Litti

Litti is one of the most famous Snack or Meal (as well) in Bihar. In Mithila during winter it is quite famous, especially when winter is at its peak. The most famous combination is Litti-Chokha (of Egg-plant). This is a low calorie, high-fibre meal for those calorie conscious people.

Ingredients

For Dough

1. Wheat Flour (Atta) - 2 Cup
2. Water - 1/2 Cup
3. Salt - 1/2 Tea spoon.

For Filling

1. Sattu - 1 Cup (Gram baked in Sand and powdered)
2. Garlic(Chopped) - 4 Cloves
3. Ginger(Chopped) - 1 Tbl spoon
4. Green Chilies (Chopped) - 2
5. Coriander Leaves (Chopped) - 2 Tbl spoon
6. Onion Seeds (Mangarella) - 1/2 Tea spoon
7. Thyme (Ajwain) - 1/2 Tea spoon
8. Lemon juice - 2-3 Tea spoon
9. Pickle Masala (Chilli pickle is the best) - 3 Tea spoon
10. Mustard oil - 2 Tbl Spoon
11. Salt to taste so that the Sattu mix is not Salty.

Method

1. Mix all the filling ingredients with Sattu. Start with dry mixing all the herbs and spices with Sattu.
2. Add 1/4 cup water to make the stuffing moist and easy to fill. Keep aside.
3. Mix flour with water knead it into stiff dough. Add pinch of salt to add to the taste.
4. Make balls out of dough of approx 3" diameter in size with hand.
5. Stuff 2 to 3 teaspoon sattu filling in the center of each balls and wrap it from all sides. Ensure that there are no holes or gaps etc and the flour is covering the sattu filling properly.
6. When all the littis are stuffed, pre-heat the oven to 375 F and put all the littis on a foil .
7. Bake till one side is brown and black spots come on the litti surface.
   
8. Turn over the litti and bake for few more minutes until that side is brown as well.
9. Take out and dip in pure ghee or butter and serve with baigan (Egg-Plant) ka bharta.
10. Serve while hot.
    

One variation of this could be using Egg-Plant and Tomato ka Chokha instead of Egg-Plant bharta (Chokha).

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.

Ramruch

Ramruch is a preparation of Besan (Gram Flour) and is one of the most famous preparation in Mithila. I am yet to come across any other cuisine where Ramruch is being mentioned or cooked. Ramruch is one of the dishes served in almost all the auspicious occasions in Mithila.


Ingredients

• Besan 500 gm
• Tomato (diced) 100 gm
  
• Coriander leaves 50 gm (for garnishing)
• Ghee 1 Tbl spoon
• Turmeric powder 1 tbl spoon
• Coriander powder
• cumins powder
• Red Chili powder
• Salt to taste
  

Preparation

• In besan add 2-3 tbl spoon of Ghee or any vegetable oil and mix it properly.
• Add pinch of Salt, turmeric and cumins seeds to the mix and mix it again.
• Add water and knead it properly. The mix should not be soft as it has to be boiled later on.
• Make Small-Small rolls of the mix more like a 1cm Radius cylindrical (around 10-15 cm long) shape.
• Cut tomato into small pieces and keep it aside.
  

Cooking

• Boil water in a deep pan.
• Boil besan rolls for 10-15 mins. When they are cooked they will start floating on the surface of boiling water.
• Take the cooked besan rolls out of boiling water and put them aside in a cold water vessel.
• Let the rolls cool down. It take around 5 mins for them to cool down so that they are ready to be cooked.
• Once the besan rolls are cooled cut them in small pieces (round ones).
• Heat oil (mustard oil or vegetable oil) in pan.
• Fry all the besan pieces in the oil till it turns red and keep it aside.
• In the remaining oil add some Asafoetida (Heeng) and Curry-leaves (Tej-Patta) for Seasoning mix (Phoran).
  
• Add masala (cumins powder, Coriander powder, Turmeric powder, chili powder), Salt and diced tomato to the mix.
• Cook it well till the masala mix starts to leave the pan surface.
• Add some water to make thick gravy.
• When the gravy starts to boil add the fried besan pieces to it.
• Cook for 10 - 15 mins on low-med flame.
• Keep it aside and then sprinkle garam masala first, then coriander leaves (chopped in small pieces).
• In a deep cooking spoon Add 1 tbl spoon Ghee and cumins seeds and heat it on flame so that the ghee is hot and cumin seeds are fried properly in it.
• Add that mix to the Ramruch Curry and cover it for 5 mins. This will bring aroma to the curry.
• Serve it as a side-dish and enjoy the taste.
  

