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With the onset of winters, all Odia households are cleaned and prepped like a dream. The reason? The month of Margashirsha marks the beginning of probably the last festival in the Odia calendar- Manabasa Gurubara. Every Thursday of the Margashirsha month is devoted to the worship of Goddess Laxmi by the Odia women. They wake up before the sunrise and worship the Goddess Of Wealth with an array of her favourite delicacies. For foodies, the best thing about every festival is food. Every Indian festival has a special treat attached, and Manabasa Gurubara is no different.
When at home, every winter Thursday would begin with the fragrance of chaula jau (gooey rice kheer), khechedi and manda pitha. These quintessential Gurubara foods were enough to force me out of my cosy comforter and freshen up for breakfast. As kheer and khichdi are well-versed to everyone, let’s talk about manda pitha today. The unversed manda pitha is a filled doughnut made with semolina or rice flour. These doughnuts are usually filled with a coconut and jaggery mixture flavoured with cardamom.
Manda pitha is classified into two types based on preparation- chhana (deep-fried) and sijha (steamed). Sijha manda is relatively healthier and easy to make. The outer covering is made with semolina or rice flour, and the regular filling is amped up with chhena.
My sister and I would eagerly wait for our mom to complete the puja to relish the delicious foods as a kid. Out of all the other decadent dishes, sijha manda used to soothe our souls like no other. The piping hot steamed doughnuts, the flavourful filling and the aroma of the pithas filling the house early in the morning are incomparable to any other joy. These pithas were served to us either with kheer or a bowl of warm milk on the side to savour together.
To make sijha manda, rice flour or semolina is first cooked with a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of ghee and water to give it the shape and consistency of a dough. This dough is then rolled to be filled with the prepared stuffing and then made into medium-sized balls. These balls are then placed in an idli steamer and steamed to perfection. Finally, the pithas are served with either kheer or warm milk to be savoured.
Make these pithas at home for a filling, healthy and delicious treat this winter.
