Biri Manda Pitha || Biri Gaja || Odisha - Biri Manda Pitha

 Biri Manda Pitha || Biri Gaja is Odisha's popular savory version pitha recipe. This is steamed rice flour dumpling stuffed with savory urad dal paste.  Pithas are varieties of food similar to pancakes, fritters, dumpling which can be sweet and savory. As I mentioned in my early posts, my hubby posted in Khurda road, Odisha at starting and he worked for 10 years there. I too stayed many years in Odisha, at first I stayed in Talcher, were I had many Odisha friends. Where I got chance to taste & learn many Odisha recipes. Jaganth temple food is our all time favorite, I just like the aroma of food that is served in temples. We have different pitha recipes like arisa pitha, manda pitha, enduri pitha, poda pitha, chakuli pitha and many more. kakra pitha, aloo palanga sabaji, chenna poda is our favorite recipes, kakara pitha is the first Odisha recipe I tasted and I still prepare this for breakfast or as evening snack. Coming to our biri manda pitha it is very tasty recipe prepared for breakfast or as evening snack. This is savory version pitha in which urad dal masala paste is steamed in rice flour dumplings. At first I tasted this Biri manda pitha in my neighbors house @Talcher, Odisha. I learned many recipes from my neighbor friends and they learned many South Indian recipes from me. Though I am not in contact with them I remember them whenever prepare Odisha recipes, wish my recipes are reaching them 😍.

Event : Shhhhh Secretly cooking challenge

Taking this cool cool mango matka kulfi to "Shhhhh Secretly cooking challenge" fb group started by Priya, and taken further till date by Mayuri di, I bookmarked her baked apple to try soon. Do check her space for wonderful recipes. We completed recipes from all states from A to Z, so now admin team and members decided a new interesting way for monthly theme that is - one group member in alphabetical order will suggest theme. Later admin team will pair interested members, then we share 2 secret ingredients among us and prepare recipe using it and all other members will guess it.

                              

This month theme "ODIA Pitha Series" was suggested by Sasmitha who blogs at "firsttimercook", I bookmarked her choco swirl patishapta to try.  This month I  am paired with Shobha di, she is very talented chef who blogs at "shobhasfoodmazaa". I gave her paneer and ghee as two secret ingredients, she prepared this delicious enduri pitha ,do check out. In turn she shared cumin seeds and ginger as secret ingredients, using these ingredients I prepared this biri manda pitha recipe. 

                                     Biri Manda Pitha 

Preparation time : 20 minutes

Cook Time : 20 minutes

Serves : 12 biri manda pitha's 

Category : Breakfast / Snacks

Recipe Cuisine: Odisha 

Main ingredients : Rice flour, urad dal 

Author : Aruna SarasChandra

Ingredients

To prepare rice dough

Rice flour -1 cup

water - 1 & 1/2 cup

salt - as per taste

oil - 1 tsp

Urad dal masala paste

urad dal - 1/2 cup

green chillies - 2

finely chopped ginger - 1 tsp

cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

finely chopped coriander leaves - 1 tsp

salt - as per taste

Instructions 

1) Wash urad dal for twice & soak it in enough water for 2 hours.

2) Heat 1 & 1/2 cup of water in pan to this add 1/2 tsp of salt or as per your taste, 1 tsp of oil and boil it. Then add rice flour mix it well without forming any lumps.

3) Switch off the flames and let it cool for some time.

4) Meanwhile grind soaked urad dal to fine paste by adding very less water and take it into bowl.

5) Add cumin seeds, finely chopped ginger, finely chopped green chillies, required amount of salt in urad dal paste and mix everything well and keep it aside.

6) When rice dough is bit hot mix it well and prepare smooth dough. Now pinch some dough and prepare lemon size equal balls.

7) Now flatten rice ball, press in middle with your thumb and prepare bowl shape by press its with your fingers as shown below. You can press two edges or 4 sides as per your wish.

