This is a popular rice flour dumplings in Bihari Cuisine.
It is prepared using fresh rice flour and spicy masala lentil filling. The speciality of this dish is that it is vegan, gluten free and steamed. High in proteins, this is an anytime snack, loved by all age groups.
Ingredients for making Rice Dough
- 1 cup Sugar Watchers Low GI Rice , soaked for 4 hours
- 1 teaspoon Oil
- 1 pinch Salt
- Water , to cook
Ingredients for Dal Stuffing (to be ground)
- 3/4 cup Chana dal (Bengal Gram Dal) , soaked for 3 hours
- 2 Green Chillies , chopped
- 1 inch Ginger , peeled and chopped
- 3 cloves Garlic
- ½ teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- ¼ teaspoon Whole Black Peppercorns
- ½ teaspoon Ajwain (Carom seeds)
- 1 teaspoon Oil
- Salt , to taste
- Coriander Leaves , finely chopped for garnish
Instructions to make Rice Dough:
- Grind the soaked rice to a smooth paste using water
- Dilute the ground batter by adding water to get a thin batter consistency.
- Add salt and oil to the batter and mix well.
- Transfer the batter to a heavy bottom kadai or vessel and start cooking over low heat
- Keep stirring the batter to prevent lumps and cook the rice flour batter till it turns into a soft dough.
Instruction to make the Dal Stuffing:
- Drain the excess water from soaked dal and grind dal along with green chillies, ginger, garlic, salt, carom seeds, cumin seeds and peppercorns to make a coarse paste.
- Heat a kadai over low flame, with a teaspoon of oil and add the ground paste.
- Keep stirring till the dal cooks well and they get a crumbly texture.
- Add the chopped cilantro leaves.
- Grease a steamer vessel with oil. Grease your hands with oil and take lemon size portions of the rice dough and use your hand to shape them into balls.
- Taking one ball at a time, pinch the corners and shape the balls to make a cup and spoon the dal stuffing. You can also use gujiya mould to shape the pithas.
- Steam them for 8-10 minutes. You can also cook the pitha by dunking them in boiling hot water. Your pitha is ready to serve.