Pattoleo or patoli or patolyo or coconut and rice dumplings steamed in turmeric leaves is a traditional Goan food normally made on special occasions like Shravan Sunday or on 1st day of Ganesh Chaturthi. Shravan is an auspicious month in India which comes during mid or beginning of August. As soon as the monsoons start, you see everything green around. You see life everywhere and new things start growing.
During this month, various festivals are held like Nagapanchami, Janmashtami, Varamahalakshmi, etc. Along with these festivals, we Goans also worship the Sun god on shravan Sunday. We call it “Aitaar poojan”. Aitaar means Sunday. During the Shravan Sundays we make various sweet dishes at home and Pattoloe or patolyo are normally made on the first Shravan Sunday. During this Shravan Sunday, married ladies collect flowers and different types of leaves. They also make a small art work with palm leaf and offer it to Sun god. They eat veg food during the Shravan Sunday and pray for the longevity of their husband.
I wanted to make this dish since a long time. But I could not find turmeric leaves in Bangalore. Last week my parents visited me and they got lots of turmeric leaves from our backyard in Goa. I did a secret happy dance after seeing these leaves.
I have made these using rice flour. Some people soak rice overnight, grind it and then follow the same process. I just went the short-cut way.
15 turmeric leaves
1 cup rice flour
2 cups water
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups freshly grated coconut
5 cardamom pods, peeled and crushed
¾ cup grated jaggery
Salt to taste
5) Place the turmeric leaf on a plate. On the smooth inside part of the leaf, spread 2 tablespoon of rice flour dough. Whenever the fingers get sticky with dough, just dip them in water and spread the dough. This helps for spreading the dough smoothly. Leave some space near the edges of the leaf, this will help in sealing the pattolyo.
6) Over this spread 1 teaspoon of grated coconut and jaggery mixture. If leaves are too big, you may need to add more mixture. Do not add too much of coconut jaggery mixture as we will not be able to close and seal properly. Do not worry if the edges remain slightly open too. Our ultimate goal is to steam the dumplings.
Check the following video and enjoy the patolyo.
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