Pathrado

Pathrado is a very popular konkani dish. Everyone from Coastal Karnataka knows about it. There are many ways of making it. Here I have posted my mother's recipe.

Pathra leaves are available in abundance in the coastal regions of Karnataka. Hence pathrado is prepared often and it is an all time favorite of many people. The picture below is of a pathra plant.

Posting Pathrado was my long time dream. Clicking the step wise pictures was hooked in my mind when I went to India. Pathrado was made several times during my stay and to my bad luck I was unable to capture the pictures for some reasons. It so happened that once there was no charge in my camera, the other time I was busy with something else and one more time I was lazy:-) So I was sad that I will not be able to post it. But luckily my brother clicked beautiful stepwise pictures of Pathrado from his wonderful camera. I am thankful to him, his camera and my mother as well.

Here is the detailed recipe of my mother. Hope the pictures will help the beginners. Good luck for all those who are going to try it:-)

Ingredients:

• Rice- 3/4 cup
• Grated Coconut, Fresh/Frozen- 1/2 cup
• Roasted red chilli- 5-6
• Tamarind- A Small ball (half of a lemon sized)
• Asafoetida- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- To taste
• Pathra leaves- 15-20

Procedure:

Wash the leaves and drain out the water completely. Soak the rice for 1-2 hours.

Now for the masala: Drain the water in which the rice is soaked and then grind the soaked rice along with grated coconut, roasted red chilli, tamarind and salt. Use minimum amount of water while grinding. The masala should be a thick, fine paste. Transfer it to a bowl and then add asafoetida and mix well. Masala is ready.

Now comes the assembling part. Assembling has to be done very carefully. A rough idea of what we are going to do is- we will make two rolls of the pathra leaves and each roll contains approximately 5-7 leaves. The leaves in each roll are smeared with the prepared masala and then stacked one upon the other. Am I confusing? No worries:-) We will start in detail.

First important thing- Pat dry the pathra leaves with a clean cotton cloth.

Next- The prepared masala shouldn't be watery.

Assembling-  Take a big pathra leaf as the base and the lower part of the leaf should be facing you, as shown below.

Now give a coating of the prepared masala to this leaf as shown below.

Now place one more leaf on it as shown below.

Smear the masala on this leaf as done earlier.

Now repeat the above process for the remaining leaves (remember that the size of the leaves vary and hence try to distribute the leaves so that you get almost even thickness everywhere).

After everything it looks like this-

So how many leaves did I put on it? My mother says- if the leaves are big then you can stop at 5. If the leaves are small then you can continue till 8. Hope everything is clear till now. Now next comes the rolling part (have to be little more careful).

Fold the leaves on either sides as shown below.

Now slowly start rolling it from one end.

See that the leaves should be intact and try to roll it as tight as possible. Continue rolling till you reach the other end.

This is how it looks at the end. We made two rolls.

You have to be really careful after rolling. The rolls should not open up. If you are not confident of handling then secure it by tying a thread around it ( my mother is experienced and hence doesn't do this).

Next comes the steaming part. There are two options. You can either steam the whole rolls as it is (as my MIL does) or cut it into 8-9 pieces (as my mother does). Steaming it whole is an easy method when compared to cutting it (The only drawback of  cutting is there are chances of the leaves falling apart and hence has to be done with extreme care). Choose the method which you are comfortable.

We sliced and piled it in a steamer.

A closer view of a single piece.

Now steam it for 25-30 minutes. After steaming it looks like this.

What are you waiting for? Pathrado is ready!!

Serve it hot with generous amount of coconut oil on it. You can serve it as a side dish to rice and any curry of your choice. Above measurement serves 4-5 people.

Note: 1. My MIL prepares the masala this way-

• Rice- 1/2 cup
• Whole green gram/Moong- 1/2 cup
• Grated coconut- 1/2 cup
• Roasted red chillies- 7-8
• Tamarind- A small ball
• Asafoetida- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- To taste

Rice and green gram are to be soaked together for 7-8 hours. Rest of the procedure remains the same.
Updated (05/14/2012):
2. The thick ribs preset on the backside of the leaf has to be removed with a knife. Care should be taken not to tear the leaf while doing so.
3. Some leaves give a itching sensation while eating. To prevent that, give a coating of tamarind water or diluted vinegar on the back side of the leaves atleast an hour before assembling the pathrado.