Patishapta : Makar Sankranti special / poush parbon

HAPPY  MAKAR  SANKRANTI

The festivals of India help keep the diversity of the Indian culture integrated. Today is Makar Sankranti, which is a major harvest festival celebrated in various parts of India.

In Kolkata, Makar Sankaranti is also known as Poush Sankranti, the harvesting festival and is also celebrated with sweets.

Even though the reasons and conditions change for festivals but the importance remains the same, Celebration. 

We Bengali’s make most sweet delicacies with Rice and Palm Jaggery, which is available in winter months only. On this day, our mothers and grandmothers spend all day making special homemade sweets, which we call "Pitha". "Patishapta” is a very common and very favorite pitha preparation of Bengali's.

Ingredients 

¾ cup maida (flour)

1 cup suji

3 tbsp rice flour

 1 cup Milk

For the filling or stuffing

1 ½ cup freshly grated coconut

1½ sugar (use as per as your taste)

Or 1 cup jaggery

1/3 cup khoya or condense milk (optional)

1tsp cardamom powder
Servings 10  Ptishapta 

Procedure

How to make filling

Grate the coconut. 

In a pan, stir together the coconut, sugar. Stir continuously on medium flame. 

Here I used jaggery (plam).

After 4-5 minutes, add  khoya or condensed milk and stir until everything comes together and keep stirring till the mixture is moist and turns a little brown and sticky.

The mixture is ready when it won't stick to the pan anymore. I did not add any nuts. You can add nuts and raisins, if you want.  Now sprinkle cardamom powder and give a good stir.

This process usually takes 20- 25-minutes over low flame.  Now it’s ready, keep it aside.

In a mixing bowl take all purpose flour, semolina (suji) and rice flour and mix well using milk and stir constantly to avoid lump formation. The batter should be thin, smooth and free flowing ( Should look like dosa batter)  (Add excess milk/water if required)

Rest this batter for 45 minutes.

Now heat a wide frying pan or tawa. Add a few drops of ghee in it. 

Place a ladle of batter on the frying pan and swirl pan around to make a round crepe. Make the crepe as thin as possible.

Allow batter to set on medium-low flame and cook until the crepe turns very light brown. 

Now flip to the other side and cook till it turns light brown, again flip to the other side. 

  

Now take 2 tbsp of the filling prepared you before and put it on one end of the crepe (as shown in the picture) and then fold to the other end.

 Serve warm and cold. Both ways patishapta will provide you immense pleasure.

A simple but great BONG traditional sweet is ready.