In Quest of a Traditional Pati Shapta recipe

I know I am late in wishing my readers happy Sankranti..Wish everybody a very happy Sankranti and poush paban.

Sankranti and poush paban means puli, pithe and payesh and that too with notun gur/nolen gur.
Here in a foreign land I don’t have that liberty of going to a nearby modi khana (grocery store) or vegetable market and ask for nolen gur in earthen pots something like this in my previous post for Payesh.So, I have to satisfy myself with the Sri Lankan Date palm jaggery which I got it few months back from an Asian grocery store here.
I have never ever being confused while cooking as such. But the crepe recipe for patisapta made me really confused.So, I will give you three recipes which I tried for the better during these three-four days of poush paban.

Recipe one for patisapta
I made my first (first was way back in Kolkata, cooking with my ma-in-law)  second attempt of patisapta with the store bought rice flour and Maida or all purpose flour. I have used desiccated coconut with the Sri Lankan gur for the filling. I end up using my M/W. In an M/W safe bowl take few gur pieces or patali gur pieces with some water. And microwave it for 1-2 mints till the gur is completely dissolved. Now add in 1 tbs of butter and desiccated coconut, 1 tej pata and 1 elaich into it. Let it become even more dry and M/W it again for 2 mints at high. Now add in some 5-6 tbs of condensed milk. M/W it for 2 mints at high checking to prevent the spilling in. You will see the mixture can easily be collected and little bit dry and crumbly.
This is our make-shift Pur/filling for the first recipe.
For the crepes
I end up using store bought rice flour and all purpose flour. The ratio was about 1 cup of rice flour  to ½ cup of all purpose flour. Made some 7-8 crepes from it. And stuffed the filling inside it.

Day two and then Recipe number two
This time I thought let me try adding some suji /semolina to the crepes as many recipes out in internet says so.

For the filling/Pur

I used whole milk powder approx 1 cup. And about half a cup of cold milk and 2-3 tbs of condensed milk for sweetness. I added approx 2-3 tbs of desiccated coconut and 1 tbs of butter to the mixture and gave a good stir to the mixture. Then in an M/W safe bowl, microwave it for 5 mints at high, but breaking the cycles into 1 mint to avoid spilling and also to stirring in between. After another 3-4 mints the mixture resembled quite like a kheer .And when I tasted it I couldn’t stop myself for a second-third helping.
For the crepes/patisapta
I end up using 1 cup of Maida, about ½ cup of sooji and ½ cup of rice flour. Made a runny batter with approx 1 cup of cold milk. Made the crepes with the filling/pur above that I made with  whole milk powder.

I called back home and asked my mother for some more tips as I was not that satisfied by the end result. She asked me are you alright, its being ages that you are ringing me just to ask for a particular recipe…so the conversation goes like this...

Me- “Ma, patisapta r ki proportion hoye?
My mother –“ keno tui baniyechilish, bhalo hoye ni ki”
Me- “Seyi ta tumi ki korey bojhle”
My mother-“ Eto dore phone kore, tui koto din por eyi ranna R bishoyi jigesh korchis tai bole”
And then she asked me the proportions which I made it
I said  maida+ sooji+  rice flour…
My mother almost screaming from there-“Tui ki gola roti bana chilish na patisapta !!”

And with a voice of a puritan she said soak atop chaal or gobindo bhog for at least 5-6 hrs...I interrupted but Ma Gobindo bhog we don’t get here.Ok, then use basmati rice or long grain rice.And then add Maida and sugar to the crepe batter but not sooji…so sooji/semolina was almost out.Rice flour should be almost double the amount of maida or all purpose flour and sugar is must.”
And she said since you are adding sugar to the crepe batter, it may stuck up while you will be making the crepes. And please prepare kheer over a low flame with whole milk….And it was sounding yeah very well now I have to go the entire long process.

So, here the final recipe for patisapta as told to me by my mother. I really don’t know if she would like this patisapta that I made probably with all my heart and the traditional way as told by her.
But hope someday I will be making soft patisaptas like her, till then the quest for perfect patisapta continues.

Patisapta/Patishapta with kheer er pur.

