Specially Curated Republic Day Recipe By Chef Ajit Tiwari, Executive Chef, Holiday Inn Bengaluru Racecourse.

Ingredients:

·        Whole Wheat Flour - 1 big cup;

·        Water as per requirement;

·        Tur dal /Arhar dal  - 1 small cup;

·        Turmeric Powder - 1 tea spoon;

·        Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tea spoon;

·        Cumin Seeds Powder - 1/2 tea spoon;

·        Salt as per taste;

·        Onion - 1 medium size, finely chopped;

·        Garlic cloves - 4, finely chopped;

·        Green Chilli - 3-4 or as per taste, finely chopped;

·        Ginger - 1 inch, finely chopped;

·        Asafoetida - 2 pinch;

·        Whole Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tea spoon;

·        Desi Ghee - as per requirement;

For stuffing:

·        Spinach  250 gm

·        Fine chopped Garlic  5 cloves

·        Chhena 50 gm

·        Salt and pepper to taste

·        Ghee  1 tsp

·        Green chilli chopped 1 no

Method:

·        Wash the dal well with plain water and then leave them soaked in clean water for 1/2 hour.

·        Then whole wheat flour in a deep vessel and add water slowly to it to knead a soft dough, it should be soft like the dough made for chapatti, keep a side.

·        For stuffing blanch chopped spinach, refresh in cold water, and squeeze it to remove excess of water. take pan add ghee heat it up, put garlic , sautéed it till it get golden brown ,then add green chilli sautéed it for some time then add blanched spinach sautéed it further after that add chhena and add seasoning into it . remove from heat and cool it further

·        Take thick bottom vessel to make dal, pour water and add soaked dal with salt and turmeric powder to boil .Then lower the flame to medium level.

·        In the meanwhile, make small balls of the whole-wheat dough. The size of the balls should be smaller than the size of lemons.

·        Then take one ball, dust it with some dry wheat flour and roll it flat like a poori.  Make another one same to cover it from top like ravioli. Put sautéed mixture of spinach into center, cover it from top, and seal the corners with help of fork. Prepare all pithi in the same way.

·        Stir and check the cooking pulses at regular intervals while making wheat pithi and remove the scum, which comes when the pulses are being cook. 

·        When the pulses are 80% cooked then add the wheat pithi to the dal carefully. Cook it at medium flame. Remember that the wheat pithi should completely submerged in the pulses. The Pulses will be cooked and to check the pithi, take one pithi out into a plate and cut it with a knife. If the knife remains clean and is not sticky then it means the pithi are cooked.

·        For tempering or ‘chaunka’,  take a pan, heat ghee into it, heat it then add garlic sautéed it after that add ginger and onion sautéed it till all gets brown then add cumin powder red chili powder sautéed till it get cooked  after that add asafetida and tempered the cooked pithi , put some chopped coriander . serve it with rice or phulka 

----