Learning to Make My Grandmother's Arisa Pitha

Abhijit Mishra writes about arisa pitha, a rice and jaggery snack that is made especially during Margasira Gurubara in Odisha.

Arisa pitha is a fried cake made of rice and jaggery with several cultural variations across the length and breadth of India. While it’s famous as arisa pitha in Odisha, its closely called as arsa pitha in Uttarakhand, arisha in Jharkhand, gur anarsa in Bihar, ghila pitha in Assam, phulkein in Meghalaya, teler pitha in Bengal, arisselu in Andhra Pradesh, adhirasam in Tamil Nadu, anarsa in Maharashtra and kajjaya in Karnataka. It is also a popular custom amongst Odia bridegrooms to carry along a basket of arisa pithas to their in-laws as a sign of wealth and prosperity. And owing to its extended shelf life of 5-6 months, Arisa is a very convenient snack option.

The first winter breeze in Odisha carries along the warm whiff of pithas. Tender paddy is harvested at the onset of winter and Odia households open their doors to  Manabasa or Margasira Gurubara: the worship of goddess Lakhsmi in the dewy Thursday mornings of November-December. Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth is believed to grace clean and decorated households. The house is tidied, pretty alpanas (motifs made of a rice slurry) are drawn at the doorsteps, and kadais brimming with oil are churning out hot pithas continuously.

Every year, Mama (my grandmother) and Narasingha (our house help, and my partner in crime) would orchestrate the elaborate process of making arisa pitha for the major part of the day. Loud thumps from Narasingha using a heavy pestle to pound the rice would be in tune with Mama prepping the mis-en-place for the final act. Mama would send pithas through the gullies of Sambalpur in blue aluminium tiffins to our relatives. They, in turn, would send back arisas from their kitchens, and by late evening, we’d have arisas from all corners of the town. Sharing arisa pitha was not just customary, it was essential.

Given the importance of arisas in my household, I have dreaded making them. But I wanted to change it through this pandemic, and I could finally master the technique of ‘jatani’ (Odia for the ideal dough consistency for pithas) and I must humbly confess that Maa and I absolutely aced it.

Below is my grandmother’s recipe of arisa pitha.

RECIPE: ARISA PITHA

Ingredients:
850 g rice (short grain)
470 g jaggery
80 g sesame seeds
50 g coconut, finely chopped
A pinch of edible camphor
500 ml refined oil

Method:
Wash and soak rice for a minimum of 4 hours.
Drain well, let it dry and pound to a fine powder.
Then, sieve the rice and keep aside.
In a kadai, melt the jaggery and cook until it reaches the one string consistency. Turn off the heat.
Add the rice ladle by ladle and mix vigorously.
Add the coconut bits and camphor. Mix until it achieves homogenous texture.
Once the ladle you were mixing the dough with stands firm in the ‘jatani’, its time to get started.
Heat oil in a kadai and take a small piece (measure of a small roti ball) of the dough.
Spread it flat with your fingers on an oiled surface that has sesame seeds spread on it. Flip and ensure both sides are coated with sesame seeds.
Once the oil is medium hot, start frying them one by one.
Ensure you pull out the arisa 2 shades before the desired browning you like( it continues to cook off the heat).
Let the excess oil drip off and cool.

Abhijit Mishra is a chef and food photographer from Odisha. Follow his work here.

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