At Karavalli, every dish is sourced from its region of origin, and the recipes learnt from mothers and grandmothers. Patrade, a popular Konkani dish, was sourced from Pangal Nayak’s ancestral home in Katpadi near Udupi on the Mangalore coast. Colocasia leaves grow wildly in this region, especially in the monsoon. These leaves are layered with a paste of lentils and spices, rolled, steamed and pan-roasted to make Patrade. It is a great evening snack. Of course, there are numerous variations of it across India.

Serves 8

Cook Time 01h

Plus 3 hours for soaking rice

Ingredients
250 gm rice
50 gm ghee
50 gm red chillies
25 gm coriander seeds
25 gm cumin seeds
20 gm roasted moong dal
20 gm roasted chana dal
20 gm roasted toor dal
20 gm salt
50 ml tamarind pulp
20 colocasia leaves

Preparation
Soak the rice in 2 cups of water for 2-3 hours and drain.
Grind the rice, along with all other ingredients, except the colocasia leaves and ghee, into a thick batter.

Clean the colocasia leaves and remove the thick veins. Place the leaves on a platform with the back facing up.
Spread the batter on one leaf in an even layer and cover it with another leaf. Spread another layer of batter on it. Repeat the process twice.
Fold both ends and roll up the leaves, ensuring no batter oozes out.
Once all the rolls are made, place them in a steamer for about 30 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow the Patrade to cool.
Once cool, cut them into thick slices.

Heat ghee in a pan and fry the Patrade (for about 4 minutes on each side) and serve with extra ghee.

Naren Thimmaiah

Chef Naren Thimmaiah has been the face of Taj Hotels’ iconic Karavalli for over two decades, ensuring that it has a permanent spot among the world’s finest restaurants. His culinary genius has won him and his restaurant multiple prestigious awards. He is popular on television, and serves on the Board of Studies at Christ University and Srinivas University in addition to numerous hotel management institutes. He also advises the food panel of MasterChef India.

source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Food> Taste Test / by Naren Thimmaiah / January 08th, 2020

In her latest book India Through People: 25 Game Changers, Devika Cariapa talks about the people who drove change
“Children are naturally interested in history,” feels writer Devika Cariapa. “Notice how carefully even the youngest of them listens to stories told by a grandmother or elder — particularly lingering on details of how they lived, what they wore, what they did at school and what they ate for lunch! It’s a natural progression then to get young readers interested in stories from history in a factual but fun way. Once they are hooked, it becomes a lifelong interest.” Devika, whose second and latest book for Tulika, India Through People: 25 Game Changers, was released last week, is also an archaeologist.

“The more I worked in archaeology, researching and visiting sites, the more I felt there were wonderful stories there that children would enjoy,” says Devika, over email. And so, when she became a full-time writer, she knew what her first book would be about — India Through Archaeology: Excavating History, is part of Tulika’s India Focus series. Devika explains that the series “will tell the story of India through the lens of different subjects”.

In India Through People…, Devika talks about India’s recent past, that she calls “a century and a half of great, radical changes”. To do so, she has picked 25 people who “helmed that change with great courage and vision”. She explains: “These game changers, all born after 1850, dealt with the challenges of the time and in doing so, not only left an imprint on their particular fields but also forged new paths for the nation.”

Narrowing down on the 25 men and women, however, was not an easy task. “This was probably the most difficult part of doing the book!” she adds. “For every one person included, there were at least two others that we felt could have been featured instead. We chose people from a range of fields and different parts of the country and ensured that those we could not fit in due to constraints of the size of the book were referenced in the timelines attached to each chapter.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books / by Akila Kannadasan / August 20th, 2019