Patishapta Pitha

Today I have a lip smacking dish all the way from the eastern part of India, West Bengal. I like to repeat that the mega marathon of this kind pushes you to look beyond your comfort zone and find some unique dishes from places you never expected to see. I never thought I would blog about a crepe / dosai kind of dish from Eastern India and now I have three and counting. The husband has spent around 8 years living there and so he is a self proclaimed expert on all things Bengal. I managed to raise his eyebrows too. If that is not an achievement I don’t know what is. Okay, I know but this is an achievement too, right?

Patishapta Pitha is a light and soft crepe made with all purpose flour, semolina and sugar and the most delightful part of it is the filling which is sweetened khoya or pal gova (in Tamizh). I read the recipe a few times to confirm the filling and to be honest, it makes for a wonderful snack or a unique desert. The husband and daughter have been making puppy eyes in a bid to get an unending supply of these pithas. Ha!

Recipe adapted from here

Makes 8-10 pithas

WHAT WE NEED

130 gms All purpose flour

85 gms Semolina

80 gms Sugar

100 gms Unsweetened Khoya

500 ml Milk

Ghee / Clarified butter

Water

 

WHAT TO DO

For the filling

• Heat the milk in a heavy bottom pan till it comes to a boil
• Reduce the gas to simmer and let it reduce to half the quantity
• Stir the milk at frequent intervals and remove the cream stuck to the sides of the vessel and add to the boiling milk
• After it has reduced to half or less than half of the original volume, add the khoya and 50 gms sugar and mix well
• Stir continuously if on a high flame else stir frequently
• Once the mixture reaches a semi solid consistency turn off the gas and let it cool slightly
• It will thicken further even after turning off the gas

For the pitha

• Mix the all purpose flour, semolina and balance 30 gms sugar with sufficient water to make a thick batter
• The batter should be in the consistency of a regular dosai batter
• Heat a tava and once it is hot, spread a little ghee on it
• Pour a ladle full of batter and spread it into a circular shape
• Add a large spoonful of the filling at one end of the pitha in a straight line
• Disengage the pitha from the tava with a steel spatula and roll it starting from the side where the filling is kept
• Once rolled, keep turning it every 20 seconds on either side till it turns golden brown
• You can add a few drops of ghee to fasten the process
• Take it off the heat and repeat the procedure with the rest of the batter
• Serve warm
• Enjoy!

NOTES

1. If you do not have khoya, add another 500ml of milk to make the filling. It will take much longer (around 2 hours) to complete the process
2. You can replace this filling with a mixture of grated coconut and jaggery
3. If you do not want it to be too sweet, reduce the sugar in the pitha by 10gms
4. This dish can be enhanced by serving it with some sweetened condensed milk

 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 92

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