March 15, 2011

Patishapta – Crêpes with Sweet Coconut Cardamom Filling

Crêpes are something which I have always related to spring and butterfly wings. The pale and delicate lacy wings gently wraps around the sticky, sweet cardamom flavored coconut. So many memories are intertwined with food.

It is probably the onset of spring that took me back home and this recipe. It could also be the approach of the Holi – the special festival of colors that inspired these cravings. These are one of those times when I painfully miss my ma. The very thought that I cannot ever talk to her, makes my heart crumble to bits and pieces. On an ordinary day, a small memory sparks, a craving to be with her and the food begins.

This east Indian Crêpe is special – reminds me of the Bengali New Year or Poila Boishak, which usually is celebrated during the month of April. Not that these Crêpes are made only during the New Year, for the patishapta, as we usually call it, had been a year round dish and mostly during any festivities. The winter and the early spring times are usually the times that these used to be cooked up at home along with many other sweets. Traditionally the patishapta is not exactly served as a dessert; it is more like an anytime snack kind of recipe.

I have never made this recipe by myself before. The entire childhood was spent watching my ma and dida make it, however I realize now that I never saw either one of them, mix up the ingredients. They were all ready when I seated myself beside them. While the entire procedure of cooking is vivid in my memory like a picture, every step, every move, I have no idea to what proportions the ingredients went in there. So I picked up the phone and called my aunt and I got an idea. As my desperation peaked, I set about starting my experiment.

I stirred up the all purpose flour, the semolina and the rice flour too, even though my aunt had mentioned that it was either the semolina or the rice flour. I did not want to take the risk of a sloppy mass of flour sticking to the pan, so I did all of them. Out came my cast iron pan. In went the batter with careful swirls. Everything looked wonderful until I tried to flip it over. The cast iron failed me the first time ever. I tried two more, wondering if it was the pan, the temperature of the pan or the experimental batter that created this mess. After three miserable failures, I took out my only non stick pan, repeated and it worked.

I still wonder why the iron pan did not work, for ma never used a non stick pan to make the patishapta. Making these are a bit tricky, as the batter is eggless and the all purpose flour tends to stick. The art however can be perfected with little patience and practice. As you would have realized now, there in not exactly a fixed recipe. Different homes use different ingredients in the batter, and in proportions that work best for them.

A few traditional variations of Patishapta:

As I have mentioned before, there are no exact regulations about the combination of ingredients and the ratio. Every home has adapted this to the convenience.

The filling can be made with coconut as I did here. Sometimes coconut is combined with khoya/thickened milk, or only khoya or thickened milk is used. The patishapta may be drizzled with condensed milk or thickened milk. We do not like khoya, so I never use it.

The coconut filling is sometimes sweetened with gur/jaggery (unrefined cane sugar). The jaggery imparts a very nice flavor and a lovely burnt brown color. The jaggery may be substituted with brown sugar.