Tere Panna GanTi Butti - Colocasia Leaves in Garlic Coconut Sauce

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 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.