One variation to this could be to add little bit of Tomato or Sweet Chili sauce in the spices while gravy is being prepared. This will add to the taste. Also in place of Asafoetida, Ginger and Garlic paste can be used.

Aloo ke Sanna (A mashed potato preparation with herbs and other flavouring)

Again a very popular Lunch time favorite and considered to be the best accompaniment with Rice alone. Interestingly till half way the preparation style of Sanna is similar to French Croquettes with a difference of addition of Choux Paste in the same. Aloo Sanna could be prepared by two methods, some people prefer adding all herbs and flavourings in raw form while the other method of preparing is just its contrary in which flavourings and herbs are fried well separately and then added to the mashed mixture. Both the preparations are equally popular and liked by all age group.

Ingredients:

• Potato with jacket : 6 medium size.
• Chopped onion: 75 gms
• Chopped garlic: 30 gms
• Chopped slit green chillies: 10 gms
• Turmeric pd: 2 pinches
• Mustard oil/Refined oil : just enough for frying the flavourings.
• Chopped Coriander leves: 15 gms.
• Musturd Seeds:4-5 gms
• Salt : as per taste.

Method : 1

1. Boil potatoes with jacket in order to prevent it from getting soggy, mash and keep it aside ( try to avoid formation of lumps while mashing) .
2. In a separate pan, heat oil add tempering of Musturd seeds and fry onion, garlic, green chillies, with the addition of salt and turmeric, fry till golden brown in color .
3. Mix the fried flavorings with mashed potatoes. Add chopped coriander leaves, check the seasoning and serve with rice as an accompaniment.

Method : 2

1. Additional ingredients:
2. Lemon juice: few drops.
3. Pickle mixture (Achaar ka Masala) : 1 spoon
4. Instead of frying all the flavorings add it directly with the potato paste , add the additional ingredients and mix it well.
5. Serve with rice during lunch.

Jhaua Baigan (Eggplant) ke Khatta Meetha Tarkari (Curry)

This is a very famous preparation of Eggplant (aka Brinjal) in Mithila. I recently had a chance to get a taste of it during my wedding. I liked it so much first time that I requested the person (who cooked it first time) to make it again for my Ek-Bhukt meal. Well this is a simple preparation and adds a different kind of taste to the meal. Those who love eggplant will love it for sure. Jhaua Baigan is the variety of eggplant which is thin and long. There are 3 varieties of this eggplant Green, Viotel and White (in some parts of the world).

Ingredients:

1. EggPlant (Baigan or Brinjal) 500gm (thin and long ones).
2. Tamarind (Imli) 100gm.
3. Jaggery (Gur) 100 gm
4. Cummins (Jeera) powder (1 tbs)
5. Coriander (Dhaniya) Powder (1 tbs)
6. Turmeric (Haldi) Powder (1 tbs)
7. Chilli (Laal Mirch) Powder (1/2 tbs optional)
8. Kitchen King masala (2tbs)

Preparation:

1. Cut Eggplant in half (in length) and then 4 pieces along the length so that they pieces are joined from one end.
2. Soak Tamarind in 250 ml water and leave that for 1 hr so that it is mixed with water. Drain the Tamarind seeds out of the mix and keep the mix aside.

Cooking:

1. Heat oil (mustard oil the best) in Pan for Deep Fry.
2. Deep fry Eggplant for 3-5 mins on medium heat.
3. Keep it aside after frying so that the excess oil is drained.
4. Heat small amount of oil in a separate pan.
5. When the oil is heated use Phoran mix(Panchphoran, Heeng, Tej Patta) etc for Seasonings. This will add some aroma to the food.
6. Add spices mix (Jeera, Dhaniya, Haldi, Mircha, Meat Masala ya Kitchen King (little bit)) to the oil and start mixing.
7. Cook for sometime till spices are cooked properly and do not stick to the pan anymore.
8. Mix Tamarind (soaked one and drained) and Jaggery and cook for 5 mins till starts boiling.
9. Add Egg plant (fried) and cook for another 5 mins.
10. Let the curry settle down and become little thick.
11. Add coriander leaves to that.