Patishapta 'Paṭishapta' (with Kheer)

It is cold here now. Cold wind blows throughout the day time and night’s temperature has come down to 6 degrees. Every now and then I’m tempted to have black coffee. S is moving around with a jacket and a muffler (actually you do not need that). He tried the same with the little one but my daughter’s reply was ‘papa baal kharab ho jata hai’. I just laughed.

My memories of winter are related with food too. A season, when you can actually have some rich foods!!!

There were certain dishes that Ma used to make especially in the winter. Now winter was the time when one used to get those fresh green peas, date palm jaggery/ nolen gur, notun alu/potatoes etc. Thus, karaishuntir kochuri/green peas kachori or patishapta were made frequently at that time. For me, I make both the dishes anytime of the year depending on my time availability.

Last Saturday was Patishapta day. There was enough time, the weather was perfect. In Bangla we call it Patishapta Pithe/ Paṭi shapta, a fried pancake, made of rice flour or all purpose flour and semolina and stuffed with coconut or kheer.

I have used only all purpose flour and semolina to make the pan cakes and stuffed with kheer. In Bengali, kheer is the process of thickening milk in low flame, reducing its volume to less than half and sweetening it. 

Ingredients for the pancake

The ratio of semolina, all purpose flour and sugar is 1:1: ½. I took approximately 100gs of semolina and 100gs of flour. That made the dry ingredients of 250 gs of which I made 12 medium sized pancakes.

1 cup semolina

1 cup all purpose flour

½ cup sugar (50g approximately)

2 cups of milk (warm)

Pinch of salt

Oil to fry

Ingredients for the khowa/kheer

1 ½ litre full cream milk

1 cup sugar

2-3 cardamom pods (optional)

Preparation

Pan cake

In a big bowl mix all the dry ingredients one by one. Add milk slowly to make the batter. This batter should not be too dry or runny. The consistency is same as of a dosa batter or any other pancake. You can add some water if you want. While adding the milk continuously mix semolina and the flour with your hand to avoid any lump formation. Keep it aside for 30 minutes.

Kheer

Boil the full cream milk. Once it is boiled put it into simmer and let the volume reduce to half. You will have to stir now continuously. Add sugar and the cardamom pods and stir. After the sugar melts, remove it from heat.

Method  

Brush a non stick pan with oil.

Pour a ladleful of batter into the pan and spread it with the help of the ladle to evenly distribute the batter in a circle. This should be done very quickly before the batter sets.

Flip over after one side is cooked.

When the other side is done remove it on a plate and stuff khoya lengthwise and fold it.

Garnish with cherry or condensed milk or both. You can also thicken and sweeten milk and spread over patishapta. I do not do that. I have just garnished with cherry. You can also go without garnishing.

Patishapta, traditionally is made of fresh coconut. For making the coconut stuffing take fresh grated coconut and mix it with sugar. Put it on heat and mix. The flame should be on low during the whole process. After the sugar melts add some condensed milk or thicken milk. Stir continuously still the mix is sticky. Now remove it from heat. The mix should not be very dry as when it will cool down it will become hard.