Bhapa Pitha| Keteli Pitha | Tekeli Pitha, Assam Style (Steamed Rice Cakes with Coconut and Jaggery)
Keteli/ Bhapa Pitha. A symphony of fragrant rice, grated coconut and aromatic jaggery. Steamed in the lid of a kettle. Redolent of the earthy Assam and Bengal, her lovely innocent people and the spirited exuberance of the Bhogali Bihu. Enjoy !!!
Ingredients
- 2 cup gobindbhog rice
- 1 cup coconut freshly grated
- 1/2 cup date palm jaggery or khejur gur finely chopped
- a pinch of salt
Instructions
- Soak the rice for 2 hours, drain from water.
- Allow the rice to dry over a newspaper or muslin cloth to drain any excess water.
- Grind the rice to a fine flour. Sieve the flour.
- Transfer the rice flour to a bowl, add a pinch of salt, mix well.
- Splash a little water to the rice flour, start mixing with your hand. The texture of the dough should be crumbly and just damp enough. Splash water in small increments, we don’t want a wet batter here. A commonly used test for the texture of the dough is if you take a small portion in your palm and press it by closing your palm, the dough should not squeeze out from between your fingers. As shown in Picture 1.
- Sieve the moist flour.
- Take a kettle, fill it half with water and bring to a boil.
- Wrap the lid of the kettle as shown in the Picture 3 with a damp muslin cloth.
- Spread a layer of the rice flour uniformly over the cloth (Picture 4). Add 1 tsp of freshly grated coconut on the rice dough, followed by 2tsp of chopped jaggery (Picture 5). Then again 1 tsp of coconut on it. And finish it with another layer of rice flour (Picture 6). Press gently, take care to not press it too hard.
- Wrap with another piece of damp muslin cloth, put the lid back on over the boiling water (Picture 7).
- Steam for 10-12 minutes.
- Carefully remove the lid from the kettle. Gently remove the outer muslin cloth. Use a sharp knife along the edges of the lid to un-mould the pitha.
- Serve immediately.