By Ranita Ray
Medieval Indian scriptures describe elaborate leaf-wrapped cooking techniques. Ni'matnama, a cookbook written by the 15th-century Sultan of Malwa Ghiyath Shah and his son Nasir Shah, has meatball dishes wrapped with lime leaves. In India several dishes are prepared with a leaf encasing. Listed are the top 10 Indian leaf-wrapped dishes.
Kanchipuram idlis are steamed in bauhinia-lined bamboo baskets. Tamil calls this plant Mandharai and Kachnar. Steamed in mandharai leaves, idlis smell and taste different.
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Odia Enduri Pitha is hand-rolled with fresh turmeric leaves containing an outer layer of black gram and rice paste. It's filled with coconut. Turmeric gives Enduri its fragrance.
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Gujrat has patroda or patra for leaf-cooked cuisine. The wrapper leaf is discarded in most leaf-wrapped cooking. In patroda, arbi leaves are consumed.
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Goan Patholi or Patoleo is created from soaked and crushed rice batter. It is steam-cooked in a turmeric leaf. Sometimes these sweet dumplings are wrapped in raw jackfruit leaves.
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Assam celebrates Nangal Dhowa, or washing the plough. This fading custom includes a Tora plant (Alpina). The natives make rice cakes or pitha wrapped in Alpina.
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Gujarati panki is excellent. Ingredients such as rice flour, whipped curd, garlic paste, chilli paste, jeera powder, and asafoetida are blended and marinated before spreading over the banana leaf and cooked.
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Masala-marinated banana leaf-wrapped machcha patropoda is lovely. Ginger, garlic, cumin, mustard, red chilli, fish, salt, green chilli, turmeric, curry leaves, coriander leaves, and mustard oil are used.
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It is a steamed Parsi fish. Banana leaf-wrapped fish is cooked with coconut chutney and other ingredients such as lemon, salt, green chilli, coriander, mint, cumin seeds etc.
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Bengali paturi is leaf-cooked cuisine. Vegetarians have chhana and mocha paturi. This recipe usually uses banana or ash gourd leaves. Chicken, prawns, fish are popular non-vegetarian alternatives.
Kerala's delectable valsan is made of rice flour with coconut and jaggery filling and is steam-cooked in banana leaves. It takes 10–20 minutes to cook.
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