Nothing Elementary about Pithe

The new movie of Sherlock Holmes is released. Friends who know me ask at least once, whether I have seen it or not. Well I haven’t.
Neither do I think I want to. Sherlock Holmes has long been my favourite character. A while before I started blushing about Mr Darcy, or Rhett Butler. Seeing Jeremy Brett play him to such perfection was a dream come true. The present movie does not give me the certainty of the unexpected, as does the other dramatization or the books. And to think such a character was not the favourite of the creator. When I read Arthur Canon Doyle’s biography, I was surprised to find he did not want to be remembered for the Baker Street’s most famous person but rather as a historical writer. How could he be so brilliant at something he did not want to do. How could he breathe such life into Not only Sherlock Holmes or Watson but the intelligent evil Prof Moriatery? Anyways, that is my lopsided reason or not watching Robert Downing Jr in Sherlock Holmes. While on this topic I recalled a quote I read in one of the Sherlock Holmes Casebooks. There Arthur Canon Doyle voiced the opinion that mind is like an attic and we should keep it clean of information which we do not need.

I do not quite agree with him. If not for the myriad memories in my ‘attic’ I would be a lonely person indeed. And i would miss things. As I have gone ahead with life; things have changed. Trying to keep pace, I find myself forgetting about a lot of these. Few I tenaciously cling to others I just let go. Still it does feel as if an era is just missing us by. In the times of fridges and cooking conveniences I forget how difficult it must have been cooking 30 years back. I am not actually saying that we need to change back..But just remembering them are good food for thought; well at least to me.

There are so many dishes which are rarely cooked even by my mother, though at one point they were common. Pithe is one of those. It is basically something prepared with Powder rice as the main ingredient. It comes in various forms, shapes and sizes. The ones that I can remember are puli pithe, chushi pithe, patishapta pithe, chetle pithe. Puli and chushi pithe are very time consuming ones. When I granny cooked it, she didn’t look at anything else in the kitchen. It was a time consuming task. Her deft hands would mould the puli, or would whizz by over the rice dough to make chushi, very similar to the haldiram sev, just imagine them broken down into much smaller sizes. Oh! Its impossible to explain. If I manage to cook it someday I will put a picture in. Anyways when my mouth waters for this, i cannot indulge. But I do manage one shortcut one, which is patishapta pithe. This is much easier version, hurriedly made and quickly finished.

Ingredients
For the pancake
Rice flour – 1 cup
Plain Flour- ¼ cup
Semolina – 3 tbsp
Condensed milk – ½ cup
Milk – about 1 cup

For the filling
Grated coconut ( frozen can be used as well) – 2 cups
Jaggery – 1 cup
Cardamon – 6/7 cloves

Method
Put the coconut in a frying pan and when heated add the jaggery to it.
Allow it to melt , all the while stirring the mixture. It will reach a consistency where the coconut starts binding together Now add the cardamom powder and let it cool.

Mix all the ingredients for the pancake. The consistency of the mixture should be about the same as dosa batter. Should not be very runny...while should not be so thick that tilting the frying pan has not effect!!!.
Heat a skillet or frying pan, add slight oil. Pour in one ladle of the batter and let it cook on one side. My granny used to flip this to other side. I don’t. Reason being I am afraid of losing the perfect round shape and end up with remains of what could have been a good patishapta. So I let it cook that extra couple second that ensures that the side facing up is not raw.
Now spread a bit of the coconut mixture in a straight line, very similar to what is called a chord in geometry. Carefully roll over the pancake over this mixture. Sometimes adding a bit of oil (though not desirable) on the sides allows easy riddance from the frying pan.

Serve it with melted patali gur or even kheer or rabri.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

Its snowing!!. Or has been since last few days.Everything has turned white. It never ceases to surprise me ...this sudden transformation from green to white. We had a hard frost as well. It adds the silvery touch to the trees which the snow somehow cannot. From the train on my way to work, the countryside is magical. It looks all out of the movie set of ‘Narnia’. There is no other way to describe this.

I lived 5 years of my life in Dehradun, under the shadow of Mussoorie without ever once witnessing snow. That only added to the wonder for it. I would have never predicted myself going about my regular activities with snow around. It was always something you had in hill stations..to be experienced on a holiday.

I could really appreciate a lot of the wonder of snow because I was able to stay at home and work. Thank god for software industry. You would assume that working from home for both of us would be a relaxing experience. Well...it wasn’t. In between conference calls, answering emails and working in the system..we ended up working in different rooms.
Of course we did not risk our bones to get much grocery and there came a time when we didn’t have enough left to cook.

It was the perfect time to cook Pav bhaji. Pav bhaji has become a dish coupled with fridge cleaning. It is also one good way of throwing a lot of vegetables together without causing disharmony. It saves me a lot of time as well, because it is not process intensive.


Ingredients
For the Masala
Onions – 2 large
Tomatoes – 2 large
Corainder – 1½ Cup
Ginger – 1 inch
Green chilli – 1-2 as per the fieriness you want
Lime – ½

Pav bhaji Masala (optional)- I skip this sometimes to get the medley of taste from the vegetables
Garam Masala – 3 Tbsp
Coriander Powder – 2 Tbsp
Cumin powder – 2 Tbsp
Oil
Salt

Vegetables (diced)
Potato – 2large
Carrots – 3- medium sized
Capsicum – 1 large
Beans – about 150 gms
Broccoli – 7-8 medium florets
Cauliflower – 7-8 medium florets
Peas- 1 cup

I sometimes throw in beetroot/ cabbage..basically anything other than slimy ones like aubergine.


Boil the vegetables either in a pressure cooker or in a stock pot. Drain them in a colander. Try to preferable time it such that you have then ready when you are adding the powder spices in the tomatoes and onions.
Heat the oil and add the finely chopped onions. When they become very soft add the tomatoes. A couple of minutes later add the ginger pieces. If you do not the taste of ginger then add them with onion so that they can be fried. When the tomatoes are mushed up add the powder spices and mix well. Add 1 cup of the chopped coriander to it as well. Let is cook till it starts oozing oil. Now add the boiled vegetables and mash them up whichever way is easier for you. I use a masher because i like to get the texture of the vegetables. You can use a hand mixer as well.

I have not included any details of the Pav because it is totally up to you what you want to eat the bhaji with.Rice. chappati bread or Pav.