Foods of
Chhattisgarh
Thethari
Raw materials used : Gram flour
Taste : Salty
Celebration/festival : at the time of Teeja and Pola
Make Thethri like this
1. First of all, sift gram flour in a plate. Now add celery, cumin, sesame, red chili powder, salt, turmeric.
2. Heat ghee in a pan and now use it as a grease. Kneading any dough by adding grease adds flavor to the things made from it. Now add water little by little and knead a hard dough. Let the prepared dough rest for 20 minutes.
3. Now you have prepared the dough to make Thethri. Make small balls from the kneaded dough. Now with the help of hands, stretch the balls on the stool and make rolls. Now fold the rolls and give them your desired shape.
4. Heat oil in a pan. The flame should be medium. Now put the prepared Thethri in the oil and fry it till it becomes golden on both sides. Your Chhattisgarhi Thethri is ready. Enjoy it with tea. If you want, store it in an airtight container. And eat it comfortably for a month whenever you want.
Khurmi
Raw materials used : wheat and rice flour
Taste : Sugary
Celebration/festival : at the time of Teeja and Pola
Make Khurmi like this
- Take jaggery in a bowl and soak it in 2 cups of water for 2-3 hours till the jaggery gets dissolved completely. Here I have used jaggery balls but you can also use jaggery powder as you like. But make sure that the jaggery you are using is sticky. Using the jaggery balls will give much better result than jaggery powder.
- In an another bowl take 4 cups of wheat flour and sieve it for good two times so that there is no lumps present in the wheat flour.
- Add cardamom powder, coconut and the jaggery solution and form a soft dough. Try to add the jaggery solution slowly so that you can keep a control over the softness of dough.
- Knead the dough for good 5 minutes and take small portions of it make it into oval shape like this below.
- Now, take a woven basket or you can use a fork but traditionally woven baskets are used. Press the khurmi on the woven baskets and you will get a beautiful texture on the khurmi.
- Heat sufficient amount of oil in a pan and fry the khurmi on low flame till golden brown.
- If the khurmi gets little cracks, do not worry as it is a good sign that they are soft on the inside and hard and crunchy on the outside.
- Make this unique and simple yet so delicious khurmi and enjoy the different taste of it. You can store it for good 10-12 days and that’s why it is very nice to carry while travelling or for hostlers. The only thing you should take care is that store it in an air tight box as they will lose their crunch when gets in contact with air.
Dehrauri
Raw materials used : coarse rice and jaggery
Taste : Sugary
Celebration/festival : at the time of Pitru Paksha
Make Dehrauri like this
- Take a bowl and add water and rice in it. Soak the rice in the water for at least 5 to 6 hours. Once done, remove the water from the bowl and retain the rice. Transfer this rice into a mixer jar and grind it into a raw paste. Stir in curd into the rice paste and leave overnight to ferment.
- In a deep bottomed pan kept on medium flame, add water and sugar. Heat the mixture until you get a syrup like consistency. Check whether you get a string like texture once you dip a spoon in the mixture. If you do, turn off the flame. Add cardamom powder and lime juice in the sugar syrup and mix.
- Take a deep bottomed pan, keep it on medium flame and heat ghee in it. Meanwhile make small pan cakes out of the rice-curd mixture. Gently dip these pan cakes in the hot ghee and fry them until golden brown in color.
- Immediately transfer the fried pan cakes in the sugar syrup and let it soak the syrup. Once done, garnish the patties with chopped almonds and cashews. Serve!
Gulgula (Pua )
Raw materials used : wheat flour and jaggery
Taste : Sugary
Celebration/festival : Holi
Make Gulgula like this
- First of all, dissolve jaggery or sugar, whatever you want to use, in half a glass of water.
- Take flour in a bowl and mix sesame, fennel and cardamom powder in it. Fennel is the lifeblood of Gulgula Bhajiya and the real taste emerges from it.
- Now add sweet water to the flour and make a batter like pakoda. Make sure there are no lumps left in it. Now add baking soda to it and mix it well once again. If you feel that the solution is a little too thick, then add some plain water. But the solution should not be thin. take care of it.