                            

8) For steaming I electric rice cooker, add some water in rice bowl. Place steamer close the lid & switch it on, let it heat till we do stuffing. If you using idli steamer, add some water and boil it on low flames.

9) Now fill urad dal paste in rice dumpling using spoon and keep it in steamer. Steam these dumpling till for 10 minutes or till urad dal cooks well. Insert tooth pick in urad dal mixture if it comes out clearly then our biri gaja is ready. 

10) Switch off power/stove and let it set for few minutes. 

That's it our biri manda pitha is ready, serve hot with any chutney's  or as it is and enjoy with our friends and family :)

Tips

** Make sure that rice dough is lumps free, if you feel it hard sprinkle some hot water and press well to prepare smooth dough.

** In order to get perfect shape, rice dough should be smooth.

** Urad dal paste should be thick like wada batter.

** You can also add onion in urad dal paste.

Do check out some related recipes and latest video recipes from our 

                       

                                             kakra pitha             

                                      

                                                     aloo palanga sabaji

                                        Ashoka Halwa (youTube link)

                        Hyderbadi Kaddu ka dalcha(Youtube link)

Hope you like this Odisha's popular biri manda pitha recipe, will update video soon in my channel. Give it a try and drop your comments in inbox.

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in BetterButter

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Thanks for visiting my blog,

Aruna Saraschandra 😊                 

Suji Kakara Pitha, Jagannath Rath Yatra special Suji kakara Pitha, Odisha Recipes

Lord Jagannath temple is one of the famous temple in India. It is located in Puri in the state of Odisha.  My hubby worked in Odisha for 10 year (before transferring to chennai), so I got an opportunity to visit Puri Jaganath Temple many times and to know the importance of Rath Yatra & Maha Prasad offered inside the temple. Today Jagannath Rath Yatra started, so I thought to post famous Odisha special recipes. I gathered some information about Rath Yatra, follow the link to know more about Rath Yatra🙏.
About Puri Jagannath Rath Yatra 
   
     Today I am posting Odisha special Suji Kakara Pitha. It is sweet recipe which is crispy outside and stuffed with sweetened coconut. It is easy to prepare with less ingredients. I first tasted it in Talcher(Odisha). I had it as breakfast along with bara(vada) and ghuguni. It was very tasty 😋, missing those days where I had lots of fun with my friend shruthi 😍.  Okay I am not going back 😉, let's start the recipe..

    Odisha special Suji Kakara Pitha 


Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cook Time : 20 minutes  

Serves - 10 to 12 kakaras
Recipe Category: Odisha Special
Recipe Cuisine: Odisha
Author: Aruna


Ingredients 

Suji/semolina/upma rava/ - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Coconut - 1 cup(scraped/grated)
Sugar - 1/2 cup + 2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp(or 2 pinches)
Cardamom /elachi powder - 2 tsp
Cashew nuts & raisins - as per wish
Ghee - 2tsp(optional)
Oil - to deep fry

Instructions

1) Take a pan add coconut and sugar.

 2) Mix the above on low flame till the consistency become thick, then add cardamom powder and mix it for 2 more minutes. And take it into plate.

3) Now take a pan add 2 cups of water, 1/4 tsp Salt, 2 tsp sugar.

4) Add suji in hot water and mix it well without any lumps.

5) Mix the suji well, it will take 2 - 3 minutes. 

6) Transfer the suji on plate and spread it. Let it cool a bit.

7) Add ghee to the dough.

8) Knead the dough well without any lumps.

9) Grease you hands with oil and pinch small amount of dough 

10)  Flatten the suji dough with your palm, it should be thick in the middle and thin in corners. So that the stuffing would not leak in oil. You can stuff only coconut mixture or coconut + dry fruits. 

11) Fill the coconut stuff in the middle and grease the corners with water. (don't grease more water). Here I am stuffing only coconut for one sujj ball(just to show you).

