Litti Chokha
Litti Chokha!
I had no idea whatsoever what it is few years back. Being from Maharashtra, I had once cooked ‘chakoli – varan phal’ for some of my friends and they loved it. As we started discussing the recipe, i came to know we all have some or other recipe which is made with basic ingredients.. dal and ata. (lentils and flour)
It is quite surprising the way these two ingredients are moulded and transformed into such interesting recipes . And they are still fondly eaten allover India.
What is Litti Chokha?
If you’ve heard of Dal-Bati from Rajasthan, this is the twin recipe of her. Dal bati is lentils served with dough balls whereas in litti chokha, littis are the dough balls which are stuffed with lentil flour and served with aubergine/ potato fry.
This is a famous meal from states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.It is served a s street food too.
The lentil mixture is the very interesting part of this recipe. It is called sattu.
What is Sattu?
Sattu is mix of two flours..
- Barley
- Roasted red chickpeas / chana
Barley is quite nutritious grain rich in many vitamins like B, Mg, minerals, antioxidants and fibre.As its grown widely in east and north part of India, it must be used in this recipe.
How to make sattu?
To make your own sattu mix: dry roast 1/4 cup of the barley with its husk on low flame till it starts to pop.
When cold, grind it along with 1 cup of Dry roasted red chickpeas (dalia) to a fine powder.
Authentic way of making Litti:
Littis are cooked in the charcoal bhatti / chulha or grill which gives it the grilled/ charred/ barbecued flavour.
But we can always roast them on griddle or bake them in oven. I prefer to bake them in oven and later for the typical chargrilled appearance and flavour, just charr them on flame for few seconds.
- The dough for littis should be little harder than chapati. But not much.
Steps to make:
2.Making filling for littis: the consistency is wet so it holds together well.
3. Making Chokha: quite similar to baigan bharta. But apart from aubergine, rest of the things are uncooked.
: Recipe Card :
| Prep Time | 1 hour |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 2 cups ata- wholewheat flour
- 2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
- as needed salt
- two pinches Carom seeds / Ajjwain or dry oregano
- 1 1/4 cup sattu flour (see notes how to make sattu)
- 2-3 green chillies finely chopped
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1-2 garlic minced
- 2-3 Tbsp coriander leaves chopped
- 2 Tbsp pickle masala from any bottled spicy pickle (instead use oil + chilli powder + nigella seeds)
- 1 fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp black salt / chat masala
- to taste salt
- 1 big aubergine
- 1 tbsp mustard oil
- 2 tsp ginger garlic minced
- 2 green chillies finely chopped
- 2 tbsp coriander leaves chopped
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp Roasted cumin powder
- as needed salt
- 2 tomatoes
- 7-8 garlic cloves
- 5-6 dry red chillies
- to taste Black salt
Ingredients
For Litti:
For Litti filling:
For aubergine Chokha:
For Red Chutney:
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- Mix flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add in the ghee and rub well to flour. Add water as needed and make a smooth dough.It should be like soft and smooth the chapati dough. Cover and rest while we make filling.
- Mix all the ingredients listed under 'filling of litti'...sattu flour, green chillies, onion, garlic, coriander leaves, pickle masala, salt, black salt, lemon juice. Mix it all well so flour gets the oil from pickle masala.
- Add dash of water and make the filling wet. Just enough water so you can make a nice wet ball. Don't add too much water to make the filling runny else it would break the littis.
- Make 10-12 equal sized balls of the dough and keep it covered. Make 10-12 small balls of the filling as well and set aside.
- Take one dough ball in palm of hand and shape into a small bowl.Place a filling ball inside it and close the edges of the dough to seal the filling inside. The dough should envelope the filling from all side and remove any excess dough.
- Similarly make all littis and place them on a lined or greased baking tray.
- Preheat the oven at 180C for 10 minutes and bake littis for 15 minutes on each side or till they turn light brown. Once done brush them with ghee and keep covered.
- Alternatively, heat the appe pan on medium heat, grease it with ghee and in each slot, place one litti. Cook till the side facing down is turned light brown. Flip and cook from other side too.
- Soak red chillies in water for 5 minutes. Cook soaked red chillies, tomatoes and garlic for 5 minutes. Transfer it to Mixer and make into smooth paste.Add salt and chutney is ready.
- Grease the aubergine with little oil and roast it on flame. Roast well from all sides while turning it around. Alternatively wrap it in foil and bake in oven for 15 minutes while flipping it around halfway.
- Cover the roasted aubergine with a vessel, this way the roasted flavours stay inside the cooked aubergine and the skin becomes easy to peel off.
- After 5 minutes, peel of the skin, chop the aubergine .
- In a mixing bowl, add the chopped aubergine, mustard oil, ginger , garlic, green chillies, lemon juice, cumin powder and salt. Give it a good mix and chokha is ready.
- Sattu is mix of dalia..roasted chana and barley. To make your own satuu ata: roast 1/4 cup whole barley with husk or the barley flour and grind it along with 1 cup of roasted chana. make a fine powder, sattu is ready. If barley is not available it can be substituted with jowar (sorghum).
- Chokha can be made up of boiled potatoes or grilled tomatoes as well.Or even it can be a mix of potato-tomato-aubergine choka.
- Littis are ideally cooked in charcoal bhatti or chulha which gives it a burnt chargrilled flavour.
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