Patholi (Ada)

Hello dear readers, I am sorry for not being a blogger who updates the blog timely. I appreciate your comments and your visits because thats what which inspires me. I check my statcounter most of the times and I feel good when I see that my first time and >10times visitors have increased :) Thanks to all of you lovely readers :) Sometimes it just takes a visit to my statcounter or my comments section of the blog to make me temporarily forget about some worries in life that is always in the back of my head. Blogging for me is become an area to express myself, vent out (though I haven't done much :DD, but you can soon expect some of it , so please bear with me ) , and I am honestly very glad to be a part of this food blogging community here. Thanks to you readers/fellow bloggers who have been a constant source of inspiration and I hope I shall be able to keep up my spirits in the future too.

Coming to Patholi (Ada), this is a sweet treat prepared using rice flour- water paste which is spread on a plantain leaf, and then a sweet mixture made by combining jaggery, coconut, and poha (beaten rice, aval) is added as a stuffing on the rice paste. The plantain leaf is then folded into half and the ends tucked, which then goes into a steamer for 15 minutes.

Patholi (in konkani) or Ada (in northern parts of Kerala)/Ela Ada was one of my favorite prasadam from temple , that I remember having as a kid. I also remember my mom making it very rarely, maybe during her kitchen-experimental days when we were kids :D (yeah everyone goes through that experimental phase including the expert ones hehehe..) . I also remember recently confusing it with "Adai dosa" after marriage when my fil mentioned "Adai". That's because it is known in a different name in each part of the state as I mentioned initially. In konkani it is called "Patholi". Whatever be the name, its the light aroma of the sweet wrapped in plantain leaf which makes it adorable :) . I have also posted it's cousin version in one of my earlier post (kozhukkatta). I was lucky enough to find some plantain leaves in Market Basket.
I also want to mention that I found the method of preparing it in Sig's blog. I was glad to know that it just requires to spread the rice paste, add the filling and fold the leaf in half to get the shape ! That easy :) Coming to the recipe:

Ingredients:

Plantain leaf cut in square or rectangular shape according to the size of the ada you want or can fit in the steamer

Roasted rice flour: 2 cups
Warm Water with a pinch of salt and oil: 2 - 2 1/2 cups to make a smooth dough with rice flour

For the filling :

Grated coconut: 1 cup
Grated/powdered jaggery: 1 cup
A pinch of coconut milk (optional)



How to make it:

Mix coconut and jaggery with your hands very well until well combined and soft. (There should not be too many lumps of jaggery). Note: Here in US the jaggery we get doesn't have impurities, so the step to boil the jaggery to form liquid and then straining it through sieve is avoided. You may use either the light brown jaggery cubes, or the old fashioned dark brown jaggery ball. I grated the jaggery using my knife. I found it tough using a grater for this purpose though. If any other method is available, I would be glad to know.

Next make a smooth dough using warm water with the rice flour and make a smooth dough. Clean the banana leaves and keep the steamer ready for cooking the ada. Take a small ball (like in chapathi dough) and keep it on the leaf. Start flattening it and same time spreading it on the leaf until it is as flat as possible. Then add a layer of coconut jaggery mix on top of this. Fold the leaf in half. Tuck the ends of the leaf . Place it in a steamer. Without the vent, steam the ada for about 5 - 7 minutes.

Take the steamer from the fire. Unfold the banana leaf and delicious ada inside the leaf is ready to eat. Serve it warm or after it cools down.