12) Close all the corners properly like shown below.

13) Give the dough small ball shape.

13) Then press in the middle of the suji ball and flatten it and keep it in plate. 

14) Repeat the above process, now I am adding cashew nut pieces and raisins along with coconut mixture, close it and give shape. 

15) Repeat the process for remaining suji. 

16) Heat oil in a pan for deep fry, add suji balls one by one carefully. 

17) Fry the kakara's well by turning both sides on medium flames. 

18) Once the kakara's turns golden brown on both the sides take it into plate. 

 19) Repeat the above steps and fry remaing suji balls and take it into bowl. 

 Yummy, crispy & tasty Suji Kakara Pitha is ready to serve 😋. 

You can have it as breakfast or snacks.

Note

◆ Adding dry fruits is optional. 

◆ Yo can also prepare plain kakara pitha without any stuff. 

◆ You can give any different shapes to the dough like traingle, oval etc., 

Tips

 ● Dough should be thick in the middle while stuffing coconut. 

● Kneading the dough without any lumps is an important to get good kakara's. 

Hope this recipe helps you in preparing crispy and tasty suji kakara pitha. 

Also check my other sweet recipes

Moong dal kheer

Almond Mango Sandesh

Dates and Dry fruits burfi
Kaju katli

Maramarla ladoo

Almond semi ya payasam

Also follow me
In facebook @Facebook
In Google+ @Google+
In pintrest @pintrest
Also drop your feedback, it gives motivation to prepare new recipes 😍🤗.

Thanks for visiting my blog,

ArunaSaraschandra 😊

7 Diwali Sweet Recipes

Hi Friends,

    How are you all. First of all Happy Diwali to you all and your family members. Hope & pray for good health, wealth, happiness and joy in everyones life 🤗 . May this Diwali lights shower lots of power and energy and brighten up our lifes 🎇🎆.

 
     Lights, lamps, fire work,  sounds, flowers,  decorations, Lakshmi pooja, gifts.  What not Diwali is festival of joy until unless we celebrate it carefully.  We can get 'n' number of crackers with differnt varities. I like Bhoo chakkaras, Flower pots, sparklers, twinkling stars, pencils, rockets 🎇🎆🎇🎆 🤗😍. Yes, yes i did not forgot to tell about food 😉. Diwali also meant for varities of  sweets and snacks 😋😋.

Check out 7 Diwali sweets from my blog.

Dates & Dry Fruits Burfi
--------------------------------------

Dates & dry fruits burfi

Sabudana Coconut Ladoo
---------------------------------------

        Sabudana Coconut Ladoo

Almond Mango Sandesh
-----------------------------------------

          Almond Mango Sandesh

Rava Ladoo
--------------------

Rava Ladoo

Puffed Rice/ Maramarala Ladoo
-----------------------------------------------------

  Puffed Rice/Maramarala LAdoo

Kaju Katli
----------------

                        Kaju Katli

Sooji Kakara Pitha
------------------------------

Sooji Kakara Pitha

Also check out the video

Check out few snack recipes

Gujarati Methi Masala Khakara
------------------------------------------------

          Methi Masala Khakara

Corn flakes chivda
-----------------------------

               Corn flakes chivda


Bhakarwadi
-------------------

                     Bhakarwadi

          I am not updating my blog from few days, as my hubby meet road accident. So i am busy in taking care of him. By God's grace and with all well wishers blessings he is recovering 🙏 .  I will update recipe ASAP 😊. 

Thank you,
ArunaSarasChandra😊

Rava Chocolate cake in pressure cooker and Kadai, no maida, no oven sooji chocolate cake

Happy valentines day my dear friends and family 🍫❤️🎂. Today's recipe is no maida, no oven, egg less chocolate cake using semolina/sooji/rava.  This is my first cake recipe in blog and my second cake. Before starting recipe I would like to tell you that I am not professional in baking I am just beginner. If you found any mistake please do guide me 🤗. Though I know cake preparation process I never tried. Thought to start baking and I prepared this cake for our anniversary, cake tastes very yummy, hubby and neighbors too liked taste, so I dared to post it today. My first cake is tutti frutti rava cake, got some experience to prepare this chocolate cake in the same.Hope you all like it. 

