It’s been almost 13 years since I have been living in Dallas. After that little hometown I grew up in Bangladesh, I have called Dallas home. I almost didn’t know anyone when I came to this city for a job interview but when I got the offer, didn’t hesitate to drive eight long hours to start my first job after undergrad. This is the city where I started my married life and had my baby and off course had a fair share of ups and downs that comes along as part of life.
I love how Dallas has a huge Bangladeshi community. At times it feels like, we celebrate the culture and traditions of Bangladesh more here than we probably would have if we were living in Bangladesh. Each spring, we, a group of friends, look forward to a small potluck where each of us makes a Bangladeshi Pitha. We call the pot-luck “Pitha Utsob”, meaning festival of pithas. I attended this year’s pot-luck just before taking off for the vacation and thought would share the recipe of the “Dudh Puli” that I made for the group of friends.
Pitha, also known as pithe, can be either sweet or savory. The main ingredient of pitha is rice flour with occasional use of wheat flour. Each pitha has a unique shape and design. Even though the word “cake” is usually used to describe pitha, I refuse to classify pitha as cakes(I love cakes, don’t get me wrong). Pitha can be steamed, deep fried, pan fried, or roasted and mainly served during breakfast or as a snack. There are also special pitha associated with special occasions or holidays.
“Dudh” means milk in Bengali and “puli” is another name for pitha. Dudh puli can be described as rice flour dumpling with coconut filling cooked in cardamom and cinnamon infused milk. Dudh Puli tastes out of the world. The coconut stuffing gives a fabulous texture to the soft rice skin with luscious milk sauce. I used premium quality unsweetened desiccated coconut since I didn’t have the time to process a fresh coconut. I love the unsweetened desiccated coconut because it saves preparation time and the filling tastes like the fresh ones after the filling is cooked. Also, I used condensed milk to reduce the cooking time, however, milk and sugar/brown sugar/jaggery can be used instead of condensed milk. In that case, the cook time for filling will take longer to boil and thicken the milk.
“Dudh Puli” is succulent and one can never have too much of this scrumptiousness.
- 2 cups desiccated coconut, unsweetened
- 3/4 cup condensed milk
- 1 cup milk
- 2-3 small cardamom
- 2-3 cinnamon stick, 1 inch each
- 2 cups Rice flour
- 1 cup water 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 3-4 small cardamom
- 3-4 cinnamon stick, 1 inch each
- Steps to make coconut filling:
- Mix coconut, condensed milk and regular milk on a nonstick pan. The mixture will be semi sticky but not runny.
- Add cardamom and cinnamon.
- Turn on stove and stir constantly until the mixture becomes slightly sticky.
- Steps to make dumplings:
- Boil water. Add salt.
- Turn off stove and add rice flour to boiling water to form a firm but soft and not sticky dough. The dough should bounce back if you press with a finger. Adjust flour accordingly.
- Knead well for about 5 minutes.
- Take part of the dough and roll it out as thick as a tortilla.
- Cut out circles with a cookie cutter.
- Place a small amount of coconut filling on each circle.
- Brush the edges of with water and seal tightly to form a crescent (semi-circular) shape.
- Steps to cook dumplings:
- Boil 4 cups milk, cinnamon and cardamom together in a non stick pan.
- Add sugar and dissolve in the boiling milk.
- Add the dumplings and cook about 30-45 minute in medium-low heat or until dumplings are cooked.
Condensed milk can be substituted for regular whole milk and sugar, brown sugar or jaggery(gur). The cooking time will significantly vary to make the mixture sticky.
Cooking time will vary depending on the thinness of the dumpling skin. If the dough is thin, the dumplings should cook very quickly but should take longer if the skin is thick.
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রেসিপি: দুধ পুলি
উপকরন:
২ কাপ নারকেল গুড়া, চিনিছাড়া
৩/৪ কাপ কন্ডেন্সড মিল্ক
১ কাপ দুধ
২-৩ ছোট ছোটো এলাচ
২-৩ দারুচিনি, প্রতিটি ১ ইঞ্চি
২ কাপ চালের আটা
১ কাপ পানি
১/৮ চা চামচ লবণ
৪ কাপ দুধ
১ কাপ চিনি
৩-৪ ছোট ছোটো এলাচ
৩-৪ দারুচিনি, প্রতিটি ১ ইঞ্চি
নারিকেল প্রস্তুত প্রণালী:
১. একটি নন্ স্টিক প্যােন নারকেল, কন্ডেন্সড মিল্ক এবং দুধ মেশান।
২. ছোটো এলাচ ও দারুচিনি দিন।.
