I have spotted a lot of turmeric leaves in the market ,I was a bit hesitant to buy these thinking what I will make with that. Although I have seen fish recipes done in that, so when I googled I further found that countries like Indonesia and Thailand use turmeric leaf parcels to steam fish and delicate seafood and In Goa, turmeric leaves are used to make a rice dish called Patholi, which is similar to our Ada.
It’s my Amma who insisted to buy that ,to try some recipes that we have had years back when our Orissa neighbour family introduced to us. That’s from her I tasted an Ada that’s made in Turmeric leaf, but her recipe was totally different which I will sure post soon. For this recipe , the Ada preparations is all same as that of the normal Ada. The only difference is that we use turmeric leaf instead of a banana leaf
The aroma of turmeric leaf that releases once the Ada is steamed is heavenly. The Ada also has a light pungent flavor of turmeric.The aroma intensifies as it cooks thus helping the plant’s anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties seep into the food.
Note: Turmeric leaf is abundantly available in places outside Kerala, but its little difficult to find in Kerala , you can definitely check in shops which sell ayurvedic items. Irony, is that we have so many places in Kerala ,where turmeric is cultivated but the leaf is not much available ..
Let’s see how to make it.
| Ingredients | Qty |
| Turmeric leaves | 6-7 leaves |
| rice flour/idiappam flour | 1 cup |
| salt | as needed |
| cumin seeds | a pinch |
| water | 1 and 1/2 cup or more |
| coconut oil | 1 tsp |
| grated coconut | 1/2 cup |
| jaggery | 1/4 cup |
| cardamom/dry ginger/cumin seed powder | as needed * |
Method:
- Boil water , once boiled well add salt and coconut oil.
- Mix together rice flour with cumin seeds and pour the water over this and mix well.
- This has to bit a bit loose ,like how we do for normal Ada.
- Now , in a heavy bottom pan , take jaggery and coconut grated along with 1 tbsp of water.
- mix everything well ,to combine into a dry form.
- Crush cardamom/dry ginger/jeera seeds and add this to the jaggery mix and combine everything and set aside.
- Now , take a turmeric leaf spread some ada base and to which add the filling on one side of it and fold it ( you can fold it the way you wish, vertically /horizontally)
- steam the ada for 10 minutes and serve hot 🙂
Notes:
- You can either add crushed cardamom or crushed dry ginger and cumin .That’s your wish 🙂
- For folding, you can simply fold it end to end or fold it side by side and then closing from two ends ( as we fold a “pothichoru” /rice packet ) prick it using the shoots ( njettu) of the leaf.
- Alternatively, you can simply crush together coconut grated and jaggery finally add the flavoring. For this, scrape the jagegry using a knife.
GOOD WORK
From Pakistan. It is very helpful to understand use of turmaric leaves