Makar Sankranti is an Indian festival celebrated in almost all parts of India and Nepal in lots of cultural forms. It’s basically a harvest festival. Just like Makar Sankranti, Pongal and Lohri are celebrated in South India and Punjab.
Makar Sankranti marks the transition of the Sun into the zodiac sign of Makara (Capricorn) on its celestial path. The day is also believed to mark the arrival of spring in India and is a traditional event. Makara Sankranthi is a solar event making one of the few Indian festivals which fall on the same date in the Gregorian calendar every year: 14 January, with some exceptions when the festival is celebrated on 13 January. [wikipedia]
Makar Sankranti is happily celebrated in various states of India with lots of glitters and gay. Sankranti basically signifies the making of sesame sweets and savories like, Til ladoo, Til burfi etc etc. Similarly In Lohri, sweets made with peanuts and seasme has special importance. Pongal is celebrated by making pongal with the first harvested grain. Similarly in the beautiful and cultural state of Bengal, Sankranti is celebrated with happiness and joy and to make the celebrations more glorious, various sweets and savories are made to serve the occasion.
One such Bengal sweet delicacy is KHEER PULI PITHA or DUDH PULI. The sweet delicacy is also made in various parts of Bangladesh. Rice dumplings filled with palm jaggery and coconut filling is cooked in milk, either plain or flavored with palm jaggery.
Nolen Gur aka fresh palm jaggery is the most awaited jaggery in Bengal and Orissa which only comes in winters, and people are seen storing it for the entire year. Yes, even i do so :p
I have grown up seeing my mom making amazing delicacies with Nolen Gur/ Patali Gur. One such recipe which i got from her is Kheer Puli Pitha… though we don’t celebrate sankranti, but this year i was desperate to make this on the occasion. So without much delay let us take a quick look on the ingredients required and the method of making this delicious Kheer Puli Pitha.
- Sift rice flour and add a pinch of salt, ghee and hot water and knead it to make a soft and supple dough. Keep it covered with a clean kitchen towel.
- Heat a non stick pan and add 1/2 cup of crushed palm jaggery and melt in in medium heat. Keep stirring to avoid burning.
- Now add grated coconut , chopped cashews and 1/2 tsp cardamom powder and mix everything nicely and stir for few minutes till everything incorporated well. Keep aside and cool.
- Pinch a lemon sized ball from the dough and flatten it between your palm to make a flat disk.
- Scoop a tsp of filling and place in between the disk.
- Take one side of the disk and fold inwards and cover it up on the other side and seal by pressing gently.
- Take the edge and bring the folds together and shape it like a billet like we plat in tipcat. Do the same for the other side as well.
- Make similar puli using the same method and keep aside in a tray.
- Boil milk in a thick bottomed pan and reduce it till half.
- Add 1 tsp cardamom powder and crushed palm jaggery. Now here you have to add jaggery as per your choice, if you want the dudh kheer to be mild them add very little jaggery, else more. It totally depends on person to person.
- Drop in the hand made puli in the milk, one by one carefully.
- After adding all the pulis in milk, reduce the flame and allow the pulis to cook with milk for 10-15 mins.
- Keep checking the pulis in regular intervals and make sure you cook them until they get properly cooked.
- Turn off the gas flames and allow it to cool.
- Serve this creamy jaggery milk with puli either warm or you may refrigerate it before serving.
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Wishing everyone a VERY HAPPY MAKAR SANKRANTI !
Love : Shaheen
