Litti Chokha ~~SN Challenge

Litti Chokha is a traditional snack and a main course dish often eaten in UP, Bihar and Jharkhand region of India. But this the first time am trying my hands in making this fantastic dish. This dish is simply awesome and highly filling that you can have it for breakfast, lunch and for dinner. Actually Litti sounds almost like Rajasthani Baati but Litti is completely different dish in terms of taste,texture and prearation,its goes for stuffing with roasted gram flour with few spices.The stuffing makes the difference and the stuffing of the Litti is called Pitthi. Litti is served along with grilleded eggplants or mashed potatoes called Chokha.Chokha is a kind of accompaniment to enjoy thoroughly with Littis, today chokha is with just potatoes, eventhough some peoples may add both eggplants and potatoes in their chokha.

You may wonder why am posting this Litti Chokha today, coz Nupur of Uk Rasoi challenged the Southern team of  South vs North Challenge an event owned by Divya Pramil with this fantastic combo while i challenged Northern team with popular Mangalorean snack Goli Baje. Honestly i always want to make some Litti at home but somehow i kept myself away from this incredible dish coz of the sattu, but Nupur helped us by giving the tips to prepare sattu at home and for me sattu sounds exactly like a dry roasted gram flour, then i pinged Nupur regarding sattu, she said to go with roasted gram flour. Thanks Nupur for giving me this much liberty to go for a simple roasted gram flour than the traditional one. However i'll be making Sattu at home coz am planning to make kachori with this sattu. Coming to this Litti Chokha, am gonna have this Litti Chokha for my dinner tonite and trust me the flavour of ghee coated Litti and delicious Chokha makes me hungry already. Atleast once,you guys have to make this oven cooked Litti eventhough the traditional one is boiled and shallowfried later.Loved this challenge and learned an another beautiful traditional dish today through this challenge.

Litti:
2cups Wheat flour
1/2tsp Ajwain/carom seeds
2tbsp Ghee
1/4tsp Baking soda
Salt
1cup Warm water
2tbsp Ghee (for serving)

Stuffing/Pitthi:
1/2cup Sattu
1/2tsp Grated ginger
1/4cup Coriander leaves (chopped)
2nos Green chillies
1/2tsp Cumin seeds
1/2tsp Ajwain (carom seeds)
1tbsp Mustard oil
1tbsp Pickle (i used mango pickle)
Salt

Chokha:
3nos Potatoes (boiled & peeled)
5nos Garlic cloves
1no Onion (chopped finely)
1no Tomato (big)
1no Green chilly (chopped)
1/2tbsp Grated ginger
1tbsp Coriander leaves (chopped)
Salt
1tsp Mustard Oil

Sattu: You can replace the sattu by roasting half a cup of gram flour in a pan in simmer for few minutes until the raw smell goes on.

For making Litti: Sieve the flour, add all the ingredients except the ghee and knead everything as a stiff and soft dough.

Keep aside for half an hour.

For Stuffing: Take the roasted gram flour, add in the grated ginger, green chillies,coriander leaves,ajwain seeds,mustard oil, mango pickle and salt.

Mix everything well and keep aside.

Divide the dough into 4-5 medium sized balls, with a rolling pin roll it as a medium sized disc, place a tablespoon of stuffing, wrap the dough and seal well the edges.

If there is extra dough pinch it and flatten the dough as a round flat disc.

Continue the same process with the remaining dough.

Preheat the oven to 420 F, place the balls over a baking sheet lined over a baking tray and bake for 30minutes, flip the balls in between twice.

For making Chokha:
Mash the potatoes and keep aside. Roast the garlic and tomato in a preheated oven for 20-25minutes.

Allow them to cool peel the skins and mash them with a spoon.

Add the chopped green chillies, grated ginger,coriander leaves, chopped onions, salt, mustard oil,give a mix and transfer it to a serving bowl.

While serving:
Drop the hot Litti in melted ghee, serve with chokha.
You can break the litti in the centre,pour some ghee and enjoy with chokha.

Notes:
You can prepare Sattu with bengal gram, but its bit time consuming, if you sattu from Indian stores its definitely makes your life easier.

If you want to make Sattu, please refer Nupur's Litti chokha.

I opted for dry roasted gram flour and its really very simple and easy.

You can shallow fry the littis if you dont want to bake.

Dont hesitate to enjoy littis with ghee, you will definitely love eating sattu and ghee together with chokha, i loved it.