My grandmother was a remarkable woman. She accomplished much in her life and probably could have done more, had she been from this era.  I sometimes feel dwarfed in front of her achievements and her strength. In fact, right now, I know for sure that I would not be able to justice by writing about her. No amount of writing would completely express what she meant to me. Let me keep her feats for another time. This time, I want to talk about my memories of Dida, my granmother and patishapta. She passed away in 2015 and I miss her dearly, especially during Makar Sankranti, when the air smells of pithe.

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patishapta pitha

A small anecdote from my past and patishapta

During my growing up years, I was in Port Blair. Our lives at Port Blair was completely different from rest of the country. Being on an island, we were dependent on the mainland (rest of India), for almost everything. Even potatoes would come by ship and those days, the frequency of flights and ships was much less. We would even get our newspapers thrice a week from Kolkata, which would come by Indian airlines. So for us, two months of summer vacation at Kolkata and Canning was deeply cherished. My grandparents lived in Canning in a beautiful house surrounded by gardens and two ponds.

The ponds were lined with coconut trees with pathway in the centre. It led to Batik bari (a factory where Dida used to employ women and produce batik textiles).  It was my Dida’s batik bari, her work place and my favorite place to play and disturb the peace. In those two months, Dida pampered us thoroughly. She re-created festivities which we would miss in Port Blair. She would simply do an Aam pujo and Satyanarayan pujo because I would want to eat Shinni. Shinni is a porridge made with whole wheat and milk with bananas and coconuts and other fruits. She would make all kinds of pithe and puli because we had missed Makar shankranti. 

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Dida and her traditions

Dida would make patishapta on a small clay oven. Coconuts were in abundance at home. So, even in her busy schedule, she used to make more than 50- 60 patishaptas at a time. Normally our summer holidays would also have rest of our cousins and a lot of extended family at home. All of us got to enjoy patishapta in the evening. Till date, I am yet to taste a patishapta which would replicate that taste. My chhotokakima (one of my aunts) makes beautiful patishapta too and she has learnt from her. That’s the closest to what Dida would make. Now that I think of it, Pishimoni (my father’s sister) also makes almost a similar one.

Now I deeply regret that I had not picked up the nuances of pithe puli making from Dida. I remember thinking whether my mother would make as many pithe puli as her. I used to doubt about my capability of making pithe puli at home. Having said that, I am taking baby steps and learning

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Here are a few traditional pithe and puli recipes

  1. Ranga Alur Dudh Puli
  2. Rangu Alur roshopuli
  3. Nonta Chitoi pithe

It’s never too late to learn how to make pithe-puli

With motherhood, I was sure that I wanted to feed the best to my children. And I learnt to make patishapta and other pithes and pulis. I wanted to carry on the tradition of making pithe at home during makar shankranti. I actually feel proud that I am continuing the tradition and that Dida would have been very proud of me. The patishapta I make is not as good as the one that Dida would make but it’s close. And I am sure, with time and experience, one day I would make 50 patishaptas at one go and they would be just like the ones that Dida would make.

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Patishapta Pithe

A traditional Bengali sweet, much like crepes. These are thin crepes made of flour, semolina and rice flour and stuffed with coconut and jaggery. Recipe Author: Madhushree
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Appetizers, Vegetarian
Cuisine Bengali
Servings 25 nos approx

Ingredients
  

for the filling

  • 2 cups freshly grated coconut
  • 3/4 cups grated gur or jaggery I used fresh gur made from dates, what we call patali gur in Bengali. (see notes)
  • 2 tbsp milk powder my mother's secret ingredient to make it extra sticky
  • 1 tbsp Ghee

for the batter

  • 1 cup Flour
  • 1/2 cup semolina
  • 1 tsp gobindobhog rice flour optional. Essentially for the fragrance
  • 2 tbsp Ghee
  • 1/2 cup nolen gur liquid date palm jaggery
  • 2 cups Milk

other ingredients

  • 3 tbsp Ghee
  • 3 tbsp nolen gur for garnish or drizzling from top

Instructions
 

Making the stuffing

  • In a heavy bottomed frying pan or kadai, start by heating the ghee and adding the grated coconut. After frying for a minute on medium to low flame, add the jaggery. If you do not have jaggery add sugar. Keep stirring till the gur or the sugar melts and they all bind together. It takes about 5 to 6 minutes and then add the milk powder.
  • Again keep stirring for half a minute and turn off the flame. Too much cooking will over caramelize the sugar and burn it. So keep a check over the flame and once everything is sticky, turn off the heat.
  • Keep it aside to cool down a little bit. Then rub your hands with ghee and then start shaping the stuffing. Take a heaped tsp of the filling in the palm of your hand and shape it into a thin cylinder about 2 inches long. Keep them aside on a plate.

Making the batter and then the Patishapta

  • In a mixing bowl, add the flour, semolina and the rice flour. Make a well in the centre and add the ghee and the nolen gur and slowly add the milk while stirring. You may or may not need the entire two cups of milk. Or sometimes you may need a little more than two cups of milk. The batter should not be thick as pancakes and not too runny also. It should coat the back of your spoon and should be like a crepe batter.
  • Take a frying pan and rub a little bit of ghee on the pan. When it is hot, take a small ladle of the batter and pour it in the centre while using the back of your ladle, spread the batter into a round shape about 3 inches in diameter. Keep the flame at a low and cover with a lid for a minute for the batter to dry.
  • When the batter has dried, add one of the coconut cylinders at one end and using your fingers and the spatula, make it into a roll and press gently when completely rolled to seal the end.
  • Take it out and place it in a serving dish. Repeat the process with the entire batter.
  • Serve it with a drizzle of nolen gur. You can have it hot or at room temperature. In winters, you can keep it outside for a couple of days but in summers, you will have to put it in the refrigerator.

Notes

  1. Substitute with sugar if you cannot find jaggery.
  2. If you do not find gobindobhog rice flour, use regular rice flour
  3. If you are left with some extra batter, keep it refrigerated and either make some more filling or simply make crepes with it and add whatever filling you want and have.
  4. It is difficult to say the exact number of patishaptas because it depends on the diameter of the crepe.