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Poush Sankranti or Bengal�s very own harvest festival is a very traditional one. Focusing on the season�s bounty, the freshly harvested paddy, coconut and notun gur (date palm jaggery) the food loving Bengalis prepare finger-licking delicacies called�Pithe Puli. But before that a neivedya (food offering to God) is prepared with atop chal (unboiled rice), banana, gur (jaggery), coconut and milk as an offering to the Godess Lakshmi for blessing us with good harvest. To know more about Bengali tradition and rituals around Sankranti .

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from left to right�Shahi Gulab Bagh,�Dudh Puli,�Patisapta,�Nolen Gurer Payes,�Ranga Alu'r Puli,�Narkel Naru

�Gokul pithe is a fried and syrup soaked dessert traditionally made with flour and coconut. These are widely available in almost all sweet shops in Bengal during this season, but somehow I never liked the taste. Sometimes they are not properly cooked or the frying oil makes for a bad odour in the finished product. It is never made at our house so none has a recipe. I wanted to make this for hubby who has mild lactose intolerance and avoid milk-based products. Last year I made�Ranga alu�r puli�or�Shahi Gulab Bagh�for him and this year its Gokul Pithe for him and I finally decided to go with my own recipe. I have vague idea that traditionally it is made only with coconut stuffing but I added some homemade cottage cheese to it and finally soaked the deep fried balls in notun gurer rosh (date palm Jaggery syrup). The end result is a divine taste that everyone simply went ga ga on. The ambrosial taste of these syrup soaked balls with a delicately flavoured soft inside is sensational. We enjoyed it immensely and will not wait for another Sankranti to make this delicious dessert again.

Gokul Pithe

(Makes 18-20 pieces)

Ingredients:�

For the stuffing:

Cottage cheese from � liter milk (to know how to make cottage cheese and prepare it for making sweets at home see�this...

Freshly Grated coconut: � cup

Mawa/khoya/milk solids: 3 tbsp

Date Palm Jaggery (Khejur gur): 1/3 cup; if you don�t get this use same quantity of sugar

Sugar: 2 tbsp

For the batter:

Flour: 2/3 cup

Semolina/suji: � cup

Milk: 11/2 cups

For the syrup:

Sugar:2/3cup

Water:� 11/3 cups

Khejur gur (jaggery): 2 tbsp

Oil for deep-frying

Method:

Start by soaking the semolina, as this will take 30 minutes to soften. For this take the semolina in a big bowl and pour warm milk on top. Don�t add all the milk as the quantity of milk required on the type of semolina. Add half of the milk mix and see if it soaks all the milk. Add little at a time to get a thick mixture. Cover and set aside for 30 minute.

In a non-stick pan or kadhai mix the sugar and coconut. Cook it by stirring on low flame�till the sugar dissolves and the coconut becomes dry. To this add the drained cottage cheese and cook till the mixture leaves the side of the pan. Add the jaggery and milk solids and cook for another couple of minutes till the mixture is dry. Pour in a bowl and let it cool down.

In the mean time in another heavy bottom pan take all the ingredients for syrup and boil to get thick syrup (approx. 5-8 minutes).keep� it warm.

Mix in all other ingredients to the semolina mixture and fold gently to get a smooth homogenous mixture.� If needed add more water or milk. The consistency should be very thick but pourable.

Heat the oil in a kadhai or thick bottom pan for deep frying. In the meantime make small balls from the coconut mixture (I got 20 pieces to end up with a Ping-Pong ball sized Final product).

Dip these balls one by one in the batter to uniformly cote them and carefully place them in the hot oil. Fry on very low heat till they are golden brown in colour.

Drain the oil and immediately drop them in the warm syrup. Let it stand there for an hour to soften and soak up the delicate flavour.

Yes, we truly are having a grand Pithe Parbon (Pithe festival) with mouth-watering date- palm jaggery flavoured delicacies. It�s a lot of work indeed but at the end of the day am proud to be one of them who try to keep traditions alive�

A Homemaker�s Note:

Pithe always taste best the next day :-)

Happy Sankranti!

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