Manjoldha Eeretha Gatti/Arisina Ele Kadubu/Patholeo

Manjoldha Eeretha Gatti means 'Turmeric Leaf Dumplings', one of a tradional recipe of Mangalore and also my all time favourite recipe. This gatti is prepared during different festivals in Karnataka i.e. Nagrapanchami, Ganesh Festival & Deepavali.  I just wait for ‘Shravan Month’, as per the Hindu calendar this month is highly auspicious and Hindus do observe fast and perform different types of pujas. Therefore, locally grown vegetables like Ladies finger, Cucumber, Drumstick leaves, Bitter gourd, Turmeric Leaf, Plantain leaf etc. are easily available.

Turmeric leaves is very well known for its mesmerizing taste and its unique flavor.  The rice used for making this gatti in Mangalore is ‘Brown Rice’. I used both steam rice/ short rice and brown rice. I remember even my grandmother used to love this recipe. We sisters used to relish whenever amma, or dodama (grandmother) used to cook this.

Ingredients :

For covering :

Turmeric leaf - 12 to 16
Brown Rice - 500 gm.
Steam rice/short rice/sona masoori rice - 250 gm.
Salt as per taste

For stuffing :

Coconut – 1 big
Jaggery - 250 gm (as per taste)
Cardamom - 7 (optional)

Method :

Covering :

Run Brown Rice and Steam Rice under water till the water comes clean. Soak these rice for 4 hours and grind thick, adding less water, if it turns watery it is hard to apply it on the leaf. Add salt as per taste.

Stuffing :

Scrape coconut and jaggery and mix well add powdered cardamom. Jaggery can be increased or decreased as per taste.

Now, clean the leaf well under running water, pat them dry, spread the dough (we call it as bandha in tulu) evenly with hand taking little dough at a time all over the leaf. Spread the jaggery mixture on half part of the leaf leaving a bit of corner all over the sides so jaggery won’t come out when it get melted while cooking. Fold it well on the halfway of the leaf.

Place this gatti in the idli vessel for steaming approximately 20-30 minutes (depends on the size of the vessel).

It tastes very good if served hot with ghee!

Things to be taken care :

While grinding rice add little water at a time so that the dough doesn’t get watery. I grinded this rice in wet grinder.

After folding, I trimmed both the end part of the leaf for two reasons, one being the leaves had to set properly in my small idli vessel ( thondur/steamer) other being trimmed leaf gives fresh aroma while being cooked (one can experience this practically).

These gatti’s should be arranged in such a way that the steam passes through each and every gatti’s while cooking.