I picked up these large leaves at the Asiana Market. I thought I was going to stuffed them with fish or something. I noticed that the leaves were marked Patra.

So I looked up Patra.

It turns out that Patra (Stuffed Taro Leaves) is a DELICIOUS dish from Maharashtra & Gujarat Cuisines. It very easy to prepare and is extremely fragrant and delicious. This recipe uses a chick pea flour base that you spice up. You spread the chick pea mixture on the leaves. Repeat four times. Roll them up like. a jelly roll. Steam the rolls, slice and fry and add some more seasoning and fresh cilantro. They come out delicious! I’m not sure about serving sizes. The recipe I followed says to use 15 patra leaves. I only used four leaves but I used the largest leaves in the pack???? In the end my guess is that this makes 4 tasty servings. This recipe makes far more fried seeds than I think it needs. You can save the extra and use them for either a next time or something else.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

15 patra leaves – recipe states that spinach leaves are a substitute – I used 4 very large leaves

60 ml tamarind juice (around 2 oz)

150g chick pea flour (around 5 1/3 oz)

3 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp asafoetida ( I picked some up at Whole Foods )

1 tsp cumin seeds

3 tsp sugar

1 tbsp oil

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp oil (for finishing)

1 tsp mustard seeds (for finishing)

1 tsp cumin seeds (for finishing

3 tsp sesame seeds (for finishing)

1 tbsp fresh cilantro – chopped (for finishing)

Directions

1 – clean and dry leaves. Cut out large vein in leaves with a knife or scissors. Set leaves to the side.

Make the paste. The tamarind juice, chick pea flour, chili powder, turmeric, asafoetida, cumin seeds, sugar, oil and salt get mixed up together in a bowl. (mine came out too dry and I had to add a good amount of water for it to be spreadable.

Now you start out by spreading the mixture on a leaf that is face side down.

Take a second leaf and lay on top (like a lasagna) spread mixture again. Do a third and spread mixture again and do a fourth and spread mixture again. I was out of filling by now but if you have more than you can make more stuffed leaves.

Now you roll from the fatter end up like a jelly roll.

These rolls need to set in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.

When you are ready the next step is to steam the rolls for 20 minutes.

When the rolls are cool enough to handle you sliced them up and fry them up on both sides with some oil on medium high heat.

Serve with the oil, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, sesame seeds and fresh cilantro.

Enjoy! They really are delicious!

A special THANKS to Urvashi Roe and www.GreatBritishChefs.com for this amazing recipe.