Litti Chokha :: Baati Chokha - step by step recipe and tips on making sattu from scratch

Litti Chokha is a traditional dish eaten mainly in the states of U.P., Bihar and Jharkhad. It can be had for breakfast or snack, and if accompanied with daal aside it can be eaten for Lunch and dinner too. One can find this dish made traditionally in villages of Bihar and is as famous as a burger in America. 

Litti is similar to Bati in appearance with a  tiny difference that the stuffing for litti is made with Sattu (roasted Bengal gram flour) and this stuffing is known as Pitthi. Litti is traditionally eaten with Chokha – which is either made up of char-grilled Eggplants (aubergines) or mashed potatoes. In some households, they do a mix of both and prepare the Chokha, which is basically just another name of bharta (mashed potatoes/brinjals). But the preparation of this Chokha is way different than the usual Bharta which is explained in this post later

I am from western U.P, from a city which is in between Lucknow and Delhi and hence the food culture is more inclined towards Mughlai Cuisine. But in Eastern U.P, specially in the places like Varanasi this is a staple and favourite food among locals. I tasted it first time, when I visited my SIL’s place after my marriage.  She actually made a whole spread with 3-4 variations and both types of Chokha. I was so amazed looking at her zeal since this really took her a lot of time to get it all done. When served to us, she poured a lot if ghee ( clarified butter ) on top of each litti and within 15 min both of us were stuffed till gills. Since I was so excited to explore a new dish, I ate a bit too much… What happens to my stomach afterwords is a story for another time.. But this dish really does that you, being so addictive and fulfilling.

There is one more method of making this Litti which is mostly used towards Rajasthan. There, these stuffed Littis are rolled into smaller round balls, boiled, and then shallow fried. This also imparts an incredible flavour to the Litti, but I have never tried it on my own. The method which I am explaining though my post is the oven-roasted method. OIn the older time, the Littis were roasted in the hot sand and usually took a few days to cook. Now, in households it’s made in Stove-furnaces (Tandoor) . 

Why I had to go through the pain of making this recipe and take step by step pictures?

Divya from You too can cook runs this very successful event - SNC Challenge where bloggers from South and North India come together and try recipes from each others' regions. She has given me this wonderful  opportunity to host this month's challenge. Since I am a part of the north team, I had to think for a regional recipe to challenge the Southern team. And what a piece  of work it has been !! I discussed  with the fellow members and we brainstormed to give a challenge which is very traditional,  not too difficult to make, and of course delicious to have. We selected this recipe, since though its very common in Bihar and Eastern U.P., I have never seen somebody from any other state with even slightest knowledge of this extremely healthy dish. 

So, anyway this was our obvious choice for the challenge. Another challenge which I had to face was - not much info was available on internet about it. i.e. not many bloggers have posted the recipes or tips. So I turned to my friends and relatives from Bihar and U.P. for help. I did some research on the origin of this dish and harassed my friend so much to gather and provide as much info I could from them. I am hoping all this would be fruitful, and my friends from Southern team would understand the origin and process well :) 

To get more info on South and North Challenge - visit here. 

Although its a straight forward and simple recipe, but the major problem you may face while you are preparing Litti Chokha is that one of the main ingredients - Sattu is not easily available everywhere !! 

Now, what is Sattu?

Sattu is a very popular flour in the states of UP and Bihar. There is no English name for Sattu, but for the convenience sake, you may call it Roasted chickpea or Gram  powder. Traditionally, Chickpeas or Chana daal ( Bengal gram ) is roasted in hot sand and then grind to powder. The reason for using the sand is that the individual bits get roasted evenly. Like these road side Thela wallahs, they roast peanuts in sand and then just sift it and when you eat it, there is no trace of sand at all. The same happens with Sattu, and also it gets that earthy taste from there.  

But obviously, we can’t use Sand in our houses for doing the same. Hence I experimented with my own methods to prepare Sattu at home. I had never done that before, honestly. So I had to ask few of my friends from Bihar to get it right. And this method so far has proved to be the best, all tried and tested :)

How to make Sattu at home?

