Patishapta Pitha
Rice crepes stuffed with sweetened reduced milk. This dessert is very special and adored by Bengalis of both Bangladesh and West Bengal. No special occasion is complete without it. You will see patishapta during weddings, eid, puja, pohela boishakh as in the bengali new year and a must during nobanno utshob, the winter harvest festival.
The closest resembling dish I have seen to the Bengali Patishapta is Polish Naleśniki, Hungarian Palacsinta and Malaysian Apam Balik. But, the specialty with our crepes is that it's eggless and almost entirely made of rice flour (depending on family recipes + personal preference). Traditionally the filling is sweetened reduced milk called kheer/kheersha in Bengali, otherwise known as khoa in the rest of the Indian subcontinent. Think of a caramelized sweetened ricotta with less moisture.
You are probably going "but I thought kheer = rice pudding". Well, yes and no? Rice pudding in Bengali is actually more commonly called "Payesh" while "kheer" stands for dried evaporated sweet milk. But in many regional dialects the word "Kheer" is simultaneously used for both dishes. Back to Patishapta, there are other variations to this delicious crepe. During the winter months and the winter harvest celebrations, often the filling is fresh jaggery and dessicated coconuts instead of kheer.
The cooking technique is also another personal preference. Some like the crepes to be smooth (low heat) while some of us (like me) like to see the porous lace-y caramelized surface (med-high heat). As the crepe starts to cook, bubbles start to form, this is when you put few spoons of the sweetened milk and gently and delicately fold the crepes into adorable little rolls.
But where is the recipe?
You see, these are the very first pictures I took for the blog when it was just a tiny little idea and we hadn’t even the finalized the name — The Spice Odyssey. I do plan on recreating this dish and sharing the recipe someday. I just don’t know when because I have a million different recipe ideas in my head and I’d like to be able to share them all with you.
Our goal is to showcase these dishes with as much accuracy in the recipe and story as possible. I want you to know that researching, developing, testing and finally writing recipes is a very rigorous and meticulous task. Then there is the visual storytelling, food styling, photography and videography which can be a time-consuming and exhausting, it takes up majority of our free time after work.
But we absolutely love being able to do this on our own time. Anyway, my point is thank you for being patient and supporting us in this journey. You can stay up to date on our Instagram: @TheSpiceOdyssey.
