Easy Goan Patoli Recipe

How to Make Goan Patoli

A Goan patoli is a steamed sweet dumpling made with rice and stuffed with grated coconut and jaggery. Patoleo have the delicious flavour and fragrance of turmeric leaves in which they are wrapped and steamed. It’s an old and traditional Goan sweet made all over Goa. Hindu Goans make it for the Nag Panchami festival. Catholic Goans make it on 15 August. It’s a double celebration for them, as on that day they celebrate the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady and also Independence Day.

My recipe is the quicker version of the traditional one and does not require the soaking and grinding of raw rice. Instead, we use rice flour for preparing the outer covering.

Patoleo or patolis are not just a treat – they’re pure nostalgia for every Goan. If you’ve ever made a trip back home to Goa and craved that familiar fragrance of turmeric leaves wafting through the kitchen, this video is for you! Patoleo are also made in Mangalore and coastal Maharashtra with variations in the stuffing recipe and also in the way the outer covering is prepared.

Interested in some other traditional Goan sweet dishes? Then, you might like to check out my recipes for Goan multigrain goddxem (atol), Dudhiya goddxem made with white bottle gourd or dudhi, classic sheera and Goan sheero, Godd fov (sweet poha), Sweet black-eyed beans, and Goan neoris or karanji.

Ingredients

8 to 10 turmeric leaves

Covering

1 ½ cups rice flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ghee

2 cups boiling hot water, approx.

Stuffing

2 tsp ghee

Chopped cashew nuts (optional)

2 cups grated fresh coconut (just the white part)

½ cup grated palm jaggery

½ cup grated cane jaggery

½ tsp ground cardamom

½ tsp grated nutmeg

Procedure

1. Prepare the stuffing: Heat 2 tsp of ghee on a medium flame. Toast some chopped cashew nuts for a minute or so. (This is an optional step.) Add the grated fresh coconut. Sauté this for a minute. Add in both the kinds of jaggery. (You could also use 1 cup of any one kind of jaggery.) Cook this with constant stirring for around 2 – 3 minutes till all the jaggery melts. Cool this mixture a little and then add in the ground cardamom and grated nutmeg. Mix and allow the stuffing to cool completely.
2. Make the outer cover: Transfer the rice flour to a large bowl. To it, add the salt, and ghee. Then pour in the boiling hot water and mix for a minute. Cover the bowl and set the rice flour mix aside for around 10 minutes. Sprinkle a little water if necessary and then lightly knead the rice flour dough. Let it cool completely.
3. Get the turmeric leaves ready: Wash and wipe them clean. Then cut the two ends (top and bottom) of each leaf. Cut each large leaf into two parts.
4. Make the patoleo: Lightly wet the upper surface of a leaf. Wet your fingers and spread a small portion of the rice flour dough all over the leaf leaving a small border all around the edges of the leaf. The rice paste layer should be neither too thick nor too thin. Spread around two tbsp of the stuffing down the centre of each leaf or on one side of the central line. Fold the leaf and press and seal the edges of the leaf. Prepare all the other patoleo too in this way.
5. Stack the stuffed leaves inside a steamer vessel and steam the patoleo for around 20 minutes. Let them cool a little for around 10 minutes and then spread them out on thalis or plates to cool completely. Peel off the leaves and serve the patoleo just by themselves or with some melted ghee.

Enjoy!