Few terms we use in baking are - 
"Frosting" is a thick, fluffy mixture used to coat the outside of a cake. 
"Icing" is generally thinner and glossier used to glaze cakes, pastries and taste more sugar than frosting. 
"Ganache" is a glaze, icing, sauce or filling for cakes, pastries made from chocolate and cream(information from google). I prepared my first cake using steel lunch box in pressure cooker, now one of bakery brother @Jolarpet bought this aluminum cake mould and it is not fit in my pressure cooker so I prepared in Kadai. Process is same for both I am sharing both the process 😍🤗.  

  I used frosting for piping on reverse side of big cake and small cake is plain rava chocolate cake. If you want you can do frosting otherwise serve like that, as shown below... 

Sooji chocolate cake in pressure cooker

Preparation Time : 30 minutes
Cook Time : 35 - 40 minutes
Serves : 400 gms cake
Category : cakes
Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Main ingredients : Sooji, cocoa powder
Author : ArunaSarasChandra

Ingredients 

For cake

Rava/semolina/sooji - 1 glass/cup
Sugar powder - 1/2 glass/cup
Condensed milk/ milk maid - 3 to 4 tsp
Butter  -  1/2 cup 
Yogurt/curd - 1 cup
water/milk - 1 cup(accordingly)
Or vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
cocoa powder - 2 tsp
Chocolate powder -             2tsp(optional)
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
vanilla essence - 3 drops(optional)
Dry fruits(almonds, dates,tuttti frutti ) - 1/4 cup

For ganache

Butter - 11/2 tsp
Fresh cream - 1 cup
Milkmaid - 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder - 2 tsp

Other

Salt - 1 cup

Instructions 

1) Take a mixer jar powder sugar. 

2) Take a deep bowl add butter(butter in room temperature). 

3) Add powdered sugar to the above and mix everything well. 

4) Now add milkmaid to the above. 

5) Mix everything well, till it becomes fluffy as shown below. 

6) Take a mixer jar add semolina/rava grind it to fine powder. 

7) Add above semolina into sugar mix. 

8) Mix everything well by adding curd/yogurt. 

9) Mixeverything well. 

10) Add cocoa powder to the above. 

11)  mix the above well and add chocolate powder. (This step is optional if you do not have chocolate powder). Also add few drops of vanilla essence and mix well. Adding it is also optional. 

12) Mix the above well and keep it aside for 15 minutes by closing lid. 

13) I am showing baking in both pressure cooker and Kadai. Meanwhile take a Kadai add salt and heat it on medium to low flames for 10 minutes. 

Kadai:

Pressure cooker:

14) Now chop the dry fruits and keep it ready. 

15) Take a mould apply oil to it properly, so that cake will come out easily. 

15) After 15 minutes, batter will become bit fluffy  now add baking soda and baking powder. 

16) Mix everything well by adding milk/ water to get batter consistency. 

17) Now add half part of dry fruits and tutty fruity to the batter and mix everything well. 

18) Add the batter into mould and spread remaining dry fruits and tutty fruity. 

19) Place stand in the Kadai / 
pressure cooker. 

In pressure cooker

20) Close the lid and bake it on medium flames for 8 minutes and later cook 30 - 35 minutes on low flames. 

21) In the above pic you can see dry fruits sinked in the cake, as I opened lid many times to take pics.. So d't do the same mistake🤗. After 30 minutes check the cake by inserting tooth pic or knife as shown below. Some batter sticked to tooth pick so we have to bake some more time. 

22) After baking 5 to 7 more minutes I inserted tooth pick again now tooth pick came out clearly without sticking batter. Switch off the flames and remove mould outside let it cool completely. 

