A Recipe for Zil Pitha from the Santal Tribe of Mayurbhanj
Finger millets are an important crop within the Santal tribal community, and are common to many of their dishes. One of the most beloved dishes cooked in every Santal home is the zil pitha, a meat pancake that is steamed in sal leaves. Abhijit Mohanty gives us a recipe for this one-pot meal.
For years, millet has been a staple in Santal tribal cuisine, in Northern Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district. Crops like millets are climate resilient, well suited to local soil conditions and highly nutritious; they play a crucial role in ensuring food and nutritional security of the community.
There are several Santal recipes that use finger millet (locally known as mandia). These recipes are centuries-old, passed down from generation to generation, preserving the food culture of the Santals that have evolved around a forest-based ecosystem and the subsistence-farming of traditional crops. Zil pitha is one such recipe.
Often relished during festive occasions and served to family and guests, Santal women use heart-shaped sal leaves collected from the forest, to wrap mandia dough along with cooked chicken, and roast it on an open fire, slow-cooking it till done. “I grew up eating this delicious dish. My mother would make it for us. Its smoky flavour, the tender meat, and the aroma of sal leaves, make this dish really unique,” says Kadey Soren, of the Santal tribe, from the Tiring block of Mayurbhanj district. “Zil pitha is our identity. Without this dish, no festival is complete in our tradition.”
“Once you take a bite of zil pitha, it melts in your mouth. You don’t need to chew it.”
Soren works as a researcher and academic at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, Bhubaneswar, the largest residential school offering free education to tribal children from class 1 to Ph.D. He sees an urgent need to document traditional Santal recipes. “Most of these recipes are shared via oral tradition. This traditional food knowledge is so delicate; once lost, it will be lost forever. Traditional foods are a vital connection to ancestral knowledge, memories and culture.”
A paste of ginger, garlic, red chillies, turmeric is used to marinate the chicken kasha.
Mixing finger millet (mandia) and rice flour with water to prepare the dough.
Pushpakanti Madhei and Chintamani Hembram prepping onion and garlic. Photos: Abhijit Mohanty
Traditionally, the Santal’s plate has always been diverse. From millets to pulses, wild greens to tubers, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, berries and fruits are collected from forests; they not only ensure dietary diversity but also increase the intake of essential vitamins and nutrients. However, in the last two decades, the dominance of commercial crops has gradually diminished the role of traditional food culture and native crops. “Easy availability of rice under the Public Distribution System has reduced the cropping area under millet cultivation,” said Chintamani Hembram, a Santal woman at Brundabanchandrapur village in Mayurbhanj’s Khunta block. “Finger millet is the main ingredient to cook zil pitha. If farmers stop cultivating finger millet, then many old recipes associated with this millet will fade into obscurity. That’s why, along with my husband, I continue growing finger millet on our farm. This is an important step to reclaim our food heritage and safeguard a rich agro-biodiversity,” she adds.
Pushpakanti Madhei, another Santal woman from the village is in agreement. “We need support from like-minded people to raise awareness about the importance of preserving our traditional crops and food diversity. There should be an opportunity for us to participate in food fairs and exhibitions. This will give a platform to showcase recipes that were invented by our ancestors. And zil pitha will certainly be on top of the menu.”
Preparing the ginger-garlic paste on the sil batta
Chicken kasha is cooked on the chulha
Zil pitha paired with mango chutney
CHINTAMANI HEMBRAM’S RECIPE FOR ZIL PITHA
Ingredients
1 kg of chicken
For chicken kasha
150 g of mustard oil
3 medium size onions
3 tsp garlic paste
1/2 tsp of ginger paste
1 tsp turmeric paste
8-10 dry red chilli paste
3-5 green chilli paste (depending upon size)
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp of salt
For zil pitha
600 g of finger millet flour
400 g of rice flour
Water
1/2 tsp of salt
Method
Heat mustard oil in a kadhai to first cook the chicken kasha.
Add chopped onions and saute until brown.
Add garlic and ginger paste. Stir until the paste is mixed well with the fried onion.
Now add red chilli and turmeric paste, then chopped green chilies and salt. Stir for 2-3 minutes. Then add chicken and stir until the gravy thickens.
Once the chicken is cooked, add in garam masala. Take the chicken off the heat, and allow it to cool.
Take a big bowl, mix finger millet and rice flour. Add water and combine well to prepare a dough.
Add the kasha chicken to the dough and mix well.
Meanwhile, clean freshly collected green sal leaves with water.
Wrap the dough in the sal leaves.
Place the dough on an iron pan. Keep the pan on the chulha for 60 minutes. Make sure to roast both sides of the wrapped dough evenly.
After roasting the dough, remove the leaves.
The zil pitha is ready. Serve it with a raw mango, or coriander chutney.
Abhijit Mohanty is a Bhubaneswar-based freelance journalist. For over a decade, he has reported on food and nutritional security, culture, livelihood and environment issues of tribal and other marginalised communities in India and Cameroon.
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