Sep 30, 2007

Tere Panna GanTi Butti - Colocasia Leaves in Garlic Coconut Sauce

Ganti Butti

Its raining cats and Dogs back home in Puttur, where my family lives. When I call home, my Mom always gives a detailed report of the current news and gossips of the town. From past few weeks she has been complaining how rains and floods are effecting their livelihoods. But all I could think about was about those seasonal goodies that grow in the wet rainy fields, making me extremely nostalgic.

A few months into the rainy season, specialty veggies start growing such as many varieties of Colocasia leaves.
A very well known is the taro or patrade leaves. But there are many other too. They all have a elephant ear shape or a heart shape.
Chitte paan, or a Butterfly leaf has colorful pigment all over the leaf
MaraLva paan, a species that I believe grows on the trees
tere paan, smaller version of patra with thin and smaller leaves,
patrade paan, the taro leaves which are widely available.

Ganti Butti
ganTi butti is a dry dish made with tere paan, the smaller version of patra leaves. ganTi in konkani means knot and butti is a konkani style dry side dish made with coconut sauce with chillies, tamarind and coriander seeds. Since I do not have the luxury of tere pan here, I resorted to taro, the tender patrade leaves.
for the ganTi/knots,
15-20 small and tender taro leaves
few more of tiny garlic cloves

for the paste,
1 cup coconut
5 red chillies, roasted lightly in oil
tamarind, size of key lime/marble
1 tsp coriander seeds
4 medium cloves of garlic,

for the finishing touch
2 tsp coconut oil

Grind the coconut, red chillies, tamarind into a smooth paste. When almost done add coriander seeds and garlic and grind till they completely blended in.

In the meanwhile prepare the ganTi of taro as follows.



Rinse and Clean taro leaves. Pat dry each of the leaves with a clean kitchen towel. With a paring knife remove any thick veins on the reverse of the leaves. Peel the tiny cloves of garlic. If you do not have tiny cloves, then sliver the cloves and make tiny long bits.
Now take one leaf at a time, lie it flat and start rolling from one end. Twist the leaves and tie a knot. Tuck in the ends in the know to make it look like rings. Tuck in a garlic clove into each of the ganTi's.

Pour the coconut paste into a wide skillet, preferably non stick. Add 1 cup of water and bring it to a boil. Add salt. Add the prepared ganTi in a single layer, cover and simmer over a low flame min of 45mins till the leaves are completely cooked.

Drizzle 2 tsp of coconut oil at the end.



If using tere pan then it might cook early. Check in intervals and add water if needed. To make sure the leaves are completely cooked, break a knot with your fingers (do not use spoon or fork), you should not feel the hard fibers, it should be soft and succulent.

A word of caution.
Make sure you cook the leaves at least 45mins to avoid itching of the leaves. All varieties of Colocasia leaves have calcium oxalate crystals in them which causes itchy throat if undercooked. Rather overcook these dishes than under cook. Moreover these leaves are hard to overcook.

26 comments:

musical said...

Fabulous recipe, Manjula! Its really nice that you can atleast get the taro leaves there. Enjoy some on my behalf too :).

Anonymous said...

This is a very new recipe for me Manjula. Never seen this before. We get the leaves sometimes here in Indian store. I have to try this soon.

Rajitha said...

yum..i am getting depressed here as everybody seems to have these leaves on hand except me..damn my indian store :(

Raaga said...

have never heard of this, but it seems so yummy... I will try this next time.

amna said...

looks very lovely. and so creative too!

FH said...

Manjula, great to see you back sweetie. That looks good.Great snack for a rainy day. Enjoy!:)

Anonymous said...

If you use hog plums(ambado) instead of tamarind the dish tastes fantastic. You can also add bamboo shoots.
-Sabitha

Sia said...

after tondeka butti this is my fav one manjula... have u got the recipe for tondekai butti? i have lost my copy some where:)
my mom is busy cooking all the recipes which uses patrode soppu as its pouring bk in puttur and have got bumper crop of patrode leaves:) makes me nostalgic

Anonymous said...

Manjula,
nice presentation. I heard about this dish before... now its in my must try list.
thanks

Unknown said...

hi manjula, nice descriptive blog :)

Manjula said...

Musical, Rajitha, Sia,
If you have a veggie garden try to grow them. In my place taro roots are sold in most of the Indian and Chinese stores year around. Sow a few of them. A friend of mine grew some exclusively for me in her garden.
If you don't get roots in your place, pick a few in you next trip to India or California, these roots are not very perishable, so they stay well in the baggage :)

Sabitha Shenoy,
Yeah, my mom told me to use ambado and tere pan. But no ambado here in California. I am lucky to find patrade pan.
Are they called hog plums?Cute name.

Sia,
tondekai butti..coming soon. I also have some new combo of butti's with the new set of veggies. Will post them all together.

Sharmi said...

hey Manjula, the template looks so beautiful. very nice idea indeed.
your recipe looks awesome too.

Unknown said...

Very unique.

Kumudha said...

This looks so delicious!
So many colocasia leaves recipes on the blogs!

Unknown said...

Hi Manjula...wonderful konkani recipes on your site. I have added your blog as one of my favourite blogs on my webpage. Thank you :)

Unknown said...

Thanks Manjula...

Mansi said...

wow!! th eonly thing I've ever made with colocasia leaves is paatra:) this variation is a must-try!! love the use of garlic int it:)

Anonymous said...

do u have the recipe for sajjige bajil (i dont know if I put it right). But its made from think poha I think.

Manjula said...

Hi Anonymous,
'sajjige bajil' is rava upma served with poha. I have the recipe for 'kadle bajil' that is chana stirfry with poha. You can follow my recipe for
poha from kadle bajil
and serve it with sajjige/upma.

Anonymous said...

hey manjula,am new to the blog world. its amazing to see so much of talent out here. your recipes are simply yum! you have an awesome food blog! keep the good work going!
-A bon vivant
http://chowchroniclesofabonvivant.blogspot.com/

Lakshmi said...

Seeing this for the first time Manjula. I loved the step by step instructions for making ganti.

Sona - quick picks/pick quicks said...

hi Manjula, had a Konghani friend during school days, who too used to bring similar dished for lunch..being not a great fan of green leaves, just was attracted by its looks, but never even bothered to taste it then..how i wish, after seeing ur post, i shud have tasted one then!!,,hey, but we dont get these leaves here in kuwait, have u tried a palak version of it?..will it work?

TBC said...

That sounds delicious! You have explained it so well.

Manjula said...

Kitchen Scientist,
No..Never try this recipe with Spinach. Spinach leaves are more succulent and become soft and mushy on cooking, whereas the Colocasia leaves are very firm and hold their texture even after cooking for 45 mins!! Actually I have never them seen them getting overcooked!

Shilpa of AayisRecipes has tried making patrode with collard leaves(available in US) and have liked them. Collard is slightly bitter in taste though.

Shivapriya said...

One of our family friends are Konkani's and she makes all these delicious dishes. Finally I got to taste them. Tere Panna is sooo yummy, it will be a nice evening snack.

Varsha Prabhu said...

I have an allergy for "pathrode" leaves and makes my tongue itchy. So my mother in law suggested me to use green collard leaves instead of "pathrode paan" and actually this substitue works. i tried it several times . Advantage is that it doesnt itch at all even to people non allergic to "pathrode paan".