Ingredients
- Mandiaflour- 500gm
- Suji- 500gm
- Sugar/ jaggery- 250gm( more or less as per taste)
- Salt- as per requirement
- Oil- as required
- Green cardamom powder- 2 gm
- Cow ghee- 25 gm
- Fennel seed/ saunf- 3 gm
- Grated coconut-400gm
- Black pepper powder/ coarsely crushed -2 gm

Preparation method
- Sieve Ragi( mandia) flour and mix with suji and keep aside.
- In a pan/ kadhai boil water with the salt, sugar,fennel seeds and ghee.
- Bring the water to a boil in a medium flame. once the sugar melts in water , add Ragi and suji mix.
- Stir continuously for 4-5 minutes over a low flame.
- Cook till all the sujiragimix is swollen and the mixture starts coming together like a ball.
- Once the mix thickens like halwa, turn off the flame.
- Remove the mixture on a plate and allow it to cool down for about 8-10 minutes.
- Grease your palms with a little ghee and knead the mixture to form a smooth dough and keep aside with a cover.
- Heat another pan.
- Add grated coconut and sugar/ jaggery , cook for 3-4 minutes till the sugar/ jaggery melts.
- Once the sugar/ jaggery melts completely, add cardamom powder and black pepper.
- Mix and roast everything for half a minute, switch off the flame and keep aside.
- Check the dough after 15 minutes. Apply a little ghee on hands and knead the dough to make it smooth.
- Divide the dough into 35 equal portions. Apply a little ghee on your hands and pick a portion of the dough.
- Roll it between your palms. Use your fingers to give it a shallow bowl shape.
- Fill the dough with stuffing and close the mouth of the dough by collecting the corners and pinching it at the top.
- Press the ball between your palms to flatten it. Press the ends slightly. Similarly, stuff and prepare all the Pithas.
- Heat the oil ,Keep the flame medium-high. Once oil turns heat then reduce the flame to medium low.
- Drop the Pithas in the oil and fry them for 1 mins from one side. After 1minutes, turn them upside down and fry Pithas from both sides till golden brown.
- Once they turn golden brown, pick them up with a slotted spoon. Tilt the spoon at the corner of the pot. This will discard the extra oil back in the pot.
- Take the Pithas out on a plate and serve them warm.
- Fry all the Pithas similarly; each batch will take around 6-7 mins to fry up.
- MandiaKakaraPitha is ready to be serve.

Prepared by: Sabnam Aferin
Cuttack, Odisha
You can reach her at [email protected]