Steamed rice flour cakes with coconut and jaggery wrapped in banana leaves — the sacred sweet offering made for Garia Puja, the most important festival of the Tripuri people.
Ingredients
1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup freshly grated coconut
1/4 cup jaggery — grated
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
A pinch of salt
Warm water — approximately 1/3 cup to bind
Banana leaves — cut into 15 x 15 cm squares for wrapping
Method
Mix rice flour, grated coconut, grated jaggery, cardamom powder and a pinch of salt in a bowl.
Add warm water gradually, mixing with your hands, to form a soft dough that just holds together.
It should not be sticky or wet — just moist enough to be shaped without crumbling.
Wipe banana leaf squares clean with a damp cloth.
Briefly pass each piece over a gas flame for 3 to 4 seconds to soften and make it flexible without tearing.
Set up a steamer with boiling water.
Take 2 tbsp of the rice-coconut mixture. Press into a small flat oval or round about 1 cm thick.
Place on a softened banana leaf. Fold the leaf over to enclose the cake completely.
Fold in the sides to make a neat parcel and secure with a toothpick or thin bamboo skewer.
Arrange the parcels in the steamer in a single layer.
Steam on medium heat for 15 to 18 minutes until the rice cake is completely cooked through — it should feel firm when pressed through the leaf.
Open one parcel to check: the rice cake should be smooth, cooked throughout and slightly sticky.
Open the banana leaves at the table — the rice cakes inside will have absorbed a subtle grassy fragrance from the leaf. Serve warm.