Seodha from Awadhi cuisine is one of the lost treasures of Indian Cuisine.
I read about Seodha in Huffington post and loved it.
Using arbi or colocasia leaves with urid dal or split black lentil Seodha fits perfectly in the current Blogging Marathon theme Protein rich diet.
Seodha from Awadhi Cuisine
Awadhi cuisine is from around Lucknow and is influenced by Mughal and Bhojpuri cuisine. The cooking techniques are similar to Central Asia, Middle East, Kashmiri and Hyderabad cuisine. Awadhi cuisine uses a lot of milk, paneer, khoya and cream and is rich. The Awadhi Dastarkhana had a big spread and the dishes were prepared according to the season.
Coming back to the post in Huffington post the authoress, Nousheen Khan has talked at length about her childhood and the fresh food she has eaten. She wants to rescue these Awadhi dishes from obscurity. She has said, “I remember three dishes, partially because of the taste but also due to the allure of their exotic names—seodha, rikocha and dukhatta.”
I tried and searched for the recipe online and could not find it. So I have followed the recipe as mentioned in the post by Nousheen Khan.
Here is her memory of Seodha,” Out of the three, seodha is perhaps the most back-breaking one. It is a dish whose main ingredients are colocasia leaves (arbi patta) and urad dal. The dal is soaked overnight and ground into a paste. Each arbi leaf is then painstakingly cleared of its multiple veins, some of which are very fine. An expert hand is required for this job else the leaf could tear easily. The urad dal paste is applied on the leaf and another leaf is placed on top of it. This process is repeated for at least four or five leaves. It is then rolled into a tight cylinder shape and horizontally cut into round pieces. Some more of this glutinous urad dal is applied on each side of the cut, round pieces to ensure that the leaves stick together. It is then shallow fried and dropped into delicious onion based gravy. This dish tastes best with rice. It is a wonderful melange of flavours in the mouth—the succulent leaves, the fragrant dal and the curry which expertly balances the dish.”
Now when I started making this I made changes as the arbi leaves need something sour to cut down the itchy oxalate crystals present, so I needed to balance the sour taste. I used tender leaves and hence did not have to do the clearing of veins.
Halfway through the recipe, I realised that I do not have any Awadhi gravy that I can depend on. So I messaged Srivalli and Vaishali, Vaishali rang me up and we spoke the result was this delicious gravy that Vaishali has on her space. My search for the onion gravy talked about in the original recipe is still on. Ping me if you have some recipes.
Seodha from Awadhi Cuisine
Read on to see the changes I made in the arbi leaves Patra as for the gravy I have not made any changes.
The main ingredients for the Alu wadi or Patra here is the arbi leaves, urid dal, tamarind, jaggery.
The main ingredients for the Awadhi gravy are onion, tomatoes, cashew nuts, melon seeds, poppy seeds, milk.
Do try making this delicious recipe I agree it takes time but the result is finger-licking delicious.
Seodha from Awadhi Cuisine
Seodha from Awadhi cuisine
Ingredients
For the Seodha:
- 4 colocasia leaves or arbi leaves
To Grind:
- 250 grams urid dal soaked for 4 hours
- 4 Green chilli
- 8 cloves garlic
- 1 inch Ginger
- Tamarind Lemon sided ball of
- 2 tablespoon red chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon Jaggery
- Salt Lemon sided ball of
For the Gravy:
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 bay leaf or tejpatta
- 2 onion finely chopped
- 5-6 cloves garlic
- 1 inch ginger
- 10-15 Cashew Nuts
- 2 tablespoon melon seeds magaz tari/
- 2 tablespoon poppy seeds
- 6 Tomato pureed
- ¼ teaspoon garam masala
- ½ teaspoon red chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- Salt to Taste
Instructions
To make the Soedha:
- Wash the leaves the water never stays on them. So I will not say dry them just spread them out on a newspaper to dry up.
- Meanwhile grind the ingredients under the label to grind list to a paste. Try and use minimum water.
- Adjust the seasoning and transfer to a bowl big enough to dip your hand.
