An offering to Lord Jagannath: Puda Pitha

Puda Pitha is a traditional odiya sweet, my mother wanted to start with something sweet and offer it to Lord Jagannath before venturing on to this wonderful journey. Aarini and I gobbled up the sweet in no time :).
Here is the gist of the recipe

INGREDIENTS

1) 1 Cup Urad dal.
2)  2 Cup Rice.
3)  4 Tablespoon coconut.
4)  3 Tablespoon sugar.
5)  5-6 Cashewnut.
6)  5-6 Raisins. 
7) A pinch of salt.
8) 2-3 Cardamoms. 
9) Half a teaspoon anise seed/fennel seed.
10) 1 Teaspoon baking soda.

Method

1) Soak 1 cup of urad dal and 2 cup of rice for 6 hours.
2) Grind urad dal with just enough water, till it is a fine paste.
3) Coarse grind the rice with just enough water.
4) Mix it together and keep it  aside for 8 hrs to ferment. 
5) After the fermentation is done. On the side grind  cardamom, fennel seed  together. 
6) Take the fermented paste add coconut , sugar , cashew nuts, raisins,ground cardamom and fennel powder,salt and baking soda.
7)  There are two ways to cook this sweet, if you access to an oven then put it in a metal baking dish and bake it at 180 degree Celsius for half an hour. Once it is baked cool it and cut out the pieces and serve it. 
8) The other way is it to use a pressure cooker. Take a metal bowl grease it lightly and just put it the pressure cooker and cook it in slow flame for half an hour.
9) The sweet is supposed to have a white/yellowish hue and the bottom should be burnt, hence the name puda(means burnt in odiya) pitha (sweet). The amount of sugar is slightly less, so if you have a sweet tooth just add more sugar.

Enjoy!!!!