Patishapta Pithe/ Sweet Crepes with Coconut-Jaggery stuffing
Firstly greetings of the New Year to all my readers 🤩 let’s all look forward to another rollicking year of our delectable food journey.. 😋 wishing everyone a great 2019 !!
Winter is a bengali’s favourite season & what would the winters be without the sumptuous ‘Pithe’? Yes, it’s the auspicious & festive month in Bengal of the rice harvest festival, called the ‘Poush Sankranti’ or ‘Poush Parbon’. Different parts of India celebrate this harvest festival in different ways – ‘Pongal’ down south, ‘Lohri’ in the north, ‘Makar Sankranti’ in the west. Indeed! The ‘Diversity of Cultures’, is India’s richest treasure 😍
In Bengal, the Poush Sankranti is celebrated making the mouthwatering ‘Pithe’. Now ‘Pithe’ isn’t a single dish but an umbrella term used for a category of sweets prepared during the harvest festival. The dishes commonly prepared are Patishapta Pithe, Puli Pithe, Dudh Puli, Gokul Pithe, Chitoi Pithe.
Today, I’ve tried ‘Patishapta Pithe’, a sweet crepe made of rice flour & samolina stuffed with a coconut-jaggery filling. A treat for those with a sweet tooth, this dish is every Bengali’s weakness. A must make this winter, let’s see how it’s made….
Patishapta Pithe/ Sweet Crepes with Coconut-Jaggery stuffing
Ingredients
For the crepes
- Refined flour – ½ cup (60 grams)
- Semolina – 4 tbsp (40 grams)
- Rice flour – 2 tbsp (20 grams)
- Powdered sugar – 1 tbsp
- Baking soda – less then ¼ tsp
- Milk – 1 cup
- Ghee – 4 to 5 tbsp (for making pancakes)
For stuffing
- Freshly grated coconut– 1 big cup
- Jaggery grated – 3/4 th cup
- Cashews – 8 to 10
- Cardamom powder – ½ tsp
Method
Take refined flour in any big bowl.
Add semolina, rice flour, baking soda, 1 tbsp powdered sugar. Mix well
Add milk into it little by little to make a smooth lump-free batter. You may need a little less milk or more to get a better of medium consistency.
Pls note :Batter shud not be too thin or too thick… Medium consistency.
Keep the batter aside for 20 minutes.
Prepare stuffing in the meanwhile.
In a wok, add some ghee, add grated jaggery.
When the jaggery starts to melt, add the coconut, cardamom and chopped toasted cashews into it.
Mix all ingredients really well. Cook till the mixture dries up & becomes a homogenous mass.
The the stuffing out in a bowl, allow it to cool a little.
Now let’s get started with making the crepes.
Place a nonstick pan or tawa over flame and preheat it.
Pour 1 tsp oil over it and spread evenly. Now take 1 small ladle full of batter and spread it over the tawa, with circular motions by tilting the pan like a dosa.
Pour some ghee all around the crepe.
When it gets slightly brown in color from beneath, flip the sides and roast until it gets brown from the other side as well.
When it’s roasted from both the sides, take it off flame and place it over a plate.
Now likewise prepare the second pancake. Similarly prepare rest of the pancakes as well.
Place 1 or 1.5 tsp of stuffing in the centre of the roasted pancake and fold it in a roll.
Likewise prepare the rest of the patishapta.
Around 10 to 12 patishapta can be prepared with this batter measurements.
Scrumptious and mouth drooling Patishapta is ready to be savoured.
Tanushree’s Notes
- The batter consistency needs to be medium, neither too runny nor too thick.
- One need not use the ladle to spread the batter like a dosa, tilting the pan in a circular motion will do the trick.
- Another alternate stuffing can be made with just condensed milk & khoya/mawa (milk solids) too.
- I have used the regular jaggery here, for an enhanced flavour, date palm jaggery can be used too. Also many Bengalis add khoya/mawa to the stuffing, I haven’t added it here.