Kakara Pitha - An Odia delicacy

Pithas are quite popular in Odisha and there are number of varieties , even specific to each city or community. These are generally prepared on festivals and each festival has its unique pre-defined pitha which is a mandate to be prepared on the particular occasion. One such pitha is Kakara Pitha . It is a fried dumpling with an outer crust of either semolina or wheat flour and has a sweet coconut stuffing. This is a very common sweet in most of the festival menus. 
Also there are many similar dishes prepared across the country with different names. If you know it, share it in comments 😊

Traditional sweets always give a nostalgic feeling. Back at home, these sweets were quite common considering the number of festivals we celebrate , especially in the second half of the year. But now staying away from family, it has become a rare thing to prepare and have or just receive it from someone . My fond memory of this particular dish is when my Mom used to prepare the semolina mixture and the coconut stuffing and used to give it to us to prepare the balls. And we three sisters used to sit and compete with each other as to whose kakaras are more uniform and smooth without any cracks. 😀

So recently, we tried our hands on these pithas too and trust me, it requires a little experience. At least it didn't work out for me, the first time I prepared.

I personally like the wheat flour version as I feel it is light on the stomach compared to the semolina one. You can try whichever you wish and let us know your experience with it.

Quick Recipe

• In a pan, boil around 3 cups of water and add half a spoon of salt, a spoon of ghee and sugar according to your taste. The mixture should be a little less sweet as it will be used with sweet stuffing again. You can skip salt, if you are preparing it for prashad.
• Once it comes to a boil, add semolina or wheat flour in small batches. Keep stirring as it tends to create lumps.
• Keep cooking and stirring till you see it coming together and getting a little dry.
• For the stuffing, take the grated coconut in a kadhai and add sugar to it and fry it in low flame till it gets a slight brownish colour. You can add a spoon of ghee to it if it turns dry or hard.
• Once the flour mixture is cooled, knead it for sometime with greased palms to mash if there any lumps formed. Also it makes the mixture smooth and easier to prepare the balls.
• Take a big lemon size of mixture and roll it to a ball and stuff the coconut mixture in it and seal it well. You can keep it that way and press it a little to form disc shaped. Make sure you don't break it as it will spill in the oil while frying.
• Once prepared, deep fry the dumplings in oil or ghee in medium flame and fry till brown. It doesn't take time as everything is already cooked. You just need a crisp outer layer.

Hope you try this and meet the taste of Odisha. Let me know if there's a similar dish to this in your state too.😊

Happy cooking!!!