There’s Patra, and then there’s Anavil Patra

Patra is a popular Gujarati farsan or snack made from Colocasia leaves and one of my favorite Anavil foods. Anavil Brahmins, as I wrote here, are a small community from the coastal plains in south Gujarat. I like to think of our micro cuisine as being distinct from typical Gujarati cuisine, much like Konkani food in Karnataka or Chettinad food in Tamil Nadu. Colocasia plant, in the same family as suran or elephant foot, and also known as taro or elephant ears, originated in India between 7000-2000 BC, according to the food historian, KT Achaya. They grow abundantly in swampy areas, especially in western India. Its root (arbi) and leaves are cooked in various regional cuisines across India. For example, in Maharashtra, a dish called Patal Bhaji is a gravy made with Colocasia leaves, besan, peanuts and spices. In Punjab, arbi ki sabzi is commonly cooked and in the Konkan region, a preparation called pathrode is quite similar to Gujarati patra but made with a paste from rice, dals and coconut.

In the typical Gujarati patra, you smear a besan paste with spices to the leaves, tightly roll them up and steam them. Once steamed, they are sliced and either stir fried with a vaghar of rai and tal seeds, garnished with fresh coconut and fresh coriander leaves or deep fried. In typical Gujarati umami style, the flavors are spicy, sour, and a touch of sweetness from jaggery. These Colocasia leaves are a great source of nutrition, especially Vitamin A.

Anavil patra are quite different, and if I may say so, much superior in taste than the traditional Gujarati ones. It can send us into raptures just thinking or talking about them. And if you have an Anavil friend who politely refuses to eat patra at your home or at a wedding, now you know why.

To understand the differences, you have to go back in time. According to the Anthropology of Food by Dr. Vanisha Nambiar, the Dutch, French, Italians, Germans, Russians, and others visited India as traders, physicians, adventurers, travelers. They often landed in Surat, the entrepot for maritime trade in Mughal western India. These influences intermingled with the wide variety of grains and vegetables grown by the Anavil agriculturists to make their way into Anavil cuisine. 

These differences lie in both the ingredients and in the preparation. The flours used are usually a mix of grains and dal – my mom, Rekha Desai, whose recipes Sheetal is featuring in the Anavil series, uses kanki korma (a coarse mix of broken rice and dals), juwar, wheat, and besan. Using these mixed flours increases its nutritional value, while adding texture and a more complex flavor profile. She also uses khatti chhaas (ideally sour buttermilk extracted when making safed makhan or home made white butter) as the souring agent, instead of amli, resulting in  melt-in-your-mouth soft patras.

Even within Anavils, the recipes can vary from household to household. For example, the basic patra recipe in the 1964 Anavil cookbook, Pakshastra, uses only kanki korma flour and amli as a souring agent. Meanwhile, my grandmother used the old world approach of grinding her own flour in a small flour mill in her house, a process which my aunt Malvikafoi continues to do today (roast 1 teaspoon each methi & cumin seeds, 3-4 cloves, and 2 sticks cinnamon till lightly brown/ aromatic, then add 2 cups chana dal and 1 cup rice and roast a bit further. Once cool, grind using a dry grinder or  Vitamix grain jar). Another aunt, Shaktikaki, uses a mix of besan, juwar, wheat and rice flours, which is slightly different from my mom’s version. Shantafoi, her  mother-in-law and my Dad’s foi, taught her to add grated onions especially in uchhalela patra. This further accentuates the sweetness in sharp contrast to the sourness from amli & limbu no ras. Oh and, you will never find garam masalo in Anavil patra ever. 

Once these patras are rolled up, they are cooked in numerous different ways: ek top na or uchhalela, vagharela patra (with onions and methi seeds), turiya ma patra, bafela patra, and talela/fried patra. These patra preparations except turiya ma patra are often part of the typical lunch thali with keri no ras or as an afternoon snack with chai. Ek top na or vagharela patra also make excellent picnic food as they taste just as scrumptious at room temperature. Turiya ma patra shows up on the Gujarati thali as a shaak usually combined with kadhi, not dal.

