Patishapta Recipe

Patishapta Recipe

Coming all the way from Bengal, this famous Makar Sankranti dish is enough to tantalize your taste buds with its soft texture and sweet taste. This is a traditional home made Bengali dessert. In simple terms, they are pancakes / crepes made of sooji and maida and stuffed with a filling made out of grated fresh coconut and khoya. I added some powdered cashewnut for some rich flavor.

For the pur or stuffing:

• Grated Coconut ~ 3 cup
• Khoa ~ 12 oz
• Sugar ~ 1 cup. If you can use Date Palm Jaggery that would be best

For Batter for Crepe:

• Maida or All Purpose Flour ~ 3 cup
• Sooji or Semolina ~ ½ cup
• Rice Flour ~ ¼ cup.
• Milk ~ 4 cups + a little more.
  As you make the batter, if you feel the batter is not thin enough to spread out add more. Note: the batter needs to be really thin and you may need more milk for this. Ideally the batter should spread easily on the griddle when poured

For the Pur or Stuffing:

• Take 3 cups of grated coconut. Fresh is better but I used frozen. Microwave the frozen one, to make it soft and fluffy
• In the Kadai or Frying Pan mix the grated coconut with 1 cup sugar and mix with hand, pressing a little, so that The coconut will become slightly moist because of the sugar. This step is before the pan is put on the stove.
• Next Microwave the khoya to make it a little soft
• Put the Kadhai/Frying pan with coconut mix in it on the stove and stir.
• Add the khoya and keep on stirring till the mixture turns a light brown and is sticky. At this point the mix should not dis-integrate but should look like a light brown slightly sticky granular substance. It took me almost 30 mins to do this

For the Crepe: 

• Take 3 cup pf Maida/ All Purpose Flour
• To it add 1/2 cup of Sooji
• To it add ¼ cup of Fine Rice Flour. If you have store bought rice flour you may need to grind it once more in your dry grinder to make it fine. 
• Add 4 cups of Milk, do not add all the milk all at once, add it as you mix so you get an idea as to the consistency of the batter. You may need to add a little more of milk or water depending on the batter thickness
• The batter should be a little more liquid than pancake batter
• Heat a Frying Pan and smear a little oil/ghee on it
• Take a ladle full of batter and pour it on the Frying Pan and tilting the pan and moving the mixture with back of the ladle, evenly distribute the batter in a circle . You have to do this quick before the mix sets
• Once you feel one side is cooked flip over
• Put the stuffing lengthwise at the center of the crepe
• Fold the crepe and when it browns a little take it out

For serving:

Drizzle the crepes with condensed milk and serve hot.