Sweet bitter memories of “Pita Saga Bati Basa”
Time travel: 90's
On a winter noon of 90's, the dialogue between a small kid and her grandfather went like this.
She: So why do you eat this Aja? This tastes so bitter. So yuck.
He: Oh, this cleanses your taste buds of all irritations and refills theirs energy so that you can enjoy good food with great satisfaction.And look, this does not even taste bitter if you take it with rice.
Saying this, he used to feed the ever inquisitive kid a morsel of rice and that bitter tasting thing with so much care, that she could hardly resist.
That was the conversation between me and my grand father. All I knew about those bitter tasting leaves was that it tasted bitter. Never cared to know its name. Why should I? Who cares to know about bitter, ugly things in life?I was no exception.
Now: Mr. B suddenly found something unusual while coming from his morning walk. He proudly boasted about his childhood love for this very thing, while I tried to retrieve the memories of my childhood. Yes, those bitter tasting leafy greens locally known as “Pita Saga”. How merciless we human beings are. Just because tastes bitter , it was rendered the name of Pita saga. In some parts of Odisha it is also known as “Pita Gahama”. The botanical name of this annual herb is Glinus oppositifolius and it tastes bitter.
Batibasa: In this technique all the ingredients, spices, condiments and oil is mixed together and cooked in very slow flame for longer time. This gives unique flavour to the dish as each ingredient retains its flavour
Ingredients Required:
- Pitasaga:2 cup(chopped)
- Mustard :1 tsp
- Garlic pods: 4–5
- Chilly: 1–2
- Onion :1
- Salt: to taste
- Turmeric: 1tsp
- Mustard Oil: 2 Tbsp
- Aubergine : 1 (small)
- Tomato:1 (small)
- Badi (Sun dried black gram dumplings) : 3
Precooking procedure: Clean the leaves and wash them under running water. Allow them to dry. Now chop them finely. Julienne an onion. Cut the aubergine into smaller cubes. Slice the tomato roughly. Deep fry the badis in oil and crush them into small pieces.
If you have a mortal and pestle, crush and grind the mustard and garlic into paste. You can use an electric grinder. But the texture comes from a mortar. I prefer to use a mortar for such traditional cooking process.
Now take a deep bottomed pan or a karhai and put the chopped greens into it. Add the mustard garlic paste, turmeric, salt, onion, aubergine cube sand entire oil into it. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly by hand. Now switch on the flame and put the pan on the flame. Cover it with a lid, so that no vapor escapes from it. Keep turning the veggies in between. Once the veggies become mushy, add the crushed badi pieces into it. Turn again and switch off the flame. Do not remove the lid immediately, as the vapor helps the badi to cook in it.
Enjoy this dish as an accompaniment with rice.
Note: You can add potatoes as well. Use of mustard oil is a must as it gives the much desired pungency to the dish.
See you soon,
Love,
Sweta
