Pitthis in Sweet and Sour Sauce

Yet another “Pitthi” preparation with a variation of another derivative sauce/gravy which is tomato based. The Italian cuccina houses two major tomato based sauces usually named as Napolitano ( Nepolotana) and Arabita but apart from these two a countless number of derivative sauces and home made sauces are practiced and consumed. Most of their sauces are flavored with herbs like Oregano, Marjoram or any Liquor like Red wine and other spirit.

Here also I’ve tried the same thing replacing the herbs and liquor with typical Indian spices/flavorings like asafetida, cumin seed in order to create a better fusion. The preparation is very simple and easy to prepare. Just check out the recipe below and don’t forget to leave your comment about the same.

Ingredients:

• Basic Pitthi Mixture of 100 Gms flour
• Chopped Tomatoes: 250 gms
• Tomato Puree: ½ tin
• Chopped Coriander leaves: 10 gms
• Salt and pepper: as per taste
• Red chilly Pd: ½ tbsp
• Asafetida: 4-5 gms
• Fine Chopped Onion: 150 gms
• Ginger Garlic paste: 40 gms
• Turmeric: 4-5 gms
• Sugar: 2 tbsp
• Cumin seed: 1 tbsp

Preparation:

1. Parboil Pitthis in fast boiling water to just chewable stage.
2. Heat oil in a pan add a tempering of cumin and fry ginger garlic paste and chopped onion to light brown in color with asafetida. Sweat it with a pinch of salt and turmeric also add red chilly powder at this stage.
3. Add chopped tomatoes and mix well with the addition of sugar.
4. When the excess water of tomato evaporates and mixture gets little dry, add the tomato puree for better colour. And mix it well with rest of the ingredients in the pan.
5. When the consistency of the sauce becomes thick add the parboiled stuffed Pitthis and mix it with the sauce for 2 minutes and take it off the flame.
6. Serve it in a platter garnished with chopped coriander leaves and deep fried onions.

Stuffed Daal Pitthi:

The concept of stuffed Daal Pitthi is very uncommon in Mithila. This could be called an innovation again which is influenced by Italian Pasta called Ravioli. It has a wide range of veg and non-veg stuffing. Though the stuffing of Pitthis could be anything and everything edible, yet can be tried out best with Paneer( Cottage Cheese), Coriander leaf and Green chilly mixture for Veg stuffing and seasoned sautéed minced meat stuffing as Non-Veg.

Below is my innovation which is a fusion of Mithila and Continental cookery .

Ingredient:

Whole Meal Flour ( Aatta): 100 gms
Arhar Daal: 75 gms
Mustard oil: 10 ml
Cumin seed: 2 pinches
Asafetida ( Heeng) : 1-2 gms
Salt and Turmuric : As required
Chopped coriander leaves: 25 gms
Paneer: 75 gms.
Green chilies: 10 gms

preparation:

Make a semi soft dough for pitthis , Roast Daal, make a paste of slit green chilies.
Mash paneer & mix it with chopped coriander leaf. Season with salt and pepper.
Make small and thin casings of the dough, stuff it with the mixture and seal it well .

Cooking:

Pressure cook daal. And leave stuffed Pitthis in it.
Cook it over moderate flame for 8-10 minutes.
When sauce gets a creamy smooth texture, add the tempering of cumin and asafetida.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Variation: one can easily put a variation of Nonveg Filling by replacing Paneer with Sauteed minced meat or Kankorak Chokha.

Goidila Pitthi:

This is an innovation which could be called the fusion of two local dishes only, Goidila ( a sauce prepared from green peas & flavourings) and Pitthi. Goidila is a kind of gravy / sauce which is usually taken with rice and chapattis. It gets its body from green peas paste and flavoured with Garam Masala.

Ingredients:

Basic Pitthi of 100 gms of flour

Green peas : 300 gms
Onion: 200 gms
Ginger Garlic Paste: 50 gms
Cumin Pd: 15 gms
Coriander Pd: 15 gms
Ghee: 10 gms
Tomatoes: 75 gms
Double cream: 20 ml
Hot Spices: large and small cardamom, bayleaf, clove, cinnamon stick.


Preparation:

parboil green peas and make a small paste of it.
Prepare basic Pitthis of the flour and moisture
Make a paste of 50 gms of onion and slice the rest
Chop tomatoes

Cooking:

Heat oil or Ghee in a pan and add a tempering of Hot spices, when they start crackling add slice onion, sauté it for a minut or two and add Ginger , Garlic and Onion paste with a pinch of salt and turmeric.
Add pawdered masalas and cook it well on the flame.
When masalas are cooked add chopped tomatoes and mix it well.
Add the peas paste and fry it along with masalas for 2-3 minutes and dilute it with water to thin consistency.
Allow it to boil for 8-10 minutes (keep checking the consistency of the mixture. And add water accordingly. )
Now finally add Pitthis to it and cook it over moderate flame for another 8-10 minutes.
When Pitthis are cooked and the sauce gets a creamy smooth texture add the tempering of ghee and Cumin.
Garnish it with Double Cream and serve Hot.

Daal Pitthi

Daal Pitthi is an excellent food variety prepared in Mithila. It is good for consumption during any time of the day as any meal practice (breakfast, Lunch or Dinner). This again resembles with one of the continental dishes called “Pasta” and could be tried out with lots of variation of sauces served with it. The only difference of it with Pastas is that , that pastas are made out of refined flour and cooked separately (or dried) from its sauce, while Pitthis are made out of Whole meal flour (Aatta) and coked along with its sauce which is prepared from good quality (preferably roasted) Arhar Daal. Ofcourse being an Indian preparation it differs in the addition of spices and flavourings too, but the same Pitthis could be tried out with other pasta sauces like Carbonara (a white pasta sauce flavoured with Bacon) or Nepolotana (a tomato and basil based sauce flavoured with Oregano/ Marjoram) etc.

Alike Italian pastas Pitthis are given different shapes and sizes like Macroni, Fussili, Canneloni etc. but they are best for fresh consumption and could not be sun dried (as the color will change to dark , giving a very poor appearance to the dish)

So here is the basic recipe of preparing Daal Pitthi and some of the variation of it.

Ingredients:

Whole Meal Flour (Aatta): 100 gms
Arhar Daal: 75 gms
Mustard oil: 10 ml
Cumin seed: 2 pinches
Asafetida (Heeng) : 1-2 gms
Salt and Turmuric : As required
Chopped coriander leaves: for garnish

Preparation:

• Make a semi soft dough of Aatta. Flatten the chunk of it to paper thin using a rolling pin and cut it in fancy shapes.


• Roast daal in a kadhai for 3-4 minutes.


• Chop coriander leaves.

Cooking:

• Parboil daal or pressure cook it with salt and turmeric. Now add the fancy shapes of pitthis to it and cook the the mixture over moderate heat for 8-10 minutes.


• When the sauce gets a creamy smooth texture reduce the flame and add the tempering of Cumin seed and heeng.


• Serve hot garnished with chopped coriander leaf.

Stuffing of Pitthis: Pitthis can be stuffed with anything and everything edible. one can try out the filling of both the kinds ,Veg and Non - veg. which will enhance the taste and nutritional value of the dish. I have used the stuffing of Mashed Cheese in the above picture which can be replaced with any non-veg mixture also.

Tadka Daal Pitthi:

Prepare the basic Dall Pitthi sauce with above ingredients and add athe tempering of Chopped onion, garlic, green peas, slit green chilies and tomatoes.