Growing up, when summer arrived, I eagerly awaited patra more than I awaited keri. Most Gujaratis will say their favorite way to eat patra is deep fried. Not mine. Ek top na patra that are crunchy on the outside & soft on the inside, and just delectable when combined with payri no ras, or the anavil style vagharela patra are my favorites since I was little. As I grew older, I started really enjoying turiya ma patra, even though turiya was and still is one of my least favorite veggies. My hometown, Baroda, being a long-term seat of the Gaekwad family also has a significant Maharashtrian influence. Due to this, my mom and my dad’s kaki also made a delicious patal bhaji, another favorite of mine

Where I live in the US, fresh patra leaves are hard to find so I usually settle with Bhagwati’s frozen patra vatas & make Anavil style vagharela patra. When I go home for a visit (usually in winter), my mother will dig through her deep freezer and pull out her special patra na vata that she’s lovingly saved for my next visit and I will devour patras in my three favorite ways.

Here we present to you patra recipes from my mom. They are tried and tasted by Sheetal. I feel blessed to have grown up with my mom’s exceptional cooking talent, and in an Anavil family, full of foodies, and expert aunts like Malvikafoi and Shaktikaki who kindly shared their methods with me for this post. My mom and I also feel very blessed to have this partnership with Sheetal. May these unique flavors bring some joy and extra flavor in your life too.

Bon Appetit!

Ek Top Na Patra/Uchhlela Patra

In Gujarati, Top means tapeli/patili/saucepan and Ek Top na Patra are Patra that are not steamed but cooked in a skilled or saucepan.  After you have rolled the patra, choose the smaller logs to cook as Ek Top na Patra. In a wide bottom skillet heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil. Arrange few   Patra logs over the hot oil, ensure there is enough space between the logs so that the can be shaken and flipped. Cover and cook on a slow flame. Flip as they begin to crisp up on each side. They are done once they take up beautiful brown colour on each side. Ek Top na Patra are crisp outside and soft inside. Serve warm with lemon juice squeezed over it.

Vagharela Patra

Once the Patra are steamed and cooled, you can temper them using the following method. Tempering Patra works best when the steamed logs are a day old. They taste even better as the  flavours mature.

Slice 3-4 steamed Patra logs into 1/2 inch slices.  Cut one large onion into thin slices. In a kadai, heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil, once the oil heats up add 2 teaspoons of methi/fenugreek seeds, 2 dry red chillies, 1/4 teaspoon hing and sliced onions. Sauté the onions for a couple of minutes, add 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon red chilli powder, salt to taste and 2 teaspoon jaggery. Mix well, add the sliced patra once jaggery melts. Stir them couple of times as you allow them to crisp up a little.

Serve garnished with coriander and a lemon slice on the side.

Turiya Patra / Patra in Ridge Gourd Curry

Take 4 long, slender and stiff turiya/ridge gourds. Peel them, taste them to check their bitterness. Discard bitter ridge gourds. In a bowl full of water, cut the gourds in 1 inch batons. In a Kadai or wide mouth saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil. Add 1/2 teaspoon hing/asafoetida. Add the chopped and drained turiya. Stir the turiya well so that they coat with oil. After couple of minutes into the cook, add a ladle full of water (1/3 cup), do not add more water as turiya will release lot of moisture. Now add 1.5 teaspoon ginger+chilli paste and 1/5 teaspoon garlic paste and salt to taste.  Once the turiya are almost cooked add 1 teaspoon sugar and 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander. While the Turiya are cooking slice 2 logs of patra in 3/4 inch slices. Take a broad pan, heat a teaspoon of oil and sauté the patra slices for couple of minutes. Add the sautéed slices to the cooked Turiya. Mix well. Cook for a  minute, add  additional 2 tablespoons of coriander and turn off the flame, cover and let the Turiya-Patra shaak rest for a while. Serve warm with Rotli.