Every year, this festival is celebrated in Odisha to pray for the life and prosperity of the Eldest Child of the Family.

This festival falls on the eighth day of the moon waning phase which is also known as Ashtami in my native language. The very name of the festival is formed from the same, Prathama meaning first, and Ashtami meaning the eight day of the moon waning phase, which together translate to the first day of the moon waning phase. The main delicacy of the festivous day is Enduri Pitha (also known as Haldi-patra Pitha) which is a savory rice cake stuffed with a sweet filling inside. And so, we started our day by preparing the dish.

My father had already bought the Haldi-patra (Turmeric leaves) 4 days earlier, as it has an huge demand and as the festival approaches, vendors charge ridiculously high, sometimes even 4 times the original price! These leaves are wrapped around the rice cake and they not only give the rice cake it's shape, but also leave behind a distinguished smell and aroma, which is second to none. Me and my mother carefully cut them up to a perfect size, which would easily fit into the steamer we have.

I woke up at around 5:30 AM, and headed to the gym. While I was doing my daily workout, my mother had already prepared the batter, which was a blended mix of rice flour and urad dal mixed in a perfect ratio, which I believe can only be achieved from years of experience. She had also prepared the sweet filling, which consists of grated coconut, cottage cheese, and jaggery.

All credits to my mother for preparing everything beforehand, as right when I was back from the gym, the festive delicacy was almost ready! I decided to help my mother out in the last part of the cooking process, which was wrapping the batter and the sweet filling inside the turmeric leaves and letting them steam on the steamer.

The first step was to apply some ghee onto the leaf.

Then we put the rice batter onto the leaf.

And lastly, the sweet filling, which is the cherry on top.

Finally, we wrapped the leaf and set it aside on the steamer. Me and my mother repeated this process to make around 10 more of these, which was enough for the whole family.

After steaming the rice cakes for around 15 minutes, they came out hot and steamy. They had an extremely soft texture as well, which meant that the batter had been fermented well the night before.

As we would do any in any festive occasion, our first and foremost priority was to offer the rice cakes to God, and after that to me 😄 as the festival celebrates the Eldest child of the family. My mother recited the mantras and offered arti to both me and God.

This festival is first celebrated when the Eldest child of the family turns one year old. And so, after the completion of the first year of the child in Earth, the child is made to wear new clothes and offered a lighted lamp ovation by senior female relatives (mostly their own mother). This is then continued every year onwards. As such, I was able to cop a pair of new sportswear, and I decided to go for an all black look along with a dry fit shirt, which I could also wear to the gym.

After all the rituals had been completed, I finally got to enjoy the festive delicacy. This special rice cake is one of my favorite ones, and I always look forward every year to having this, as turmeric leaves are not always available in the market, and without the turmeric leaf, the dish feels incomplete. I like to enjoy the rice cake by itself; some people eat it with a potato-curry, but I always relish it by itself.

And with that, the festival was over. I had my favorite rice cake in lunch as well, and my mother had saved another piece for dinner 😄 as she knew how much I liked the dish. I look forward to this festival every year, and this year was definitely a blast! The festive day is over, but my eagerness for the next year is definitely not! Do let me know if any of you have had this type of rice cake before in the comments.