• Take 2 cups of Bengal gram, wash it properly and drain. Keep aside
• Heat 3 cups of water in a heavy bottomed pan, let it boil. Add chana dal and stir
• Let it cook covered for 7-8 minutes on medium flame. Don’t overcook it.
• Drain the Chana dal ( don’t squeeze every drop of water out of it ) and transfer it to a big bowl. Cover it up with a damp tea towel or cling film and keep it like that for 3-4 hours.
• After 4 hours,  lay it out on a soft cotton cloth & let it cool. This will take around 3-4 hours, you may have to shuffle it a few times in between to arrange it evenly. It has to be dry completely, you may increase this time to 5 hours but not more than  that else it will start giving bad odour
• Now, take the heaviest wide pan or wok you have. Dry roast Chana dal on a low flame, stirring it frequently in between. Like I stirred it every 5 min, for almost 40 min. Mind you, the flame must be lowest else it will burn off and wont give nice taste. You may do it in batches if you don’t have that big vessel.
• To test if its done or not, simply get  one bit out let it coll and eat it. It should be soft, chewable and not mushy or hard. The texture and shape should be retained.
• Turn the flame off and let it cool, later grind chana daal to a fine powder. Store in an air tight container. You can easily keep it for 2-3 months. 

Check out another Sattu recipe - Sattu ka Paratha ( MAkuni ) 

Of course, you don't have to go through all the pain if you are lucky enough to get Sattu nearby. Or if you find this job difficult, just get some of your local Chakki  ( mill ) to get  it done for you. Sattu can also be milled using roasted chickpeas with or without skin , enhancing the fibre content in it. Roasted barley flour is also available in markets and specialty health food stores and that is called Jau ka sattu in Hindi

Although it seems painstakingly long and boring, but trust me the end result is so much worth it. Plus the health benefits of Sattu are immense.. It is cooling in nature and is considered as a tonic food in villages. Farm workers were given sattu, raw onion and jaggery as their mid-day meal in olden days. Since they used to toil hard under scorching sun, this food used to work as a cooler for the system, hydrating and stamina building. It is absolutely gluten free too.

Sattu is considered strengthening, cooling, light meal that doesn't sit heavy on your system and even helps detox as it is quite rich in soluble fibre  Normally it is consumed with raw onion and chopped coriander greens so the cleansing effect of the meal is even better. The best thing about sattu is, it is a great food for babies, adults and even old people as it is light to the digestive system and yet very nutritive. High on Iron, Magnesium and Manganese, low on Sodium, low on Glycemic index makes sattu a favourable food for diabetics and for weight watchers as well.

Enough of gyan :P , lets come back to the recipe: Once you have made Sattu, making Litti is no difficult job. Lets look at the process and ingredients of Litti and Chokha as below:

What you need?

To make Litti:

4 cups Wheat flour 

1 tsp Ajwain(carom seeds) 

4 tbsp Ghee 
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 3/4 tsp

almost 2 cups warm water - you may not need all of it, depends on the quality of flour 

To Make Pitthi (stuffing): 
1 cup Sattu 
Ginger - 1 inch long piece
2-4 Green chillies 
1/2 cup Green coriander leaves - finely chopped 
1 tsp Jeera(cumin seeds) 
1 tsp Ajwain(carom seeds) 
2 tbsp Mustard oil 
2 tbsp Pickle spiceLemon - juice of 1 lemon - almost 1 tbsp  
Salt - add to taste

To make Chokha: 

4-6 potatoes, boiled and peeled 

5-6 large cloves of garlic

1 large onion, chopped small2 medium sized tomatoes 
2-4 Green chillies 
1 tbsp grated ginger 
2 tbsp Green coriander leaves 
Salt - add to taste - almost 1 tsp 

Mustard oil - 1 to 2 tsp 

How to make?

