Chakuli Pitha

Rice flour and black gram, not soaked and ground rice, and hours of fermenting rather than a night.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee).

Ingredients

• 300 g rice flour
• 100 g black gram flour, from skinned urad dal
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 500 ml warm water
• mustard oil or ghee, for the skillet

Method

1. RICE FLOUR AND BLACK GRAM, NOT SOAKED AND GROUND RICE, AND HOURS OF FERMENTING RATHER THAN A NIGHT. Its article is exact about the batter: rice flour and black gram mixed with WARM WATER and salt, covered, and left to ferment FOR SEVERAL HOURS before being poured onto a skillet as round flat cakes. Both halves of that matter. Starting from flour rather than from rice soaked and wet-ground gives a batter with no grit in it at all, and several hours rather than a full night gives a gentler sourness -- so this is a softer, thicker, milder cake than the overnight-fermented griddle breads on these pages, and it is meant to be.
2. THE WATER IS WARM AND THAT IS WHAT MAKES THE HOURS ENOUGH. Blood-warm, not hot -- hot water cooks the flour into a paste that will not ferment. Warm water starts the culture working straight away, which is how four to six hours does the job of a night.
3. THE BATTER IS LOOSE, NOT THICK. Pourable, about the consistency of single cream. Five hundred millilitres to four hundred grams of flour is the starting point and flours vary, so add water until it pours in a ribbon.
4. IT IS COVERED WHILE IT FERMENTS. Its article says covered. A cloth or a lid, somewhere warm, left alone.
5. IT IS READY WHEN IT HAS RISEN AND SMELLS SOUR. Bubbles right through and a clean sour smell. Flat and sweet still means it is not done, however long it has been.
6. IT IS POURED, NOT SPREAD. A ladleful into the middle of a hot skillet and left to find its own edge. Spreading it thin with the back of the ladle makes something else.
7. THE PAN IS WIPED WITH FAT, NOT FILLED. Its article names ghee or mustard oil, preferably. A smear, so the cake releases.
8. THERE ARE A THIN ONE AND A THICK ONE AND THEY HAVE NAMES. Its article gives saru chakuli, thinner and nearer a dosa, and burha chakuli, thicker and mixed with jaggery, paneer and grated coconut. For burha, fold 60 g jaggery, 60 g crumbled paneer and 40 g coconut into the risen batter and cook it slower.
9. IT IS EATEN WITH ALMOST ANYTHING. Its article lists guguni, sambhar, sugar, jaggery, tea, milk, vegetables and mutton, which between them cover breakfast and dinner.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes