Taro Leaf Fritters /Arbi Pathe Bajjis

Here is yet another wonderful stuffing for bajjis - Taro leaves - We have had them as patra & bakavadi - but since I started growing these, we have made bajjis and wonderful kootu or curry, used them as dolmades wrapping. All of these are fantastic because taro leaves lend themselves beautifully to any kind of preparation

WARNING - Do not try to eat taro leaves raw unless you are prepared to feel its acidic sting burn through your mouth and throat - the calcium oxalate burns down your throat, esophagus all the way to your stomach - COxalate also causes kidney stones - so please DO NOT EAT THEM RAW!!! My poor and rather unsuspecting husband ended up dashing to the fridge to gargle and send cold water chasing behind it to calm his throat which was visible red and inflamed - I guess this is the plant's defense mechanism. But they become docile tasty thingees when cooked - So please be warned about their raw "bite"  ;p

Bajii mavu is the simplest - if you have this recipe down then you can make bajjis with any veggie/leaf/blossom you fancy - 1:1 of besan (sifted) & rice flour; 1tbsp chili powder of choice; a pinch of asafetida; salt; and 1 cup + 1/4 cup or as much to get the consistency shown in the picture below.  Dip and Drop in hot oil - fry until golden brown; strain with paper towels in colander; serve hot.
You can cut the veggies any how you fancy - that too is the fun part. Enjoy these  - I have 2 other interesting bajjis to blog soon - adios

Batter Consistency

My Son who cut them for me posing for my sake :)

Taro Leaves Dolmades

Every dish from every cuisine has a counterpart in another cuisine – This may be a rather sweeping statement, but it is not too far from the truth. And if they don’t it is easy enough to adapt it to your own cuisine. This is sort of what I did with this recipe. I had these beautiful BIG Taro leaves hitting me in the eye and I knew they were edible and what’s more very tasty too. For those of you who have not tasted taro roots, these have a brown hairy inedible skin and when peeled and roasted can taste a lot like potatoes. Taro roots are used in many different Indian preparations, depending on which part of the country you are from – The roasted south Indian version is best known to me and best liked too. When they are boiled and peeled, they do assume a rather slimy and squishy texture and that to me was not appealing for the longest time and to date I am squeamish about touching these. When we visited Pune a couple of years ago, I saw these teeny tiny kinds that the cook of the house just pinched the skins off without boiling them – She also peeled them before cooking them, an idea I have yet to try. 

But getting back to the leaves, I made a green gravy type dish with it earlier and that tasted amazing. Their mere size lends itself to a wrapped dish of sorts. And ever since we tasted the dolmas in the Middle East, I have loved them, had various not to great versions of them back home in the US. They can be really oily and the rice stuffing always made me feel a bit guilty.  Here I was with the taro leaves (have yet to buy grape leaves) and the remainder of the stuffing from the sweet-beet samosas and I said ... hmm (not rubbing my chin) and this is what resulted from it.

A sensational dish – which you’ve got to try in your own kitchen should you be fortunate enough to come across these leaves.

Ingredients

1 extra large Taro Leaf

Stuffing of your choice (I plan to try other stuffing as well)

For this I used left over sweet potato, beetroots & paneer

Preparation

Wash the leaf – they are like lotus leaves and the water just rolls off them

Cut the stem so you can lay them some what flat

The leaf has wonderful ridges to cut right along them – I made my cuts about 4-5 inches wide tapering down to the main stem, following the ridge.

Place the stuffing in the middle and fold over, there should be enough leaf for a generous fold over and wrap.

Repeat until all the stuffing is used – An extra big leaf allows you at least 6-8 wraps.

Spray the outside with olive oil or

With a brush gently smear some oil over the wraps

Place in your steamer (idli steamers will work too) and cook on medium heat for 12- 15 min.

Indication of a cooked leaf is it will turn dark green and look oily.

Serve by itself or with rice. Enjoy this healthful and delicious dish and make your own versions of it and let me know how they turned out.

Cheers until the next recipe