Tekeli Pitha

  
I was contemplating whether to sign up for this Indian States' based marathon or not because of the scare the northeast Indian states gave me. I knew it was predominantly non vegetarian and getting interesting vegetarian recipes seemed almost impossible. Assam state was the only exception where there were hoard of recipes online from authentic sources. 
After going through them, pithas caught my attention and a couple of varieties of pithas were the first dishes that got cooked for this marathon. Pithas are usually made with a batter of rice flour or wheat flour, which is shaped and optionally filled with sweet or savory ingredients. A pitha can be anywhere from an instant rice flour dosa to athirasam / ariselu. Depending upon the type of pitha prepared, they can be deep fried, slow roasted over a fire, steamed, baked or rolled over a hot plate. The savory varieties are eaten as breakfast or snack while the sweet varieties are reserved for desserts. 
I chose to go with tekeli pithas that I saw on the Assamese facebook page. Tekeli pithas are steamed rice cakes served over breakfast and there are again both savory and sweet versions of it. The savory version contains egg filling while the sweet one contains sweet coconut or black seseame seeds -jaggery. Pithas are prepared using a tekeli and hence the name. Tekeli being a clay pitcher with a long neck. I have given the method used by the locals and there are also online pictorial presentations how to prepare these pithas if anyone is interested. However I figured out that they can be just steamed like idlis and that's what I did. Traditionally, rice flour is prepared from scratch but store bought version works fine too.
It is hard to describe the taste of these pithas as I have never eaten anything similar. They were subtly sweet and it reminded me vaguely the chalimidi maybe because it is also made with rice flour.

Ingredients: (makes 5)
Rice Flour- 1 cup
Roasted scrapped coconut- 6 tbsp 
Sugar - 1/4 cup.
A pinch of salt 
Milk - little

Method:
* Combine together rice flour, coconut, sugar lightly with your fingers. Add water and milk just to bring the mixture together. Remember that a batter is not required here and we are looking for a coarse crumbly mixture. As I was preparing a small quantity of pithas and so used around 2 -3 tbsp milk to form the mixture. I didn't use any water.

Traditional method:
* Heat the water in a kettle. 
* Grease a kettle lid with butter. Fill it up with the rice flour mix.
* Tie the lid tightly with a muslin cloth and secure the top. Block the mouth of the kettle with another piece of cloth to prevent the steam from escaping.
* Place the lid on top of the boiling kettle of water and steam for about 20 minutes or until done.

How I did:

* I thought steaming in a cooker would be hassle free. I greased small cups / katoris and filled them with the rice flour mixture up to half, slightly pressing the mixture. 

* Place them in a pressure cooker without the whistle on and steam for about 20 minutes. 
* When done, remove them from the cooker, demould and enjoy.

* They are served warm with liquid molasses and cream / chilled sweet milk.

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