Kokal bondha pitha (banana leaf wrapped up pancake)

"Om bhagwatye Vidmahe

Maheshwarye Dheemahi

Tanna Annapurna Prachodayat"

'Here the above mentioned mantra belong to goddess Annapurna, as my blog is all about food and diverse Indian culture i want to start it with the blessings of annapurna'. 

Welcome to all.

Today I came with another Assamese traditional dish recipe, the recipe itself speaks a lot about the Assamese culture. This pitha (pancake) generally consumed in winter or occasionally. Let me tell you first what is pitha? Well pitha is a palmsized pancake or dumpling generally from the Eastern India. 

Pitha is generally sweet or savoury, and usually made from a dough or batter, which is then steamed, fried or griddled. 

This dish is emotionally closed to me as this dish was introduced to me by my grandma, thereafter several times I taste it but nobody matches the delicate of my grandma. And for the first time I'm trying this as per my grandma's direction, so quite obvious, with a much excitement I started preparing for the pithas (pancake). Moreover it hardly took any time to prepare. And it's a perfect form of healthy tasty breakfast pitha( pancakes).

Method :-

Firstly, we have to bring a nice banana leaf and wash it very gently then Cut the edges of banana leaf with the help of a knife (be careful). Now banana leaf have to cut in equal parts and the leaves have to be steamed slightly dried in the fire. 

 

Then come into the rice ,the rice used in this recipe is called Bora saul (Sticky rice). Bora saul is a variety of glutinous rice found in Assam. The rice itself play a very important role in Assam during the traditional festival like Bihu. If the rice is new, then wash it only but if the rice is old then it have to be soaked in water for an hour, then wash the rice and keep it in a drainage vessel so the remaining water will left and add some salt on it as per taste.

Now, we take the banana leaf one by one which we had dried in the the steam and one by one we'll put rice in all the leaves very gently i.e according to the leaves.

Then wrapped the rice well with banana leaf and tie the leaf with banana stick.

 

Now take the water into a pot then place the pot over the stove and turn on the stove. Now let the water boil well in high flame. 

 

After, the water is well boil, then give the wrapped rice into the boiling water for 15 minutes in high flame.

 

After 15 minutes Take out the tied rice and check if it is fully cooked. If the rice is well cooked then turn off the stove and take the pot aside to be cold. When the water of pot gets cooled slightly Then take out all the wrapped rice ( KOKAL BONDHA PITHA)  in a vessel. And its ready to consume now. 

 

• serve this pitha hot with cream, doi (curd),Gur(Jaggery) and with a hot cup of Assamese tea.