৩. চুলা জালিয়ে নারকেল মিশ্রণ সামান্য চটচটে করে রান্না করুন।
পুলি পিঠা প্রস্তুত প্রণালী:
১. পানি ফুটিয়ে লবণ যুক্ত করুন।
২. চুলা বন্ধ করে নরম করে চালের আটার খামির তৈরি করুন।
৩. ভালভাবে ময়ান দিন। প্রায় ৫ মিনিট।
৪. খামির থেকে কিছু অংশ নিয়ে রুটি বেলুন।
৫. একটি কুকি কারার দিয়ে ছোট ছোট বৃত্তাকার কেটে লেচি কেটে নিন।
৬. প্রতিটি ভাগে নারকেলের দিন।
৭. পানি দিয়ে কোণগুলি বন্ধ করে চন্দ্রাকার ভাবে লাগিয়ে পিঠা তৈরি করুন।
পুলি পিঠা সেদ্ধ করার প্রণালী:
১. একটি নন্ স্টিক প্যােন ৪ কাপ দুধ, দারুচিনি এবং ছোটো এলাচ দিয়ে ফোটান।
২. চিনি যোগ করুন।
৩. দুধে পিঠা দিয়ে মাঝারি তােপ 30-45 মিনিট রান্না করুন।
প্রয়োজনিও কিছু টিপস্ এর জনে্য দয়াকরে আটির্কেল অথবা ইংরেজি রেসিপির নোট সেকশনটা একটু দেখে নেবেন।
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These looks delicious!! Never had anything like it before
Thank you Mr. & Mrs P.
Your blog might actually inspire me to start cooking Bangladeshi delicacies. Theme did taking the time to post such recipes 🙂
Hana – the the best compliment a blogger can have. Thank you so much. I’m humbled that you find my blog inspiring 🙂
Hugs.
Lail: This looks so delicious…I wish I was your neighbor to taste such a great dessert. I am a coconut lover!
Oh, Denise..I would love for us to be neighbors. You are not that far from me. If you are ever in the metroplex we need to meet and I can make you something you would like.
This looks so good Lail! I have never tried this… I am going to ask my Bangladeshi friends here to make me some 🙂
Nazneen
Thank you, Nazneen. I hope your friends will make you some. I’m here if they have any question 🙂
I’ve never eaten anything like this but it looks amazing. I can’t wait to try it myself!
Thank you so much for stopping by, Maureen and sorry about the difficulty in commenting 🙁
You’ll not regret when you try Dudh puli 🙂
Lail I am making this very very soon
I love milk infused with cinnamon and cardamom and the idea of the soft rice Pitha filled with coconut is irresistable
Thanks a lot Sawsan. I am positive you’ll love it when you try it. Let me know if you run into any question.
I also love cinnamon and cardamom infused milk.
I’ve been here for 16 years so I assume we have gone through similar experience. SF has a lot of Asians, including Japanese too, so it’s been pretty comfortable and I can still have connection to Japan’s culture and food etc. It’s nice that you have such an access too. It’s important to be happy even being away… this is something new to me. I’d love to taste it!
I suppose we have Nami. I hope you get to try the dudh puli sometimes.
It’s great how you’ve embraced your new way of life so enthusiastically. I love a pot-luck – always such fun. And I would love to try these – they are new to me.
Thank you, Charlie. I hope you get to try the dudh puli sometimes. I would love to make for all those who are saying they’d love to try the dudh puli.
What a great dish! I’ve had something similar, but never made them. I’d love to! And I used to live in Dallas in the 80s. Great city and fun place to live. Slightly football mad, too. 😉 Good post – thanks.
Thanks John. Let me know if you have any question if you want to make these sometimes 🙂
Delish! And your abroad experiences are slightly similar to mine. I think we share a lot of similarities with many out there 🙂
I’m sure those who’ve migrated to US share a lot of similar experiences. Thank you.
gorgeous, I love condensed milk and coconut ! I’II try your recipe.
Thank you. Let me know how it turns out for you or if you have any question when you try out.
Your pictures are beautiful and these flavors sounds so tasty. I’ve been meaning to make some vegan condensed milk that could be used in this.
Thank you for stopping by, Reba(bts, my mom’s name is Reba) and your kind words. I would love to know how dudh puli turns out with vegan condensed milk. I am sure it’d be great.
Hi I just wanted to ask which rice flour you use for the puli? Where I live , there’s two types available at the stores, there’s ground rice flour and rice flour. Which one shall I use to make these pulis? Thanx a ton xx
Hello – Thank you for stopping by. I am not sure if there is a difference between ground rice flour and rice four. Please use the non-glutinous white rice flour. Non-glutinous rice flour should be available in Bangladeshi/Indian grocery or oriental stores. The key is flour of non glutenous and white rice. Hope this helps. Please let me know if any more questions.
Hi Lail, this looks and I’m definitely trying them, but I wanted to know how many servings are here?
Thank you
Hi Misty – The Dudh puli is luscious and scrumptious. Depending on the appetite and size you make, there should be enough for 8-10 people. Hope this helps.
You, Lail, are an artist. The Puli looks delicious. We have something similar here, in Kerala, India, but it is cooked in coconut milk. I will try to make a small quantity.
dudh puli is very tasty and your recipe is perfect