By 
DAL PITHA
Bihari Dal Pitha is a popular traditional rice flour dumplings in Bihari Cuisine. There are different varieties of Pithas. Bihari Dal Pitha is prepared using fresh rice flour and spicy lentil filling. It is a very healthy, steamed, protein riched, a steamed and vegan snack that you can serve anytime as a snack. Just you need a cup of tea or any favourite chutney with this pitha. I made them using store-bought rice flour, but traditionally they are made with freshly grounded rice flour
Ingredients
Ingredients for making Rice Dough
- 1 cup Rice , soaked for 4 hours or 1/2 cup rice flour
- 1 teaspoon Sunflower Oil
- 1 pinch Salt
- Water , to cook
Ingredients for Dal Stuffing (to be ground)
- 3/4 cup Chana dal (Bengal Gram Dal) , soaked for 3 hours
- 2 Green Chillies , chopped
- 1 inch Ginger , peeled and chopped
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 1/4 teaspoon Whole Black Peppercorns
- 1/2 teaspoon Ajwain (Carom seeds)
- 1 teaspoon Sunflower Oil
- Salt , to taste
- Coriander (Dhania) Leaves , finely chopped forgarnish
- 1 teaspoon Sunflower Oil , for greasing
Howto make Bihari Dal Pitha Recipe (Traditional Bihari Delicacy)
- To prepare Bihari Dal Pitha Recipe (Traditional Bihari Delicacy), first gather all the ingredients.
Instructions
Instruction to make Rice Dough
- Grind the soaked rice to a smooth paste using water (approximately 1/2 cup)
- Dilute the ground batter by adding water (approximately 1.5 - 2 cups) to get a thin batter consistency.
- Add salt and oil to the batter and mix well.
- Transfer the batter to a heavy bottom kadai or vessel and start cooking over low heat.
- Keep stirring the batter to prevent lumps and cook the rice flour batter till it turns into a soft dough. It might look as if the dough is turning lumpy and sticking to the ladle, but keep stirring till the entire batter cooks. This step will take at least 12 -15 minutes over low flame.
Instruction to make the DalStuffing
- Drain the excess water from soaked dal and grind dal along with green chillies, ginger, garlic, salt, carom seeds cumin seeds and pepper corns to make a coarse paste.
- Heat a kadai/wok over low flame, with a teaspoon of oil and add the ground paste.
- Keep stirring till the dal cooks well and they get a powdered/crumbly texture. This step will approximately take 7-10 minutes.
- Switch off and add the chopped cilantro leaves. Your stuffing for Bihari Dal Pitha is now ready.
- Instruction to shape Pithas
- Grease a steamer vessel with oil. Grease your hands with oil and take lemon size portions of the rice dough and using your hand shape them into balls. Work when the rice dough is still warm for better result. Keep the rice dough covered with a damp cloth or a lid to keep it moist while you are making balls.
- Taking one ball at a time, pinch the corners and shape the balls to make a cup and spoon the dal stuffing. You can also use gujiya mould to shape the pithas. Also can shape the pithas like dimsums/wontons /kozhukattai/modak .
- Seal gently by pinching the ends using greased fingers
- Repeat the same for the entire batch.
- Place the pithas in the greased steamer and steam them for 8-10 minutes. You can also cook the pitha by dunking them in boiling hot water. Cook till they rise up to the surface, drain and serve. Make sure to seal the pithas properly to avoid leakage.
- Your delicious, healthy Bihar Dal Pitha Recipe(Traditional Bihari Delicacy) is ready to be served hot along with your choiceof chutneys or sauces to make a yummy spicy filling tea-time snack.
