Patra is a very distinct and authentic Gujarati food dish. It’s steamy, delicious and completely vegetarian! The cornucopia of tastes – spicy, salty, sweet – will explode in your mouth all at the same time! The secret is in the highly nutritious colocasia leaves, which are the basis of this exquisite dish. The leaves are stuffed with a spiced mix, and this contrast between mild and seasoned flavours is what packs the Patra punch. Today, I am gonna teach how to make Patra with this Patra recipe blog post. It’s basically a roll, and there are a few ways you can experiment – deep fry it instead of shallow frying them. But there’s no way you can go wrong, because you’ll get a delicious meal in the end, every time.
I used to do this with my grandmother countless time. Our field trips to India to visit our other relatives always filled me with gleaming hope. Grandmama says I loved to eat when I was a kid, and Indian food, GOOD Indian food, was my weak spot. She used to haul me from the airport in Delhi and to our house, because I would always beg for something to eat from the food stalls. She would often cave in and purchase a little something before we came home. Then she would make me the best Patra in the world, and would laugh with me, and sing to me when she tucked me in bed. She died recently, and I find myself listening to Lana Del Rey, and missing her. So I decided to cook up some Patra.
I invited a few of my closest friends and treated them with this mind blowing vegetarian dish.
It’s incredibly easy:
Ingredients you’ll need to prepare Patra:
- Oil – 2 tablespoons,
- Mustard seeds – ½ tbs
- Sesame seeds – 1 tbs
- Red chili powder – 1 tbs
- Turmeric powder – ¼ tbs
- Garam masala – ½ tbs
- Lemon juice – 3 tbs
- Salt – 2 tbs or more according to taste
- Sugar – 2 tbs
- Colocasia leaf – 4
- Gram flour – about 1 cup, slightly less
- Asafetida – ½ teaspoon
- Water – steaming, about 110ml
Below are the steps for making Patra – Recipe!
- First up, take the colocasia leaves, and wash them good. Cut out the veins and stems.
- Take every ingredient except oil, the seeds, asafetida, and mix them together. Put it in a large bowl and just make a batter out of it.
- Place a large leaf, dark side down, on the table.
- Take a spoonful of batter and spread it on the leaf. Then cover it with a second, smaller leaf, and spread the batter again. Repeat this for all 4 leaves.
- Now, using your hands, fold the top part of the leaf, and roll it. The secret to good patras is to roll them tightly!
- Get your steamer or water bath ready. Place it in and cook for about 20 minutes. This is just a warmup, because once you take it out, let it cool. Don’t start cooking! The other secret to good patras is tempering! While it cools down, it’s a good idea to clean up the mess from the batter and leaves. Try using organic eco store cleaning products in order to get the stubborn gram flour stains out.
- Once it cools down, start up the heat and get the oil smoking in the pan. Add the sesame and mustard seeds, as well as asafetida. The second they start to cook, add the patra slices. Cook it for about 3 minutes, be careful not to burn it.
Take it out of the pan and directly onto the plate. You can sprinkle some coconut on it, but you don’t have to. Serve immediately, while it’s searing hot.
And finally, enjoy!
