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.

Arbi leaves smeared in Urid dal and steamed.

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