Happy Nagpanchami to all my readers!!
We celebrate Nagpanchami during the month of Shravan.It is a festival of snakes celebrated on the 5th day of shravan month one of the auspicious month for hindus.we celebrate so many festivals during this month like Nagapachami,rakhsha bandan,Narali purnima,sutta punnav / pavitraropana, gokulashtami / krishnashtami,Mosaru kudikey/dahi handi and so many other small puja's and rituals.
We konkanis prepare lots of sweets and savouries by using seasonal veggies. Today i have prepared some steamed sweet rice dumpling in turmeric leaf .We call it patholi or kadubu(kannada) which is quite popular in south india and some parts of west bengal..In goa people call it patholeo.They use dark goan jaggery which tastes superb and gives rich brown colour. We prepare this specially for this day along with some other sweets too.But this sweet dumpling is a must on this day.when i was a kid i just used to wait for this day to relish this divine dish!
Turmeric leaves are very aromatic and has got very unique flavour.This leaf is very useful in cooking as it is medicinally very good for health because of its antiseptic property.
Ingredients:
For the rice covering:
Raw rice-11/2cups
Beaten rice-1cup
Turmeric leaves-20 (medium size)
Salt -1tsp
For stuffing:
Coconut -2cups(grated)
Jaggery-1cup
Soak rice and beaten rice for 2 hours.Drain the water from rice and grind both the ingredients to smooth paste without adding too much of water.I have added only 11/2cup of water to the batter while grinding.If you feel the batter is little watery then add some rice flour to adjust the consistency.The batter should be thicker than Dosa/ pancake batter.
Now prepare the stuffing with grated coconut and jaggery.Heat a pan /wok add jaggery and 1/2 cup of water and let it dissolve completely.Now add grated coconut and mix it well.Cook till it becomes dry and all the moisture evaporates.If you prepare the stuffing like this then you can keep the patholis for couple of days without refrigeration.One short cut method is just add grated jaggery and mix it well with the coconut and your filling is ready.But i always prefer 1st method.
- Clean all the leaves in under running water,wipe them with kitchen towel and now its ready for stuffing.
- Now boil some water in the idli steamer
- Now arrange all the leaves in a row and start spreading the batter.
- Spread a table spoon of batter in each leaves as shown in the picture.You have to spread the batter evenly for the better results.
- Now take some stuffing and nicely spread it in a single line.The stuffing should be in the centre.If you want more sweet then you can add little more stuffing.
- Proceed the same with all the leaves.Once done its ready for steaming.
- Now keep all the patholis in a steamer and close the lid.Let it steam for about 15mins or till done.
- Serve hot with ghee.
Note: Its better to trim the leaves on both the ends and if your leaves are too big then its better to make it half so you can arrange the patholis easily inside the steamer.One more important tip is always arrange the patholis in such a way the steam passes through each and every patholi while cooking.