Saru Chakli is a flat rice based fried pancake traditionally made in Bengal during winter and served with liquid jaggery. I remember having it at my Grand Mom's place during our winter holidays.. Dosa or pancake was quite unheard of during our growing years and this was the first Indian pancake that I have tested. I vividly remember having it on cold evening straight from the coal chulha.....
Ingredients:
- Urad Dal - 1 Cup
- Rice - 1 Cup
- Salt - a pinch
- Oil for frying
Soak the rice and dal separately for two hours. Grind them to a paste and then mix with a pinch of salt. Keep it covered for 2 hours.
Heat a non-stick tawa really well. Coat it with a film of oil. Take the batter in a tablespoon and spread it on the hot tawa like a dosa or pancake.
Turn upside down after 1 minute and remove from heat. Serve hot with liquid jaggery / Nolen Gur.
Happy Makarsankranti to all my friends, here is a traditional Bengali delicacy, which is made in our family with a great twist in terms of ingredients and taste. This is a very old recipe which is getting handed over in our family for 3 generations. It was originally a treasure from my didubhai or grand mother, who was an amazing cook. From her, my mom has taken over, and now, it is me, who tries her hand in this fabulous as well as out of the world Puli Pithe.
Now, you may ask,puli pithe is made almost every house hold of Bengal during this time of the year,, so what is so special about it !! Let me explain, the 1st specialty lies on its soft texture.Since the outer layer is made out of Ranga Aloo or sweet potato instead of rice, it has a distinct, tasty and melt in the mouth feature. Second, the filling or stuffing is made with grated carrot, grated coconut and nolen gur or jaggery, which again is quite different and unusual combo, since the normal practice is the filling of coconut and gur. The end result is this amazing dish, which I have never had in any other household.
Ingredients:
- Ranga Aloo - 1 kg
- Flour - 1 cup
- Nolen Gur - As required
- Grated Coconut - 1 Cup
- Grated Carrot - 1 Cup
- Milk - 2 litres
- Ghee - 3 tbsp
- Bay Leaves - 6
To prepare the stuffing, mix the grated coconut and carrot with one tbsp of ghee. Place it in a wok and cook on very low temperature. Add the nolen gur or jaggery to the mixture and stir continuously till it dries up and become a bit sticky.
Boil the Ranga Aloo till soft. Remove from water and keep it dry and warm. Now mash the boiled potatoes till it is smooth. Add flour a little at a time and knead for 5 minutes till it forms a dough. Now take a small amount from the dough and make a ball. Press at the centre of the ball to make a well. Put a little stuffing and seal the ends.
Make all the pulies and keep them in a flat surface in a single layer.
In the mean time, boil the milk in a large vessel with the bay leaves. Boil till the milk thickens a bit. Now add 2 tbsp of ghee to the milk and mix well. Add the required amount of nolen gur and mix with the milk. I am not mentioning the amount of nolen gur, since the sweetness of gur depends on its quality. You need to adjust the amount based on your taste.
When the nolen gur mixes well with the milk, add the stuffed puli pithe into the milk one by one. Be careful, donot stir, otherwise the pithe will break.
Give it a final boil and remove from heat. Serve hot or cold as per your choice.
In Bengal winter means different kinds of sweets and Pithey is one of them. Combination of all purpose flour, semolina, milk, khoya kheer, coconut and nalen gur ( very difficult to explain in english) and transform the whole list into a gokul pithey. Its preparation is a bit tricky but try it, its worth it.
Ingredients
For the batter
- Semolina(suji)-200 gm
- All purpose flour-200 gm
- Milk-1 litre
- Sugar-2 tbsp
- Baking powder-a pinch
- fennel seeds(mouri/saunf )-a pinch
For the stuffing
- Desiccated coconut - 2
- nalen gur - 250 gms
- Khoya Kheer - 250 gms
Mix desiccated coconut, khoya kheer and gur in a large vessel and knead well. Now put it over slow flame and stir continuously till the mixture becomes sticky. Take a little of the mix, roll a small ball between your palms and then flatten between your palms to make a disc about 1" in diameter.
Mix all the batter ingredients in a large bowl except baking powder and fennel seeds and let it rest for 3/4 hours, preferably over night in a fridge. Add baking powder and fennel seeds just before cooking.
Add more milk if required to make the batter of pouring consistency.
In a clean pan add water to nalen gur and boil till the mixture turns into a syrup. You may need to add 1-2 tsp sugar.
Heat oil in a kadai. Dip the coconut discs into the batter and fry them till they turn golden-brown.
Remove them from the heat and soak them in the nalen gur syrup for 10 minutes.
Pick the discs from the syrup and garnish them with dry fruits. Your gokul pithey is ready to be served.
