after another. Remember to grease the surface of tawa with eible oil everytime. This pitha may also be tried without the use of banana. Serve hot. It is an age old typical Odia dish.

CHHENA PODA

Ingredients:

3 cups(850 gms) ricotta cheese(chenna)
(or home made cheese)
3 tbsp semolina (sooji)
1 cup sugar(chini)
½ cup brown sugar/Jaggery (guda)
1 teaspoon cardamom powder(gujarati)
8 pieces roasted cashew nuts (kaju)
15 raisins (kismis)
100 gms butter-unsalted (optional)

Method:
 

Mix the ricotta cheese, semolina, sugar and brown sugar in a big bowl. Use a hand mixer to make a smooth batter. Then add a butter stick (optional). Mix it again; add cardamom powder, roasted cashew nuts, and raisins to the smooth batter. Pre heat the oven at 350 ºC, grease the container with butter and pour the smooth batter to the container and bake the cheese for 40-45 mins until the top turns light brown in color at 350 ºC . Then use broil for 2-3 mins to get a baked (podo) look on the top. Take out the container and allow it to cool down. Cut into pieces and serve.

(Tips: 1. Adding brown sugar or jaggery gives a typical authentic look and taste to the chenna podo.2. While cooling down the chenna podo, make sure to cover the container with a foil, so that the chenna podo will remain moist).

KAKARA PITHA

Ingredients:

For  dough (khali):

4-cups wheat flour (ata)

2-cups sugar (chini)

½  litre refined oil (rifaain tela)

For  stuffing:

Grated coconut-1 cup (nadia kora)

½ - cup sugar (chini)

1 teaspoon aniseed (pana-madhuri)

1 teaspoon black pepper (gol maricha)

4 cloves small cardamom (chhota aleicha)

Method:

For  Dough

Add ½ cup water to ½ table-spoon wheat flour to make a paste. Heat 5 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar in a frying pan. Add the paste to the pan when the sugar solution becomes saturated and stir well. Make sure that no lump is formed while stirring. Leave the pan on the flame for 2 minutes for the mixture to boil. Now add rest of the flour to the mixture and lower the flame. Stir it properly. Now transfer the mixture from pan to a flat plate. Knead to make a smooth dough by adding 1 tablespoon of refined oil. The refined oil prevents formation of lumps.

For Stuffing

Roast aniseed, black pepper and cardamom and then powder them. Fry grated coconut and sugar in a frying pan. Do not add oil. Add the powdered ingredients to it and stir. The stuffing is ready.

Make small balls of the dough. Flatten each ball and put the stuffing on it and again form a ball so that the stuffing remains at the center. Now flatten the balls to give it the shape of a kachori. Heat the oil in the pan and fry the flattened balls till it becomes golden brown. Your kakara pitha is ready to serve.

Variation:

A small variation in the above recipe may be made to prepare modak (also known as manda pitha in certain areas of Orissa). The difference lies only in the final shape of the pitha. At the end of the procedure, instead of flattening the balls to give them the shape of kachori, leave them in the shape of round shaped balls and fry as stated. Your modak / manda is ready.  

PODA PITHA

Ingredients:

300gm Rice (chaula)

150gm black gram - without outer skin (chopa-chhada biri)

1 cup finely scrubbed coconut (nadia kora)

10-15 small pieces of thin coconut slices (nadia khandi)

200gm sugar (chini)

50gm chopped ginger (kata ada)

½ bowl of cashew nut – broken into pieces ( khandi kaju)

1 table spoon ghee or refined oil (ghia / refain tela)

½ teaspoon salt (luna)

1 teaspoon baking powder (baking powder)

Method:

Soak the rice and black gram in water in separate bowls for about 4 hours. Wash them thoroughly. Put the black gram with water in the grinder and form a fine batter. Do the same with rice too but keep in mind that the batter should be coarse and not as fine as the batter of black gram. Mix both the batters and add coconut slices, grated coconut, chopped ginger, salt, sugar, cashew nuts and baking powder. Mix all the ingredients well and keep it covered for about 2 hours for self-fermentation. Pre-heat the pressure cooker. Form a thin layer of oil on all the inner surface of the cooker. Now pour the mixed batter into the cooker and close the lid (without mounting the whistle-weight). Place the pressure cooker in simmer flame for about one hour. Now your hot poda pitha is ready. When the cooker comes to normal temperature take out the pitha carefully, and cut it into desired shapes and serve. (Note: Instead of pressure cooker, oven may also be used)

MANDA PITHA

Ingredients:

2 cups of crushed rice (chaula chuna)

3 cups of milk (khira)

1 cup of finely grated coconut (nadia kora)

¾ cup sugar (chini)

5-6 small cardamom (aleicha)

1 teaspoon black pepper powder (gol maricha)

salt to taste (luna)

Method:

Stuffing -

Mix finely grated coconut and sugar in a heated frying pan. Add cardamom and black pepper powder and mix thoroughly.

Pitha -

Heat milk. Add salt to the milk. Prepare dough by adding crushed rice to the boiling milk.  Stir it continuosly and boil further until you get a thick dough. Keep the dough in room temperature and knead it by adding one spoon oil to make it more soft. Form 8 to 10 balls by rolling them with the help of your palms. Flatten each ball and place the stuffing in it. Close the flattened balls after putting the stuffing and carefully give them a rounded shape again. Steam the stuffed balls for 3-4 minutes in a steamer. Put them on a sizzler plate and serve hot. It may also be seved in room temperature.

Variation:

You may also prepare another variety of Manda Pithawhere semolina (suji) is used instead of crushed rice. This is known as Suji Manda. Follow the steps mentioned above. But replace 2 cups crushed rice with 2 cups of semolina. However in this case use a little more milk (say 4 cups). For another kind of Mandain which wheat-flour is used, please refer to the 'Variation' section of Kakara Pitha published elsewhere on this page.

AARISA PITHA

Ingredients:

2 cups rice (chaula)

1 cup sugar (chini)

½ litre refined cooking oil (rifaain tela)

Method:

Soak the rice in water for about 2 to 3 hours. Wash it with water and then drain all the water. Keep the rice in room temperature to dry for about 2 to 3 minutes. Grind  it to make a semi-rough powder of it by using a grinder. Heat ½ cup of water and add 1 cup of sugar. As you go on stirring on medium flame, the boiling water forms a syrup. The syrup should be consistent. Slowly add 2 cups of rice powder to the syrup and stir continuously to form a batter. Take the batter in small portions and flatten the same with the help of your palms in the shape of small thick puris/ kachoris . Fry the thick puris (pithas) in oil till they become golden brown. Take them out and serve hot. The pitha also tastes great when served after cooling. A hard pitha may also be preserved in room temperature for about two weeks. (Feedbck from a visitor says that she couldn't prepare this pitha in proper manner after following the steps. The solution lies in getting the right consistency ("paga") of the dough that you get after adding sugar syrup to the rice powder. As you try again and again, experience will tell you how to reach the right consistency.)