- Heat ghee in a pan. Now take the batter with your hands and drop the Gulgula Bhajiya into the hot ghee. When made from jaggery, their color becomes as beautiful as Gulab Jamun. When it gets a good colour, take out the Gulgula Bhajiya.
Cheela
Raw materials used : Rice flour
Taste : Salty
Celebration/festival : anytime
Make Cheela like this
- Take one cup of rice flour in a vessel and dissolve it with the help of water so that there is no lump left in it.
- Now add onion, tomato, chopped green chillies and chopped coriander to that solution and mix. Now keep the solution covered for 10 minutes and then prepare it.
- Now spread the batter on a non-stick pan and cook it from both the sides. Our cheela is ready to eat.
Chausela
Raw materials used : Rice flour
Taste : Salty
Celebration/festival : Hareli, Pola and Chherchhera
Make Chausela like this
- First of all, mix salt, celery, coriander leaves and chilli flakes in the flour.
- Now heat 1 cup water, knead the dough carefully, apply a little oil and keep it covered for 10 minutes.
- Now heat oil, make a uniform ball of dough, roll it out and fry these puris on medium to high flame until golden.
- Serve ready puris with hot chutney and curd.
Sohari
Raw materials used : Wheat flour
Taste : Salty
Celebration/festival : anytime
Make Cheela like this
- Mix flour and salt well. Add hot water little by little and knead until it becomes soft and sticky.
If you are used to making chapati, remember that the dough for puri should be slightly firmer and less wet. If you are making puri for the first time, just trust your intuition and see how it turns out. Practice makes perfect!
When the dough is ready, put it in a bowl and keep it covered for 10-30 minutes. - When the dough is ready, knead it again and roll it into a small log by placing it between your palms. Break small balls of lemon size and make them into smooth balls. Generously dust each ball with flour and form into balls of approximately 1/8″ thickness. Working quickly, roll out all the puris and flatten them on a plate or parchment paper without stacking them on top of each other. When you have rolled all the puris, heat the oil and bring it till it almost smokes.
- Like a typical Indian cook, I don't have a cooking thermometer and I don't even check the oil temperature.
The oil should be hot and almost smoking. Add a small piece of dough and see if it quickly snaps and comes to the surface. This is your signal to fry the whole. Very carefully pick up a rolled puri, first pick up the same puri that you rolled out earlier, and put it in the hot oil. - Add one puri at a time. Once you put the puri in the oil, use a slotted spoon and move the oil around so that it coats the fried puri. This will make it puff up nicely (see picture above on the bottom right)
When the puri puffs up well on one side, turn it so that both sides get cooked and brown spots appear.
Arsa
Raw materials used : Rice flour and jaggery
Taste : Sugary
Celebration/festival : Holi and Deepawali
Make Arsa like this
- First of all, wash the rice thoroughly and filter it in a cotton cloth so that the water in the rice dries up. Now grind the rice dry in a mixer. Flour will be formed. Take a thick bottomed pan and break the jaggery into it. Add 1 cup of water and heat the jaggery.
- Cook the jaggery while stirring. Now take water in a bowl and add a few drops of jaggery in it. If the jaggery settles at one place in the water, then the jaggery is ready. And if the jaggery spreads even a little in the water, then cook the jaggery a little more. Now reduce the flame. And slowly add the rice flour to the jaggery. Keep stirring it well. When the jaggery and rice flour mix well, turn off the gas. Mix the rice in such a way that there should be no lumps.
- Now heat oil in a pan. When the oil becomes hot well, apply oil on your hands and take small balls, spread them lightly and keep dropping them in the oil. Fry until golden and take out. It does not spoil for months.
Papachi
Raw materials used : wheat, rice flour and jaggery
Taste : Sugary
Celebration/festival : at time of weddings
Make Papachi like this
- Take out two cups of flour and one and a half cup of rice flour in a vessel, now add half a cup of ghee in it.
