Litti Chokha , a traditional dish of Bihar served as an evening snack . In this Litti are served with chokha made of potato , brinjal and tomato .History says Litti was eaten by the peasants and farmers of Bihar.
For the December 2017 , Ssshhhh secretly cooking , I was paired with Archana Potdar of The Mad Scientist's Kitchen . She gave me the secret ingredients as sattu and . I was delighted to try out this Litti along with Chokha. This was a wonderful snack and everyone in our family liked it.
According to Wikipedia , Litti , along with chokha is a complete meal originated from the indian subcontinent and popular in Indian states of bihar , Jharkhand , parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh as well as Nepalese state of Madhesh.
It is a dough ball made up of whole wheat flour and stuffed with sattu ( roasted chickpea flour ) mixed with herbs and `spijces and then roasted over coalor cow dung cakes or wood then it is tossed with lots of ghee . It may be eaten withyogurt , baigan bharta , alu bharta and papad. The litti are traditionally baked over a cow dung fire.
Herbs and spices used to flavor the litti include onion , garlic , ginger , coriander leaves , lime juice , carom seeds , nigella seedsand salt . Tasty pickles can also be used to add spice flavor.
In the western Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh , litti is served with murgh Korma .
Litti was a war food , it is carried by the soldiers in ancient time along with dry sattu powder. Litti can last for day and it gives us protein , carbohydrates and other minerals . It could be consumed on long march or during rest hours . Litti helps body retain water content of the body if consumed with Jaggery.
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As I can't find dried cow dung , I baked the littis in the oven.
1 cup Sattu ( Roasted Bengalgram flour )
2 finely chopped green chilli
1 tsp finely chopped Ginger
1 tsp finely chopped garlic
4 tbs chopped coriander leaves
2 tbs chopped Coriander leaves
In a bowl , mix together whole wheat flour , salt and ghee. Sprinkle little water at a time and mix well.
Knead a soft and supple dough. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
I like using the spices as a whole , so while eating when you bite the spices it will be a nice punch.
You can use a morter to crush the spices and add , if you don't like to bite them.
In a bowl , add the sattu , cumin , fennel , carom , onion seeds and mix well.
To this add the red chilli powder , salt , chopped coriander leaves , green chilli , ginger and garlic. While mixing , just crush these ingredients with your hand to infuse the flavor.
Now , add the lemon juice and vegetable oil . Mix all the ingredients well.
The mixture may seem dry , sprinkle little water and mix well till you feel moisture in the sattu mixture.
If this mixture is dry , it will be even more dry after the baking of litti. So make sure the sattu mixture is somewhat moist.
Divide the whole wheat dough in to small balls.
You can use roti press to flatten the dough balls.
I shaped with hands , to a cup and placed a spoonful of stuffing of sattu mixture and sealed the edges and shaped to a round ball.
Repeat the same for the remaining dough.
Arrange the prepared litti on the baking tray and brush melted butter on them.
Bake on the preheated oven @ 200*C for 30 - 40 minutes or till the the outer covering of litti became brown.
After half of the baking time , turn over the littis to other side , so the whole of the litti is cooked evenly.
Tamatar means Tomato in Hindi .Grill the Tomatoes, when they crack and charred , take off flame.
Let it cool and peel off the skin and chop roughly.
Add chopped green chilli , Garlic , coriander leaves and lemon juice.
Mix well, Tamatar chokha is ready.
Aloo means Potato in Hindi .
Boil the potates, peel off the skin.
Mash the potatoes. Add the chopped onion , green chilli , Garlic , coriander leaves , salt and lemon juice. Mix all well.
Serve the Littis with a bowl of each chokha along with a bowl of melted ghee.
As , the roasted bengal gram flour ( sattu ) is not available in my place , i grounded the roasted bengal gram to fine powder on my own.
Some add carom and nigella ( onion ) seeds to the dough for outer covering , I kept mine as plain dough.