For the crepes/patisapta

1 cup of basmati rice/atop chaal/gobindo bhog rice
Soak it for at least 4-5 hrs.I happen to soak them overnight. The next day in a mixer make a smooth paste with enough water.
Now add in about ½ cup of Maida to it. Add in about 2-3 tbs of sugar preferably powdered.
Add in slowly about quarter cup of cold milk to the batter. Mix well with a spoon and make sure no lumps is formed.
Add slowly more milk to get a uniform batter. Check for the constitency as you have added sugar to the batter it will tend to become thin even more.
The batter will be little runny like dosa batter but tends to be on a thinner side.

Prepare the iron skillet/tava –a must for making crepes.
Heat up the tava/iron skillet well.Now spread evenly about 1tsp of cooking oil. With the help of a cotton cloth or kitchen towel, rub off the surface to even out the tava/iron skillet. Sprinkle some water, if the droplets sizzles, you are ready for making patisaptas.The trick is to never over-use the cooking oil or for that matter no oil at all.

With the help of a medium size ladle, spread the batter over the tava like dosa.( My mother does make these in kadai/wok .She does it by rotating the batter in a kadai  with out putting the kadai  over flame and when  she gets a desired round shape, she puts the kadai on a very low flame.And trust me they always turn out round and perfect).No, I am yet to try  making patisapta in kadai.

Cook it at low flame for 2-3 mints, when it can easily come out from the sides , flip it and cook for ½ mint more.Turn the side. And then add about a spoon full of filling/pur on one side and then roll into just like a crepe.
For every crepes/patisapta – you will have to add 3-4 drops of cooking oil and then rub off the extra oil from the tava by rubbing with the cotton towel.This way the patisaptas would cook evenly and quickly.
If you can make these patisapta thin, they will always turn out soft even after two days.

For the patisapta pur/filling
On a very low flame make kheer from 4-5 large cups of whole milk. This is a long process so I would suggest you should cook your dinner or lunch over other hobs/burners, so that you can check the kheer in between.Make sure it doesn’t stick to the base otherwise it will have a bad burnt smell.

In a separate saucepan, make the coconut-gur paak.You may use fresh scraped coconut. I end up using desiccated coconut. About 1 cup of desiccated coconut and ¼ cup of sugar and two cloves and 1 tej patta.Slowly cook at low flame to get coconut and sugar paak.I used the Sri Lankan Jaggery in place of sugar. Now mix this coconut –gur paak to the kheer slowly.The filling for patisapta is ready.
This much of the batter will make approx 10 medium size patisaptas.

If you don’t have time for the traditional way of making kheer , then I would suggest you can use the whole milk powder recipe which is little less time consuming but the texture is very much like the Kheer.Or you can use store brought Khoya.

Other variations for patisaptas that we have liked
Ras shapta
Make sugary syrup with approx 1 cup of sugar and ½ cup of water and soak the patisaptas in the ras/sugar syrup to get the ras sapta.
Kheer Patisapta
Make a thick pudding with custard powder and soak the patisaptas in thick pudding. Serve garnished with some pistachios.
Chocolate patishapta
This patisapta is my daughter's  favorite way of having patishapta.She gave the idea to have it like chocolate crepes.Make chocolate pudding just like a normal pudding, but add little bit of Bourn vita or chocolate flavored oval tine with the custard powder to the thickened milk and viola you have thick chocolate pudding. Soak the prepared patisaptas in chocolate pudding and serve chilled.

Disclaimer
I am not saying this is the most accurate and traditional way of making Pati Shapta, but these are just basic guidelines shared by me and my mother here.So, practice and practice till you get the right proportion and accuracy for making perfect Pati-shapta.

Updated on 19/08/2012 

Few weeks ago while I called my Ma to rescue the brown rice lying in my pantry, with some recipe suggestion. She asked me make “patisapta” with it. Now she told me as its “Khud chaal” probably meaning unpolished rice, it will be a good alternative to sedo chaal or the basmati rice that i am currently using,  for making patishapta. So, what she told me, I implemented and found out that the ‘patishapta made with brown rice were more traditional, you know kind of retaining that rustic flavor of a village home kitchen.

Here is how we made Patishapta with Brown rice.

Soak about 2-3 cups of brown rice overnight in ample water.
The next day make a smooth paste with it blender, It will take time but do so with adding water in between whenever you feel the blades are sticking and not rotating properly.
Now add in about 2 cups of water, then 2-3 tbs of self raising flour.
Then add in 1 cup of desiccated coconut. If required add water to make a smooth batter just like dose batter.
Made these crepes as mentioned above.


Happy Cooking Friends