DHUKI PITHA-IN AN URBAN HOME
AND FINALLY ONE DAY YOU GET IT RIGHT & FIND YOURSELF ON CLOUD 9!
I had the same feeling last December! Several attempts to prepare this winter time Bengali steamed snack failed in my hands! I started to believe I would never be able to get it right, the feeling made me sad! Every winter, I came across several similar recipes & those childhood memories associated to watching the making of it & us having it! The time I am talking about, I was the only kid amidst the family crowd, my appetite was that of an adult! All day I would keep eating, "naru, moya, nimki, chanar murki, khirer angti"! I wish to prepare & blog about the "chanar murki" & "khirer angti" sweets! I am too sad about how I learnt, made the puffed rice & jaggery moya, blogged about it & now failing to form a round ball! Somewhere I am going wrong, I am determined I would not buy them but get them right some day! Else they are easily available in this island!
SOMETHING IS MAKING ME FEEL AWKWARD SINCE YESTERDAY!
I was in the Indian / Bengali market area yesterday & Cristine was to join me later! For the past few months, I had been watching a gentleman selling some Bengali fast-food, on the footpath just two shops after the Rajdhani Stores! Yesterday, I felt let me try the Bangladeshi style "jhalmuri" / spiced puffed rice! West Bengal makes it pretty good! Somehow, I did not like yesterday's; we are not used to adding black gram curry in the puffed rice spicy mix! The amount of oil floating on the top was scary, also I felt kind of a stale smell from the mix, could not get what went wrong, the onion or black gram or the chopped chillies! I did not let Cristine eat either! I did not feel bad for the 2$, it was something else! When I was buying it, another Bangladeshi guy came and requested for a haleem plate for a dollar, he looked hungry! The seller obviously cannot agree to that! I could not offer to buy him, he was not a beggar; he was just a foreign worker who might be saving every penny to buy a piece of land in Bangladesh or to feed his family! I was really at guilt to waste mine, we just left the packet in front of the Mustafa Centre; and headed to the Iyengar Bhavan for dosa & coffee / tea! I make my own puffed rice mix, at times as simple as this!
I cannot ever be a snob, just that cleanliness & hygiene matter too much to me! When it comes to using a toilet, I want it squeaky clean!
WHAT IS THIS DHUKI PITHA-IN AN URBAN HOME?
You can well understand with such a shaken mind I cannot go overboard today, I think I seldom go such! I hail from a middle-class background, in the remote family branch there might be such labour class! I cannot forget his face, how he asked for an one dollar haleem plate! The seller also is a small trader, just got a tiny space in the frontal of a shop! How to help? If I eat from there often, I would fall sick! Let me then share a popular Bengali recipe they love, their land used to be our forefather's land too! In the early mornings of winter, the women of the house would arrange everything and start doing these steamed, oil-free snacks! In fact, the preparations started the day prior, soaking the rice, pounding, washing the pot to be used, arranging the cheese cloths! I would not take such a labour, I used store bought rice flour & shredded coconut! Hence, I named this Bengali vegan, gluten-free, steamed breakfast snack DHUKI PITHA-IN AN URBAN HOME! The yesteryear women worked a lot & way lot, we cannot think of such hard work, specially us, the sit at homes! I am the kind who would keep the tradition going without taking much of load! This is also called Bhapa Pitha, Bhapa is the Bengali word for Steamed! The recipe of this snack in our family is slightly different from that of the maximum of the homes! We make it salty & serve with liquid date palm jaggery whilst more popular is adding the date palm jaggery pieces to the rice flour mix and steam!
INGREDIENTS :
RICE FLOUR : 2 COFFEE MUG
SHREDDED COCONUT : 1 COFFEE MUG
SALT : 1/2 TSP
LIQUID DATE PALM JAGGERY TO SERVE WITH OR ANY TYPE OF JAGGERY YOU WANT!
PROCEDURE :
We would take the rice flour in a bowl, add the salt & mix well! We would sprinkle a little amount of water, as much is required to wet them just to get it crumbly, never a paste! We would cover it for half an hour!
We would remove the cover, take the rice flour in a strainer & strain!
We would fill half of a sauce pan with water, tie the top with a cheese cloth and put for boil!
We would add the shredded coconut to the strained rice flour and mix well!
We will take a not so dip bowl and dust it with rice flour! You can use a clay bowl like me or an aluminium or steel bowl, never a plastic!
We will the bowl with the rice & coconut mixture & lightly press; then put upside down on the cheese cloth, only when the water starts boiling!
After a minute, we will take off the bowl & cover cook the cake for 5-6 minutes! Each of mine took 6-7 minutes because my cheese cloth is tight knit, it has to be thinner with bigger holes!
They are to be eaten immediately, dipping in the jaggery; once cold they turn hard!
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