First Prepare dough for Litti: 

Sieve the flour and add all the ingredients, knead it into a not too soft dough with the help of warm water. Cover the dough and keep aside for 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, prepare stuffing for Litti: 

Take out Sattu in a mixing bowl,  add in all the spices and grated ginger, green chillies, coriander, lemon juice, and mix well. If it seems too dry, add a tbsp of water to it. the texture should be crumbly, but not runny at all. Keep aside.

To shape and cook Litti: 

Break off medium sized pieces from the dough. On your palm, with the help of your fingers expand the pieces 2-3 inches in diameter. you may simply roll it like a small chapathi, but dont apply any extra flour to it. 

Place 1- 2 tsp Pitthi on it, wrap up the dough piece and close from all sides. Pinch the extra dough from top, press with your palms to flatten it a bit.  Litti is ready for frying.

Traditionally Litti is cooked on an an upla ( dried cow dung, I know really !! ) and in cities they usually sue a proper Tandoor. At home, we can make two ways - either bake in an oven OR in a gas tandoor. If you dont have any of these two , you may even fry these stuffed balls. That tastes so so delicious, but obviously is calorific :) 

To make Litti in an oven: Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Place all the balls on a baking dish and bake them for 30-40 minutes. Flip the side half way through, you may have to do it 2-3 times in between to get the even cooking done. 

To make Litti in a home furnace ( Tandoor ) : Pre heat the  tandoor and place the stuffed pieces of dough in it carefully. Cook it by turning sides regularly till they turn brown , usually takes 40-50 minutes 

Finally, we will make Chokha for litti: 

Peel the boiled potatoes and mash them coarsely with hands or masher. Keep aside. 
Now roast garlic and tomatoes on either the gas flame ( like I did, see the pictures below ) or simply in an oven. On the flame, it will take around 12-15 minutes on medium flame. And in an oven, it takes around 20-25 minutes  but the later of course is hassle free 
Allow them to cool, peel the skins, keep them in a bowl and mash with a spoon. Add in the spices, salt, oil and mix properly. 
Add in mashed potatoes, just mix everything gently with hands. Chokha is ready to be served.

At last, assemble and serve:

Put Chokha in a bowl, dip hot Litti in melted Ghee and serve with green coriander chutney. 
Litti can also be broken at the centre and then ghee can be poured on top, this way it reaches the stuffing too and pitthi gets a bit damp. I adopt this way to serve, since I love the aroma of ghee mixed with Sattu. 

Some notes and tips:

• You may also add 2 tbsp of yoghurt to the Litti dough, I havent done it myself but seen people using that. They say it results in smooth texture
• Sattu is also used in making Sattu ka Paratha, Sattu ki Kachori, Sattu ka meetha etc. it’s a very versatile flour and I hope to post more recipes using Sattu in near future.
• The true flavours of Chokha come from two things – Mustard oil and roasted garlic. Even if you omit any other ingredient, its important to keep these two. Obviously, if you don’t eat them at all, then you may replace them. But it’s a definite addition in the traditional recipe
• Be ready to pour in dollops of ghee on top, since it adds to the taste manifolds
• If you are confused that we didn’t cook the mustard oil while making Chokha, you have read it all right. We DO  NOT COOK the oil used in Chokha, and that brings out the raw mustard flavour. Not everyone would like it, I know. So please go ahead and heat mustard oil before adding it to the mashed potatoes mixture.
• Traditionally, Chokha is served at room temperature with hot and fresh littis.  You may opt for warm chokha too as per your liking
• Littis taste best when eaten fresh. When re heated they  loose the crunch. If you do have some leftover littis, you may simply shallow fry them and have them with tea or coffee. It makes a great tea time snack 
  

I prepared this recipe specially for SNC, if anyone has any doubt or question in mind regarding the preparation, please feel free to shoot me an email any time:) Please link your entries to the linky below:

For more recipes from Bihar, click    here 

P.S. Thanks to Red Candy for sending out the lovely red glass kettle present in the pictures


Reposting to link to Srivalli's event - Come, join for Breakfast