Destination
Kathmandu
The story
Litti chokha is Kathmandu's Bihari street food import: fist-sized balls of wheat-flour dough stuffed with a spiced sattu (roasted chickpea flour) filling, traditionally cooked in hot ashes or over a coal fire until the outside is deeply blackened and the inside is soft-set. Served with chokha — a rustic mash of fire-charred tomato, aubergine and potato — and a generous drizzle of ghee, plus a dish of lime pickle on the side. Eaten with the hands: crack open a litti, dip in chokha, tear a piece off, eat. The dish shows up in Kathmandu because of the large Bihari migrant community and has been fully absorbed into the Nepali street-food canon.
Method
Combine all filling ingredients in a bowl. Mix thoroughly with your hand until the filling is fully combined and moist enough to hold in a lump when squeezed. It should smell aggressively of onion, garlic, chili and pickle. Divide into 12 walnut-sized balls.
Whisk atta, salt and ajwain in a bowl. Rub in ghee. Add water gradually to make a firm but pliable dough. Knead 4 minutes. Rest 30 minutes covered.
Char the aubergine and tomatoes directly on a gas hob flame (or under a hot grill), turning, until the skins are blackened all over and the flesh is soft. The aubergine takes 15 minutes; the tomatoes take 6 to 8. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes 20 minutes until tender.
Peel the aubergine and tomatoes (skins should slip off easily). Peel the potatoes. Rough-mash all three together in a bowl with a fork or a potato masher — you want texture, not a puree.
Warm the mustard oil in a small pan until just smoking. Off the heat, add the onion, garlic and green chilies — they'll sizzle. Pour the oil-and-aromatics over the mashed vegetables. Add salt, Timur, coriander and lime. Toss thoroughly. Set aside.
Divide the dough into 12 balls. Working with each ball: flatten between your palms into a 10cm disc. Place a ball of sattu filling in the middle. Fold the disc up around the filling and pinch to seal into a smooth ball. Repeat.
Preheat oven to 220C. Arrange the litti on a baking tray. Bake 25 minutes, turning halfway, until the outside is deep golden brown and crackled. For traditional char: hold each baked litti briefly with tongs over an open gas flame for 20 seconds a side, turning, until patched with dark char.
Break each hot litti open with your thumbs (this is easier when hot). Drizzle each with melted ghee across the exposed sattu filling. Serve on a platter with a big bowl of chokha, a small dish of mango or lime pickle, chili slices and coriander. Eaters tear pieces of litti, dip in the chokha, drizzle with more ghee, and eat with fingers.
Tips
- Sattu is the essential ingredient. Roasted chickpea flour — different from raw gram flour — is what makes the filling. Sold at Indian grocers as "sattu" or "roasted chana flour." Not interchangeable with raw besan.
- Pickle-jar oil is the secret. A spoonful of the spicy oil from an open jar of mango or lime pickle gives the sattu filling its specific Bihari edge. If unavailable, use 1 tbsp lime juice plus a pinch of chili flakes.
- Char the vegetables directly on the flame. Blistering the aubergine and tomato skins over an open flame is what gives chokha its smoky depth. Baking or boiling the vegetables gives you plain mash, not chokha.
- Drizzle with ghee at serving. This is the classical finish. A generous pour of warm ghee over the split litti pools into the sattu filling and transforms the dish.
- Eat with fingers. Litti chokha is a hands-on dish. Provide small bowls of water for finger-rinsing.
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