Aarisa Pitha
Aarisa Pitha
Aarisa Pitha
Ingredients:
2 cups rice (chaula)
1 cup sugar (chini)
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 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 couldnt 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.
MANDA PITHA
Ingredients:
2 cups of crushed rice (chaula chuna)
3 cups of milk (khira)
1 cup of finely grated coconut (nadia kora)
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 Pitha where 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).
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)
bowl of cashew nut broken into pieces ( khandi kaju)
1 table spoon ghee or refined oil (ghia / refain tela)
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)
KAKARA PITHA
Ingredients:
For dough (khali):
4-cups wheat flour (ata)
2-cups sugar (chini)
litre refined oil (rifaain tela)
For stuffing:
Grated coconut-1 cup (nadia kora)
cup sugar (chini)
1 teaspoon aniseed (pana-madhuri)
1 teaspoon black pepper (gol maricha)
4 cloves small cardamom (chhota aleicha)
Method:
For Dough
Add cup water to 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.
orissa bread
Nadia Chitau Pitha
Ingredients
Arua Chaula / Rice - 3/4 cup
Nadia / Coconut, grated - 3/4 cup
Luna / Salt - 1/2 tsp (as per your taste
Refine Tela / Refined Oil as required
How to make Nadia Chitau Pitha
Soak the rice in water for 2 hrs. Grate the coconut and keep it aside.
Grind the drained rice with grated coconut with just enough water. Add salt and leave it for 1 hr. (Check notes)
Add water to make a thin batter out of it.
Heat oil in a tawa, pour some batter into it, and cover it.
After couple of minutes, remove from flame
Serve hot with boiled milk, dalma or any spicy curry.
Notes:
3/4 cup of rices gives about 1 & 1/2 cup rice after soaking.
Make the batter thin, so that you can easily spread the batter by just swirling the tawa.
The recipes mentions that this should be coved with lid covered, and not flipped on the upper portion.
After grinding, the batter was refrigerated. So that it doesn't get fermented but is ready to be used.
Paratha or Paranthas are often made for breakfast or as a tiffin box to go with pickle. Parathas are made in every house. Every home as
its own way or method of making parathas.Basically, Parathas are a category of Indian Breads. There are also stuffed parathas likealoo
paratha, gobi paratha, mooli paratha and paneer paratha which i make often.I usually make parathas when I make a rich gravied dish
like paneer butter masala,punjabi chole, malai kofta or shahi paneer. Parathas also goes well with lemon or mango pickle or you can
have them with a cup of hot tea too. some people like to dip them in tea and then enjoy eating them.I use this technique of making
plain parathas very often. I call it the folding technique for making parathas. I make parathas as mentioned in this post or the lachedar
parathas. The Lachedar Paratha recipe is on the following link: Lachedar Paratha
For the Plain Paratha you will need:
This is a bit before my time, but I have vague nursery memories of a friend of my grandmother's making a version of this, which she
would serve with a warm sauce made of pineapple juice thickened with - I imagine - cornflour. That I can do without, but I am still of
the mind that it is perfectly all right to make this with canned pineapple rings. I feel it is slightly bad sport to start peeling and slicing
your own pineapple.
Anyway, canned pineapple is just fine, though I advise going for the one in its own juice rather than in syrup, and I add some of the
juice to the sponge, too. This seems to make it light and fluffy.
Ingredients
butter (for greasing)
2 tablespoons sugar
6 slices canned pineapple in juice (plus 3 tablespoons of the juice)
11 glace cherries (approx. 75g total weight)
100 grams plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100 grams soft butter
100 grams caster sugar
2 large eggs
Method
1.
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6/400F. Butter a tarte Tatin tin (24cm/9 inches wide at the top and 20cm/8 inches diameter at the
bottom) or use a 23cm / 8-9 inch cake tin (neither loose-bottomed nor springform).
2.
Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar on top of the buttered base, and then arrange the pineapple slices to make a circular pattern as in
the picture.
3.
Fill each pineapple ring with a glace cherry, and then dot one in each of the spaces in between.
4.
Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, butter, caster sugar and eggs into a food processor and run the motor until the batter
is smooth. Then pour in the 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice to thin it a little.
Pour this mixture carefully over the cherry-studded pineapple rings; it will only just cover it, so spread it out gently.
5.
6.
Bake for 30 minutes, then ease a spatula around the edge of the tin, place a plate on top and, with one deft - ha! - move, turn it upsidedown.
Basic Vanilla Cake
This moist single-layer vanilla cake has a delicate texture and delectable crumb, but it's the old-fashioned browned-butter glaze that
gives it a nutty flavor. Use this Basic Vanilla Cake batter for Cupcakes Americana, Old-Fashioned Jam Cake, and Crunchy Coffee
Cake as well.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8-inch cake pan with butter and dust with all-purpose flour. Sift the cake flour, baking
powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl.
Beat in the butter one heaping 1/4 teaspoonful at a time, using an electric mixer set on low speed, until the mixture resembles coarse
sand. Beat in the sugar a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture resembles fine damp sand. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the
vanilla and milk, and beat on medium-high, just until blended. Do not overbeat.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean 30 to 35 minutes. Cool cake in
the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
Un-mold and cool completely. Ice with Browned-Butter Glaze.
chocolate cake
Perfect for birthdays, this is a great recipe for an easy, foolproof chocolate cake. Its moist and fudgy and will keep well for 4-5 days.
Ingredients
For the cake
1.
2.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease and line two 20cm/8in sandwich tins.
For the cake, place all of the cake ingredients, except the boiling water, into a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, or electric
whisk, beat the mixture until smooth and well combined.
Add the boiling water to the mixture, a little at a time, until smooth. (The cake mixture will now be very liquid.)
Divide the cake batter between the sandwich tins and bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes, or until the top is firm to the touch and a
skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool completely, still in their tins, before icing.
For the chocolate icing, heat the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a low heat until the chocolate melts. Remove the pan from
the heat and whisk the mixture until smooth, glossy and thickened. Set aside to cool for 1-2 hours, or until thick enough to spread over
the cake.
To assemble the cake, run a round-bladed knife around the inside of the cake tins to loosen the cakes. Carefully remove the cakes from
the tins.
Spread a little chocolate icing over the top of one of the chocolate cakes, then carefully top with the other cake.
Transfer the cake to a serving plate and ice the cake all over with the chocolate icing, using a palette knife.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Ingredients
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon kirschwasser