Orissa or now know as Odisha, treated me with the same way. There was hardly any bread that I could make specially for this state. Nor was there a new one, atleast that I could find, that made me want to make it. I had
The pithas are famous here as well and I had shortlisted Poda Pitha, which is a special dish prepared during Raja, a 3-day celebration, that starts on the first day of Asara month. This welcomes the rains and marks the start of agriculture season. As with all festivals, this is usually enjoyed with lots of fanfare and food. The main one being the Poda Pitha, which means a baked cake.
In days before oven was popular, they used to put the pithas in earthen vessel on top of the dying wooden embers in the night and the dish would be baked nicely by the next day morning. This poda pitha is usually served with chicken curry or mansa tarkari.
The famous Rasagolla and
Chenna Poda, was supposed to have originated from Odisha.
The dish that I finally ended up making was the Nadia Chitau Pitha or a pitha made with coconut. This is same as Neer dosa that we have in south and I didn’t even check it until now. I see the proportion is same but now is too late!
Today’s recipes were adapted from here and here
Nadia Chitau Pitha
Ingredients
Arua Chaula / Rice – 3/4 cup
Nadia / Coconut, grated – 3/4 cup
Luna / Salt – 1/2 tsp (as per your taste
Refine Tela / Refined Oil – as required
How to make Nadia Chitau Pitha
Soak the rice in water for 2 hrs. Grate the coconut and keep it aside.
Grind the drained rice with grated coconut with just enough water. Add salt and leave it for 1 hr. (Check notes)
Add water to make a thin batter out of it.
Heat oil in a tawa, pour some batter into it, and cover it.
After couple of minutes, remove from flame
Serve hot with boiled milk, dalma or any spicy curry.
Notes:
3/4 cup of rice gives about 1 & 1/2 cup rice after soaking.
Make the batter thin, so that you can easily spread the batter by just swirling the tawa.
The recipes mention that this should be covered with lid, and not flipped to the other side once done.
After grinding, the batter was refrigerated. So that it doesn’t get fermented but is ready to be used.
Phula Kobi Tarakaree
Ingredients Needed:
Phula Kobi / Cauliflower – 2 cups
Potatoes – 2 medium
Onion – 200grm
Ginger Garlic paste – 1 tsp
Green Pea – 1/2 cup
Tomato – 1 big
Chili Powder – 1 tsp
Cumin Powder – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Coriander leaves – handful
Oil – 2 tsp
Salt to taste
How to make Phula Kobi Tarakaree
Make a paste of onion, garlic and ginger.
Wash and clean the cauliflower, Cut into florets. Blanch in hot water for 10 mins.
Cube the potatoes and have the fresh peas ready.
Heat a non stick pan with a tsp oil, saute the drained cauliflower, fry for 5 mins on high, remove and keep it aside.
Heat the remaining oil, add the ground paste, cook for 5 – 7 mins till raw smell leaves Now add all the spice powders.
Add the potatoes, peas, and simmer for 10 mins. Now add the tomatoes and mix well.
Next add the fried cauliflower florets and continue stirring till it gets properly mixed with the paste.
Then add 1 cup of water, salt to taste, stir well and cover it with a lid.
Boil it on a lower flame, for another 20 minutes till the vegetables are tender and the gravy thickens to the desired consistency.
Finally remove the pan from flame, garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.
Enjoy the Phula Kobi Tarakaree with Nadia Chitau Pitha.
22 comments
Love these pretty crepes..they lok do delicate with simple ingredients. .the combo is quite interesting.
love the spongy rice-coconut dosa n its combo …
simple recipe and pleasant tasting ingredients. a colleague use to make elaborate chicken and fish preparations during pot luck parties but his daily meals were this simple..and he enjoyed both
rice and coconut is a beautiful combo!! no wonder these look so tempting!!
Nice combo.
Pitha looks soo lacey and delicious, i can have that tarakaree and this pitha rite now for my dinner.
The pitha are so dainty! And look good with the vibrant curry. Nice combo.
Both the dishes look delicious. I make another version where I grind onion as well along with the coconut and rice. Must try this version.
That is quite a resemblance with the Chilas from Chhathisgarh, except for the coconut. They look lacey and delicious.
Beautiful looking lacey dosas!
There are so many dishes similar to Tamil Nadu recipes in Orissa. The dosa is one among them. The gravy along with dosa look super inviting…
These dosa sorry pithas looks so yum. Delicate and lacy. The tarkari too.
Looks so pretty! And I am sure it paired well with the curry…
Pitha looks so lacy and resembles the neer dosa..Gobi tarakaree is so delicious and perfect with rotis…
Love the bright white color of the pitha and that tarkari is such a perfect combination 🙂
a delicious combo
The curry must be one delicious combo with the pitha's.
wow pitha looks like neer dosa just amazed to see some unique recipes valli very well paired with phula kobi tarakaree 🙂 just tempting platter 🙂
A very unique and interesting combo …
the gobi tarkare is amazing.. lipsmacking.. would be great with rotis too
Chitau pitha is made on a clay tawa specially made for this pitha .Its the sister version of Neer dosa but its thicker in middle and thin at the sides because of its unique tawa.The best chitau pitha is the one which has the maximum holes and the technique is to use right variety of rice,best fermentation and once you pour the batter,need to circle some water around the pitha and cover it.The generated steam gives the right texture.But needlessly good effort there.Just that tryingnto send the authentic version.I will post a recipe and share.Lots of Odia pitha are going extinct otherwise and they are lip smacking,just that its remains within odia homes and kitchen and in their festivals.
Thank you Priya for sharing your thoughts on this. Looking forward to see your version. The recipe I referred too, didn’t say anything about what you have mentioned. Wish it was there and I had followed it so that to experience the authentic version. As you say many of our old traditional dishes are getting extinct and we must preserve them. Thank you for dropping by.