A very different type of cook… litti chokha

You won't find this on any menu this side, but it's a very traditional cook/meal in Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand and  Bihar in India. Heard of it, figured it would be fun to do on the egg, and decided to give it a whirl.

The "chokha" (sort of like baingan bhartha)- grill tomatoes and eggplant, then peel the skins. Mash it all up with ginger, garlic, onions, cilantro, green chilies, and a drizzle of mustard oil. 





Recipe calls for "sattu" (roasted chickpea flour), which I couldn't find at the Indian stores. So, started with roasted chickpeas, and made some.






You make a soft dough of sorts with the sattu, plus other stuff... onions, cilantro, garlic, Thai chilies, ginger, kalonji (nigella seeds), ajwain, salt, "achar masala" (Indian "pickles"; homemade here, from green/raw mango), a smidge of sugar. The sattu mix was tasty enough to eat by itself. 



For the "litti" - Make wheat dough, and stuff with some of the sattu mix. Kind of like a dumpling or bao, but not as leavened. Its supposed to turn out crunchy/crispy. 


The litti grilled/baked in the egg. Traditionally, these are cooked buried in the embers of the dried cow dung cakes. so i dropped 'em on the coals, cave man style,  for a few seconds.








Plated up - homemade mint cilantro chutney, chokha, "salad" ( red onions, lime juice, cayenne, salt, chaat masala), litti, and "panchratan"  (five jewels, ie. 5 types of lentils) dal cooked by caliqueen. 





The litti are dunked in warm ghee, then split, and more ghee is drizzled over the inside. The litti can either be crumbled into the dal, or eaten with some dal scooped on to it. Or, scoop up some chokha. Then, a bite of chutney, and a bite of the onion salad +/- the green chile. 

This isn't something I've cooked before (the dal, mint cilantro chutney, onion salad  are in regular rotation), so wasn't entirely sure where it would land. I don't know where to start with how farkin' delicious this was! So many flavors coming together, without crowding each other out. And, distinctly  different flavors that are not usually dished up by Indian restaurants, as they typically serve northern, western, or southern Indian food.

Definitely worth making again