Chokha - An Eggplant Chutney

On my last visit to Aamby Valley with my friends, we had an opportunity to invite the locals to cook food for us.  It was a wonderful evening, we sat in the patio, under the moonlight, enjoying the food. The local lit the fire and started to BBQ. In went the tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, and eggplant into the fire one by one. they kept tossing the roasted vegetables that we ate while we sipped on wine.  They also made Litti Chokha.

It was my first experience of eating this meal. Actually speaking, I have never been to Bihar, nor do I personally know somebody from the state Jharkhand or eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh. But Litti Chokha is the complete meal cooked in many households over open chulas. Litti Chokha is eaten with ghee and so I found it quite heavy, but sometimes its okay to indulgent.

Litti is rough wheat dough balls stuffed with spice mix of Gram flour or sattu, also roasted in open flame.

I would say Chokha is actually an eggplant chutney that is spicy and very tasty. It is normally made of  vegetables like potatoes, tomatoes, onion, and eggplant that are roasted over open flame.

Garlic, salt, cumin powder, black pepper, lime juice are added for extra flavors. They used pure ghee to cook the whole meal, but I have tweaked a bit to my preference of Olive oil.

and No, I would not eat Litti, too heavy for me I enjoy it best with Bakhri roti, bread, lavash or any snack too The ingredients that I have used are 2 tomatoes 2 boiled potatoes 2 medium size onions 6 medium size eggplant 12 garlic pods 4 green chillies 1tsp red chilli powder 1tsp black chilli powder 1 tsp cumin powder Juice of half lime 2 tbsp olive oil.

Method

1. Roast tomatoes, boiled potatoes, onions and eggplant on an open flame.

2. Mash and mix together

3. Add Chillies, salt, cumin powder, red chilli powder, lime juice and coriander leaves.

4. add olive oil

5. Serve with toast or Bakhri roti

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Vegetarian BBQ - Litti Chokha

Back then, eating fried food was an indulgence one had while entertaining friends and relatives. People were more healthy eating food cooked over open fire. Pure ghee was the preferable for making chapattis, sweets or snacks. Women spent hours in the kitchen over chula and food had that peculiar taste of smoke.

Now, we can enjoy such traditional food during food festivals, or if we go to villages or create such atmosphere at home.

I had this opportunity of having a traditional Litti Chokha when I went for 2-days out-of-Mumbai trip with my friends.

The cooks were arranged, a fireplace was organised in the open veranda, surrounded by greenery and cool breeze and sound of droplets of heavy rains.

I didn’t understand what was all this excitement about, because I had never before tasted this dish except once in a restaurant, and I had not liked it at all.

Like it is always said, most of the food is enjoyed when you are in good mood, good company and good ambience. 

So the formula was perfect. 

Mood bhi, Mehfil bhi

So, here I was, in the smoke filled portico, watching people fan flames by adding dried manure and twigs. Everybody eagerly waited to eat Litti Chokha

Litti is the traditional Bihari dish made of flour dough, stuffed with spicy sattu (roasted gram flour) and Chokha is the side dish made of roasted ingredients that include brinjals, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, pickle and spices.

Recipe:

1. Make the stiff flour dough by taking 1Cup of wheat flour, add 2tbsp ghee and salt as required.

2. Spicy Sattu is prepared by mixing crushed 1tsp cumin seeds and 1tsp fennel seeds to the roasted gram flour. 

3. 1tsp Ajwain and 1tsp nigella seeds are then added. 

4. Grate 7/8 garlic pods and 2inch ginger  and add to it. 

5.Add 4 finely chopped green chillies, 1tsp of red chilli powder and finely chopped coriander leaves.

6. Squeeze 2tbsp of lemon juice. 

7. Finally add 2tbsp of mustard oil. 

8. Mix it well. Sattu filling is ready.

9. Flour dough is stuffed with this spicy sattu, rounded up as small patties to seal from all sides 

10. Litti is roasted in an open fire till charred.

11. Charred roasted Litti is slit and generous amount of pure ghee is poured on it. 

12. It is allowed to soak in ghee for 5 minutes. 

13. This is served with Chokha.

Chokha is the side dish made of all the roasted veggies like brinjals, potatoes, garlic, chillies, tomatoes, pickle and mustard oil. The mixture is mashed together and served.

While they roasted vegetables for chokha, some roasted veggies were served to us, as we sat by the fireplace. We feasted on roasted sweet potatoes, roasted tomatoes, roasted garlic, roasted potatoes that were served to us. It tasted delicious with salt, red pepper and thecha (a garlic-chilli chutney)

It was a memorable evening, having Litti Chokha over glass of wine, with conversations and laughter.

Check my recipe at my #Vlog at papadchai

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