Hittu/Khotto

Hittu/Khotto is a special dish usually prepared by GSB Knoknani’s during special occasions like ‘Suttan Punav’, ‘Lagacchi Parab’, ‘Samsar Padavo’. It is a simple, tasty. Steamed and healthy dish. In this recipe we add the prepared idili batter inside the healthy woven jackfruit leaves. The leaves are woven/ joined together into various shapes so as to hold the idili batter in it. This is then steamed in a idili steamer. Here idili plates are not used in the preparation of ‘Hittu’. The jackfruit leaves can be thrown away in your compound/backyard after use; an eco-friendly way of disposal.

For weaving or joining the leaves we use the spines of coconut leaves. You have to use the spines from the green coconut leaves and not from the dried coconut leaves. Since jackfruit leaves are used in the preparation the ‘Hittu’ will have an aroma of jackfruit leaves upon steaming.

Serve’Hittu’ warm with sambar, chutney, thiksani humman, thambalae puddi, polya pitto etc….it also goes well with Kali chonya ghassi.

Ingredients

For the Khotto preparation

You need

• Clean jackfruit leaves
• Coconut spines (‘Viru’ in Konkani; ‘Erkil’ in Malalyalam)

For the batter

You need

• 1 cup of urd dhal
• 2 cups of raw rice
• 2 cups of parboiled rice
• 1tspn  jeera/cumin seeds
• Salt to taste

Method

Collect jackfruiut leaves on the prepvious day of the festival. Choose leaves which are not torn or eaten by caterpillars. Usually yellow coloured leaves are avoided. Wash the leaves thoroughly and mop them dry with a clean cloth or you can even spread them on a plate or winnow to dry faster.

Now collect the spines (‘Viru’ in Konkani; ‘Erkil’ in Malalyalam) of the coconut leaves. Remove the leaf thoroughly from the spine. Cut the spine into 1 ½ “ to 2” long size length. While cutting the spine see that you leave pointed tips to the cut edges of the spine so that you can poke them easily into the leaf while weaving / joining the leaves. Soak the cut spines in water. It the spines are too thick you can even half them vertically.

For weaving the Khotto (‘Khotto’ in Konkani means Basket)

You can weave ‘Khotto’ using either 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 leaves. The ‘Khotto’s’ woven with 1,2 and 3 leaves are used as space fillers in the ‘pedavan’ or the idili steamer. The one woven with 4 leaves is usually called by the name ‘Hittu’. The others are called ‘Hittie’.

First I will describe how to weave a ‘Khotto’ using 4 leaves

First and foremost arrange and keep all the leaves of equal size together. Then it will be easier to weave them.

Take 4 leaves of the same size. Take two leaves and place them one on top of another as shown in the photograph and join both of them using the coconut spine.

Take a 3^rd leaf and place it perpendicularly to the first two pairs and join the 3^rd leaf and the first two leaf pairs using the coconut spine.

Now place the 4^th leaf opposite to the 3^rd leaf and join the 4^th leaf to the first two leaf pairs using a coconut spine.

Now take the whole set of 4 leaves in your hands and join the two neighboring leaves as shown in the photograph. See that the dark green side of the leaf is outside and light green side is inside.

Repeat the procedure for other sides so as to form a ‘Khotto’.

See that there are no holes after weaving, else your batter will come out through the hole while pouring.

Now cut off the stalk of the leaf except one. This is for easy holding the ‘Khotto’ while pouring the batter as well as removing it from the idili steamer.

Your 4 leaf ‘Khotto’ is ready.

Now with one leaf you can prepare a cone shaped ‘Khotto’ as shown in the photograph.

With 2 leaves prepare a ‘Khotto’ as shown in the photograph. The method of weaving is the same as that of 4 leaf one except that we are using 2 leaves.

With the 3 leaves prepare a ‘Khotto’ as shown in the photograph. The method of weaving is the same as that of 4 leaves except that instead of 4 leaves we are using 3 leaves as shown in the photograph.

Now all the types of ‘Khotto’s’ are ready. Since we are preparing this on the prepvious day it is better if you could cover all the ‘Khotto’s’ with a wet cloth. This will prevent them from drying.

For the batter preparation

Batter has to prepared the previous day. Soak urd dhal in a separate vessel for 3 to 5 hours. Soak both the rice together for 3 to 5 hours. Grind them separately. Mix both the batter together and leave for fermentation overnight. The next day add salt and if required water to the batter and mix well.

Add hand crushed jeera or cumin seeds to the batter for added taste and flavor.

Keep the idili steamer on the gas stove. Now place the perforated plate of the steamer on it.

Fill 3/4^th of the ‘Khotto’ with batter.

Place it on the idili steamer.

First fill the ‘Khottos’ made from 4 leaves and fill the steamer with them. You will find that there are spaces in between these 4 leaf ‘Khottos’. These can be filled with ‘Khottos’ made from 1,2 and 3 leaves.

Steam them for 20 to 25 minutes. Check for doneness. If a knife tip comes out clean upon passing through the ‘Hittu’ then it is cooked.

While serving the ‘Hittu’ remove the spines from the leaves and take the steamed ‘Hittu’ out.  You will get a sweet and tempting aroma of jackfruit leaves from the steamed ‘Hittu’.

Serve’Hittu’ warm with sambar, chutney, thiksani humman, thambalae puddi, polya pitto etc….it also goes well with Kali chonya ghassi.

Tips

The batter I have used here in the recipe is plain one with only jeera added to it. Usually the batter will have cut green chilies and ginger as well to add to the taste and flavor.

 Now-a-days due to lack of time and the tedious process of weaving ‘Khotto’ steal glasses which have been greased on the inside with oil are being used for preparation during festival days.

Some houses also prepare ‘Sandan’ instead of ‘Hittu’ during these festival days.