Vegetable Patua

Patua is a dish usally made by steaming/baking the items inside a leaf (like a banana leaf). Macha Patua (Fish) is most popular in Orissa/Bengal. While I had all the vegetables that goes inside a patua, I had no banana leaf to cook it in.

Ok, I didn't even make this dish. My mom made it last week and it was so good that we finished it off right away... Also she made it on a cooktop, but the same can be put in an oven and tastes great too... If you have the vegetables cut, this is an easy dish to put together and can be enjoyed on weekdays too.

Don't you think our authentic dishes are so healthy and easy to put together ? And I wonder why I don't make it often enough ?

Ingredients

1 cup of Eggplant - diced into small pieces
1 cup of cleaned/peeled red potatoes - diced (don't peel it, if you want to save time and some nutrients)
1/4 cup beans cut into small pieces
1/2 cup raw banana - cut into small pieces
1/4 cup raddish cut into small pieces
2-3 cups of fresh spinach - washed, cleaned and cut into large pieces

1 tea spoon Mustard seeds
1/4 tea spoon Cummin seeds
1/4 tea spoon poppy seeds
1-2 green chillies (to taste)
2-3 cloves of garlic (skip if you want it satvic)

Salt to taste
1 table spoon of Mustard Oil for cooking
handful of Badi

How To

Grind the mustard seeds, cummin seeds and poppy seeds with the green chillies and garlic. Add 2-3 table spoon of water and leave it aside for 10-15 min.

Heat a pan. Ad the mustard oil. Once the oil is hot, add all the vegetables and then top off with spinach and pour the mustard paste. Add Salt to taste and cover and let it cook on slow fire for 30-35 min.

After 1/2 hr, check if the vegetables is cooked, if not cook on high heat for few more minutes.

Remove from the fire.

Serve with Fried crushed Badi at the time of serving....

Updated
Here is a link to Sharmila's site who makes awesome Badis and awesome Bengali food. I have never made Badis at home, but mom and mil get me a batch every summer...

As I learnt from my blogger friends, patua is called Paturi in bengal. Ofcourse the fish one is more popular in Orissa and Bengal. The parsis have a similar fish dish called patrani machhi...