Besan Alu Wadi / Gujarati Patra

AluWadi or Patra or Patrado is a roll made of Arum/Colocasia/Taro root leaves.  Since Arum leaves are not available here, I had experimented making rolls with mustard leaves, lettuce leaves and collard greens.  I found Collard Greens taste the best.
Aluchi Wadi in Marathi, Patra in Gujarati and Patrado in Konkani.

Ingredients:

Collard Greens - a bunch

Besan/Gram Flour/Chickpea Flour - 1 cup

Coriander/Dhania Seeds - 1 tbsp

Jaggery or Brown Sugar - 1 tsp

Tamarind Paste - 1 tsp

Red Chilli Powder/Cayenne Pepper - 1 tbsp

Turmeric/Haldi - 1/2 tsp
Semolina/Rava/Sooji - 1/2 cup (optional)

Salt

Oil

How to prepare AluWadi:

• Coarsely grind the coriander seeds.  In a mixing bowl, add gram flour, ground coriander, grated jaggery, tamarind, turmeric, Cayenne pepper and salt.  Mix all the ingredients well and make a paste with water.  The consistency is slightly thicker than pakoda/bhajia batter, not too thin.  You can add 1 tsp white sesame seeds/til in this batter as well.
• For Arum leaves, add more tamarind to avoid itching sensation.  Add Cayenne pepper to suit your taste.

• Wash the leaves well and remove the thick midribs of the leaves.  Wipe the leaves with a clean cloth.  Place a leaf with the lighter green side up and apply the gram flour paste evenly.  Place 4 - 5 leaves, applying paste in a similar way.  Fold the leaves together from all the 4 sides and form a roll.  
• Steam these rolls for about 12 - 15 minutes.
• After the rolls cool, cut the rolls into medium slices and shallow fry the slices in a pan with little oil until crisp.  You can coat the slices in rava/sooji/semolina and deep fry or shallow fry them.

Serve Aluchi Vadi with dal rice or as an appetizer.