- Now add grated coconut into it. Now prepare a very hard and slightly dry dough by kneading it. Now we will make papachi from this dough.
- Pinch off a little dough and roll it into a round roti. Then make a round design using a lid or a small bowl. And marks will be made on it by digging it with a fork and spoon so that the papaya does not swell.
- Put oil in the pan and heat it. After making papachis from all the dough, put them in medium hot oil and fry them. Papachi should be fried on medium and low flame only.
- Fry the papachi in oil, turning it every now and then, until it turns brown. Prepare all the papachis in the same manner.
- Now prepare the syrup by adding sugar and water in a big bowl, then put the papachi in it and stir it with a spoon so that the syrup coats it completely.
- Now take it out in a plate. This papchi looks very tasty. Papchi is ready. Let them cool, then keep them in an air tight container and eat them whenever you feel like taking them out of the container.
Fara
Raw materials used : Rice flour
Taste : Salty
Celebration/festival : anytime
How to make Chawal Ke Fare
- In a bowl take the rice flour, salt, and 1 tsp of cooking oil.
- Slowly add water to knead to a soft dough.
- Pinch into small balls and roll between your greased palm into 3 inch fingers.
- Once you make all the balls into fingers, proceed to cook.
- Heat a pan with cooking oil, temper with mustard seeds and curry leaves.
- Then, add 2 cups water and let it boil.
- Gently add the rice fingers and simmer till the rice dumpling gets cooked.
- Simmer till the water is all absorbed.
- Check the fara with a knife when it comes clean fara is ready to eat.
Bobra
Raw materials used : wheat flour
Taste : Sugary
Celebration/festival : Matri Navami
Make Bobra like this
1. Soak the rice overnight.
2. Grind the rice adding very little water.
3. Add grated jaggery and cardamom and grind again. The batter should be little thicker and coarser than the idli batter.
4. Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan.
5. Once the ghee is hot add a ladle full of batter in the middle of the pan.
6. You will see the batter settling down like a disc and then quickly rising up.
7. Fry the babra by splashing ghee on top until it fluffs up like a poori.
8. Fry the other side as well till the babras are golden brown.
9. Remove in a plate.
10. Enjoy these babras hot or cold to your liking-they taste heavenly either way!
Bara
Raw materials used : urad bean and Mung bean
Taste : Salty
Celebration/festival : anytime
How to make Bara
- To make Bara, wash and soak the Urad Dal overnight for at least 5-6 hours.
- If you can grind Bara dal on a mortar and pestle, it is better because only then you will get its real local taste. Drain the water from the dal and grind it coarsely. This will make Bara crispy.
- You can also grind dal in a mixer but keep in mind that it becomes fine and smooth very quickly.
- Grind all the dal and collect it in a big bowl. Now add finely chopped onion and chopped curry leaves. Add crushed coriander. This will make the bara very tasty. Also add salt, chili powder, ginger and asafoetida.
- Now heat oil in a pan. Apply water on your palms. Now take a little dal in your hand and pat it and give it a shape like a tikki. Leave it in the oil. Fry 5 to 6 baras at a time. To make the baras crispy, fry them on medium flame. If both sides get a good color then the baras are ready. Take them out on a paper napkin. Make baras with the remaining ingredients as well. Serve hot with tomato chutney.
Lata
Raw materials used : Tamarind
Taste : Salty
Celebration/festival : anytime
Make Amli Lata like this
- First of all you have to soak tamarind and dates in water. Keep them soaked in water for at least 30 minutes. After this, prepare a smooth paste by putting dates and tamarind in water grinder.
- Now filter the paste and put the filtered paste in the pan and cook on low flame. Then add jaggery to this paste and cook it well until the jaggery melts. When the jaggery melts, keep the paste to cool.
- Now add chaat masala, salt, red chilli and cumin powder to the paste and mix it well. After this, add desi ghee to this mixture and mix it well. Now put this mixture in wrapping paper and pack it. Tamarind candy will be ready in these easy steps.