Cuisine: Jharkhand
Category: Snack
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 20 min
Serves: 6
Difficulty: Medium
🌿 Vegetarian
Flat steamed rice cakes with sweet coconut-jaggery filling — the most important festival preparation of Jharkhand made for every major occasion.
Ingredients
- For outer layer:
- 2 cups rice flour
- Hot water — approximately 2/3 cup
- 1/2 tsp salt
- For filling:
- 1 cup freshly grated coconut
- 1/2 cup jaggery — grated
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
Method
- Make filling: combine grated coconut and grated jaggery in a pan.
- Heat on low-medium, stirring for 5 to 6 minutes until jaggery melts and binds with coconut. Add cardamom. Cool completely.
- Make dough: combine rice flour and salt. Add hot water kneading with wet hands into a smooth moist dough.
- Divide dough into 12 balls. Wet palms. Flatten one ball into a round 8 cm wide.
- Place 1 tbsp filling in centre. Fold and seal edges completely.
- Flatten the sealed dumpling gently into a disc — Jharkhand pitha is flat, not curved like other regional pithas.
- Set up a steamer. Line with oiled cloth. Steam on medium for 15 to 18 minutes until outer layer is firm and translucent.
- Serve warm with ghee.