Alu Wadi
Alu WadiFood Blogging Marathon # 32 D
Food Blogging Marathon from 2/9/2013 to 30/9/2013. Each day a new alphabet. 4 categories. Regional. International. Baked. Miscellaneous.
My first recipe is Regional.
These are made as a side dish in Maharashtrian homes as a fried recipe in a typical festival food or even as the full meal offered to the Gods. ( Naivadya)
Tamarind is very important as without it or with less of it the leaves may cause irritation in the throat. So be generous with the tamarind pulp.
6 leaves of alu/patra/arvi/colacassia leaves
1 cup besan
1 tbsp rice flour
1/4 cup thick tamarind pulp or tamarind to make pulp
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp green chilli paste
1 tblsp jagerry / brown sugar
1 tsp carom /ajwain / owa seeds
salt to taste
water as necessary
oil for frying
Method
Wash and dry the leaves. Remove the stalk. Cut and remove any thick and hard veins underneath but without tearing the leaves.
Soak tamarind in water to get about 1/2 cup of thick pulp. To the besan add rice flour, ginger paste, chilli paste, jagerry, carom seeds and salt to taste. Mix and add the tamarind pulp /paste and mix well. Add water to make thick batter. It should be slightly thicker than the bajji or idli batter.
Now take one leaf and place on clean and dry surface right side down. Spread the ready batter over it in a layer that is not too thick or too thin. Now cover it with a second leaf right side down and again spread the batter over this. Now take the third leaf, place it over the second leaf, right side down and spread batter over it.
Now comes the folding and rolling. Take the two shaped portions of the leaves and flip it on the main part of the leaf. Fold both sides a little to make a sort of rectangle. Now starting at the lower end roll fairly tight into a roll. Keep aside. Do the same with the next three leaves.
Steam these rolls in a steamer / idli pot or a sieve kept over boiling water for about 20 minutes. Lift out and keep it to cool.
Your alu wadis are ready. You can serve these in three different ways.
1) Cut them into half inch thick rolls and just temper with hot oil with mustard/rai seeds, cumin/jeera, sesame/till seeds and asefotida/hing. Sprinkle grated fresh coconut and chopped fresh coriander leaves.
2) Shallow fry on a griddle/tawa with a little oil till golden brown and serve with grated fresh coconut and chopped fresh coriander leaves.
3) Deep fry the wadis till golden brown and crisp and serve with grated fresh coconut and chopped fresh coriander leaves.
For added tang you can squeeze a little lemon juice over it while serving.
Logo courtesy : Preeti
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 32
never tried colacassia leaves - would love to be able to try it
ReplyDeletelovely recipe :) will try it some day :)
ReplyDeleteYummy wadi. Never used potato leaves or colacassia leaves before, but this dish is tempting me to give them a try.
ReplyDeletePavani, Alu is not potato leaves but Colacassia leaves are called Alu in Marathi.
DeleteThat's interesting. Good to know that :-)
DeleteWe call them Paatra here and made them last night...except that I dont deep fry them..the fried ones would have a better shelf life..I guess.
ReplyDeleteWe too call it Patra here in Mumbai, and its a guilt free snack too !
ReplyDeleteThis is on my to do list for long. As I don't get colacassia leaves I have not tried it yet. The recipe sounds very good Sandhya...
ReplyDeleteBookmarking it sandhya but i do not find these leaves here:-(.Waiting for all the recipes from you and hope you are enjoying bm as much as dq
ReplyDeleteSeriously i dont get the colacasia leaves here, and this recipe is in my to do list since ages..I really want to taste this dish. Welcome to BM grou Sandhya.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the marathon Sandhya...though I did see the Paatras when we visited Vaishali, I curse for not getting those and trying them...we don't get this in Madras..will have to see how to get my hands on those..:)..waiting to see the pictures..
ReplyDeleteI got a bunch of these leaves when we visited A'bad but sadly couldn't make this dish as I fell sick after the trip.
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed a tasty snack!
I bought these leaves during our Ahmedabad BM meet in February specifically to make this. Since i couldn't, my MIL prepapred a dish somewhat similar to the first option you've suggested. Waiting to see your clicks!
ReplyDeleteNice recipe interesting never made it nice u shared with us will give it a try
ReplyDeleteNice recipe & I love this dish.My mom makes it the same way but the only difference is she won't add any tamarind in it. The best part is we use to grow this patra leaves in our back yard..
ReplyDeleteGood start. Somehow I always felt the patra dish is a tedious one to pull through. :)
ReplyDeletegreat start to the marathon... love it!!
ReplyDeleteSowmya
I also thought alu to be potatoes than eddoe roots leaves..I know that this tastes yum, one of our neighbors used to make this and I have tasted it!
ReplyDeleteLovely post and love the way you presented to us..Clear step by step pictures and easy to follow instruction..Great work..
ReplyDelete