A thick, flowing gram flour preparation cooked with onion, green chilli and a mustard-asafoetida tempering, served with jowar bhakri — the foundational everyday meal of rural Maharashtra. Pitla is essentially a cooked gram flour gravy, simpler and quicker than most dal preparations.
Ingredients
For the pitla:
3/4 cup gram flour (besan)
2.5 cups water
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp asafoetida
10 curry leaves
2 green chilli — finely chopped
1 onion — finely chopped
1 tsp ginger paste
salt to taste
coriander leaves
For jowar bhakri:
1.5 cups jowar flour, hot water, pinch salt
oil for serving
Method
Mix the gram flour batter: Whisk gram flour with 2.5 cups water and turmeric until completely smooth. No lumps. Set aside.
Make the bhakri dough: Mix jowar flour and salt with hot water — knead to a smooth dough. Shape using wet palms into 4 thick rounds. Cook on a hot griddle 3 minutes per side until golden. Keep warm.
Heat oil for pitla: Heat 2 tbsp oil in a heavy pot. Add mustard seeds — pop. Add asafoetida and curry leaves.
Cook onion: Add finely chopped onion. Cook 5 minutes until soft and translucent.
Add green chilli and ginger: Add finely chopped green chilli and ginger paste. Stir 1 minute.
Pour the gram flour mixture: Pour the besan-water mixture into the pot. Stir immediately and continuously on medium heat.
Cook while stirring without stopping: Cook on medium heat, stirring without a moment's pause, for 5 to 6 minutes. The gram flour will cook and the pitla will thicken from a thin liquid to a flowing, thick, lump-free gravy. If you stop stirring, lumps form.
Check consistency: The pitla should be thick enough to coat a spoon but thin enough to pour — between a thick dal and a porridge.
Add salt: Add salt. Stir. Taste — the pitla should be earthy from the gram flour, mildly spiced and aromatic from the curry leaves.
Serve: Scatter coriander leaves. Serve in a bowl alongside the jowar bhakri. The pitla is poured over or scooped with pieces of bhakri.
Note: Pitla-Bhakri is the most fundamental everyday meal of rural Maharashtra — particularly the farming communities of Marathwada and Vidarbha where jowar (sorghum) is grown and gram flour is always available. Pitla requires no elaborate preparation and cooks faster than any dal, making it the practical weekday meal. The combination has been eaten in this form by Maharashtrian farm communities for centuries.