- Since I used tender leaves I did not need to clear the veins.
- Use the largest leaf and place the leaf on the kitchen platform the vein side up.
- Apply a thin layer of the paste on the leaf.
- Lay another leaf on the batter surface and spread the batter again covering the entire leaf.
- Repeat with the third and fourth leaf.
- Fold the sides of the leaf and the curved edges from the top so that you get a rectangle.
- Now make a tight roll of the leaf. Cover the leaf with the remaining batter from all sides.
- In the pressure cooker, remove the weight or vent and on a metal sieve place a plate upside down now transfer the roll in the cooker and steam for 20 minutes.
- Let it cool completely before slicing the roll.
- Shallow fry the rolls until golden brown on both sides.
- You can eat these rolls as a side dish.
To make the Gravy:
- Heat oil then splutter the cumin seeds add the bay leaf too .
- Add chopped onions and sauté till pink.
- Add ginger garlic paste and sauté till the raw smell goes away.
- Make a fine paste of melon seeds, poppy seeds and cashew nuts. Add this paste and cook for a few minutes.
- Add pureed tomatoes.
- Cook on slow fire till the mixture dried up.
- Add milk and cook till the oil comes up.
- Place the Soedha in the serving bowl add the gravy on top.
- You can garnish the dish with fresh cream and coriander leaves but I was too hungry to anything more.
Vaishali says
Archana , I had been waiting for this dish ! It looks and sounds fabulous . I make these patra the Gujju way , but making it Awadhi is going to be great . I am
glad you liked the gravy recipe .
A must make ! Will be trying it very soon .
Priya Suresh says
Am hearing this dish for the first time Archana, what a beautiful dish, wish i get those colocasia leaves to give a try to this ultimate dish.
Srivalli Jetti says
Wow thats a lovely dish Arch, I love awadhi cuisine, and this is a yummy dish!
Rajani says
So many recipes get lost because of lack of documentation. Glad you are trying a recipe and making a note of it for someone else to try in case
Anlet Prince - Annslittlecorner says
Beautiful recipe. This is very new to me.
Sharmila Kingsly says
I usually make patra .. But cooking it a gravy is simply a nice idea.. Will try this out next time!!
Sowmya says
All I think of when I hear colacosia leaves is pathra. This looks like a beautiful alternative. Love your pics and presentation!
Mayuri Patel says
I love anything with patra... we make a curry with small patra and ridge gourd. This curry looks so so so delicious, back breaking or not its something I would definitely love to try.
Gayathri Kumar says
This so much resembles paatra but except for the filling. I once tasted when Princi brought it for us during the meet and loved it so much. So I am sure I would like this too. Fantastic presentation..
Sapna says
I am yet to explore Awadhi cuisine. The cure looks absolutely lip smacking.
Srividhya Gopalakrishnan says
I fell in love with the Awadhi cuisine and love its history as well. This recipe is awesome with those colacasia leaveas. Great pick and an amazing share.
Preeti says
Love this recipe.. look amazing and very new for me.
Nalini says
This is a new dish to me,sounds interesting.
Kalyani says
what a cracker of a recipe ! great one - and interesting to read that awadhi cuisine was influenced by hyderabadi too ! this is like the maharashtrian paatra in a delicious gravy ! yummmm
PS : bookmarking
ruchi indu says
This recipe is very new to me. Very interesting.. Would like to taste this.
Jagruti says
Tell you the truth, I have not tried any of awadhi recipes. This dish with Patra sounds delicious with rich and nutty flavourful gravy.
ArchanaPotdar says
It is yummy.
Shobha Keshwani says
I had seen it in a TV show too.. amazing how a particular dish is served as a snack in one part of India and as a curry in another..
Looks delicious !
ArchanaPotdar says
True Shobha I think if anything food binds the world together.
Nousheen Khan says
What a delight to discover that you have referred to my article to popularize this recipe. That was the intent to popularize this recipe and glad that you have gone ahead and done this. Many congratulations !
ArchanaPotdar says
OMG! This is such a great surprise! Thanks a lot, Maam and I am so glad you liked it.