Spinning the wheel

Colocassia pinwheels / Aloo wadi




This is a traditional Maharashtrian recipe considered to be quite a time consuming one.

Sometimes, things that seem very difficult to do aren't so and vice versa. Fortunately, making wheels out of colocasia leaves turned out to be the former.

Last Saturday, as I was doing my weekly vegetable shopping in the market, I spotted the Colocasia leaves. Aloo wadi is probably Colocassia's only claim to fame. Since I had never tried to make it before, I tried to give it a shot. Google was the best bet. Several recipes came up, after going through most of them, I decided to go ahead and do it my way!

It's the technique that matters here more than the ingredients- and hence the pictorial depiction.






These are beautiful, large green leaves with pinkish thick stems. Take about 8 leaves, wash them thoroughly.
Cut off the stems and slice off some of the central thick veins.
Flatten the leaves with rolling pin and keep them upside down.
The paste- Mix in a bowl one cup of gram flour ( besan ), 1/2 cup of rice / wheat flour, 1 tbsp tamarind paste, 1 tbsp sesame seeds, 2 tbsp grated jaggery, 1 tsp of red chilli powder, 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder, 1 tsp of coriander powder / garam masala / 5 spice powder, salt to taste
Add few tspns of water to make a thick paste with the above ingredients.

Coat the back of each leaf with this paste, and place one leaf over the other. Make two stacks of 4 leaves each.

Fold up the bases and tightly roll the stacks from the base towards tip. You may secure the rolls with some twine.


These rolls need to be steamed for about 30-40 minutes until a toothpicked poked in the roll comes out clean.
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If your cooker / steamer is not big enough to carry the whole roll, you may cut them in half and then place it a vessel, the way I did. Keep the vessel in the cooker with water, such that there is no water in the vessel. Remove the whistle from the cooker lid and let it steam

Once cooled, cut the roll into 1/2 inch slices. Garnish with a tempering of mustard seeds, sesame seeds. You may also add finely chopped coriander, and grated coconut to the garnishing.
Serve hot with a slice of lime.
Saffron Trail Tip
This is an extremely healthy snack, rich in iron and protein, and can be made with just one tsp of oil that is required for the garnish !! Took me all of an hour from start to finish including the 35 min of steaming time.