23) Then take a knife and scratch it all the sides and place one plate on it and reverse the mould as shown below. 

24) Now tap on the mould gently and remove the mould slowly and reverse it. 

25) cake on pressure cooker to baked. 

26) demould the cake and reverse it.  Hubby ate small part from small cake I can't stop him 😍🤗. 

27) You can stop here and serve rava chocolate cake just decorating with nuts and tuttti frutti as per your choice. (I decorated reverse side). You do reverse the cake and serve. 

28) For ganache follow the process. Take a bowl add fresh cream( I used preserved malai/fresh cream) and condensed milk /milkmaid, beat it with beater or spatula till it becomes fluffy. 

29) Now add cocoa powder to the above and mix everything well. 

30)  Take a pan add butter and then add the above prepared mixture. 

31) Mix the above well on very low flames. 

32) Mix everything well till the mixture become thick. 

33)let the above cool completely outside or in refrigerator. Then take a butter cover or any piping bag and add the above. (I preserved butter cover which I bought cookies from bakery). 

34) Close the above as shown below. 

35) Now decorate the cake as per your wish. I decorated as shown below. 

Note

* As this is semolina/rava  cake it is not that smooth as maida. But it is moist when baked at coorect temperature. 

* You can serve rava chocolate cake without frosting too.

* Using chocolate powder is optional. 

* using milk maid is also optional. Use 3/4rth to 1 cup of sugar if you are not adding condensed milk/milkmaid. 

Tips

** Follow exact quantity of ingredients otherwise cake texture and taste will change. 

** Grind semolina / rava to fine powder to get good texture. If already using fine rava skip this step. 
** Add water/ milk according to prepare thick running batter. Quantity of water/milk depends on type of rava you used. 

** Apply oil to the mould well otherwise cake will stick to bottom and sides of mould. You can also dust some flour or place butter paper too. 

** Donot over heat your pressure cooker / Kadai cake will become hard (from corner and bottom). 

** To decorate heart shape on cake, hubby made heart shape mould using tin foil ❤️😍. 

** If you Donot have vanilla essence you can skip adding or you can a pinch of coffee powder mixed in little water. Add accordingly ot skip it. 

** I checked why dry fruits sinked in cake, got solution that mix the flour(sooji/rava) on dry fruits and nuts and then spread on cake so that they do not sink, have to check for next baking.  


Hope this post with step by step pics  helps you to prepare tasty and moist rava chocolate cake. Planning to post many more cake  and baking recipes with your support 😍. 


Also check few sweet and starter recipes by clicking link below the pic.. 

                    Wheat flour carrot cake

         Veg Chow mein noodles

          Dry cabbage manchurian

                            Paneer Tikka

        Star Gooseberry masala

 

Stuffed Mirchi bajji

                      Paneer pinwheels

                   Pepper sev

Gujarat hi Methi Masala Khakhra

               Vaamu Aaku bajji

              Homemade butter

                     Homemade Ghee

                  Sweet Pongal

                  Ellu Bella Mix

                       Pineapple Sheera

Poha Badam Ladoo

   

                       Ragi Peanut ladoo               
     

Moong dal Kheer

Poha Payasam

Dates & dry fruits burfi

        Sabudana Coconut Ladoo

          Almond Mango Sandesh

Rava Ladoo

  Puffed Rice/Maramarala LAdoo

                        Kaju Katli

Sooji Kakara Pitha

Hope you like this delicious, moist and scrumptious healthy version Rava chocolate cake. Give it a try and drop your comments and pics in inbox.

Also follow me on
In facebook @Facebook
In Google+ @Google+
In pintrest @pintrest
In Instagram @Instagram Also drop your feedback 🤗😍.

You can also search recipe in BetterButter
in Indiblogger
in Plattershare
in MyTaste

Thanks for visiting my blog,

ArunaSaraschandra 😄