A Harvest Festival’s Prize Leaf

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Not to simp for General Mills but GOOD LORD where did these come from? New favorite food product, by a very long shot. (Tell me your current favorite snacky snack in the comments, please.) -Katherine

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A Harvest Festival’s Prize Leaf

By Joanna Lobo

Seasonal monsoons in Goa bring out a variety of greens from backyards to forests, and the most beloved might be turmeric leaves. During the brief period that they come to life, the oblong perennials feature in a number of local dishes, most importantly patoleo (plural; patoli is singular), a Goan sweet made with local ingredients: coconut, red rice, and jaggery or madachem godd (coconut palm sap), mixed together and then steamed, single serving, in the turmeric leaves.

Goa, a small state on India’s west coast, has two major religious communities, Hindus and Catholics, and both make patoleo for festivals. Catholics make it for the Feast of Our Lady of Assumption, sometimes affectionately called Patoleanchem Fest. Hindus make it for Nag Panchami (a day for worshipping snake deities), as well as Ganesh Chaturthi festival. On the second Sunday of the month of fasting that precedes the festival, patoleo are served as naivedya (sweet offering to the god). It is also made on the first day of fasting and offered to Ganesha’s mother. In addition, the leaves alone are used as decoration for the maatt or matoli, a structure of local greens and fruits that surrounds the idol of Ganesh in people’s homes.

To make patoleo, local red rice soaked overnight gets whipped into a paste, laid out on washed turmeric leaves, and filled with a mixture of jaggery and freshly grated coconut, and steamed for a few minutes. The jaggery adds color and a chocolate-like sweetness to the mixture, and turmeric leaves offer fragrance and flavor. 

Patoli doesn’t find its way into restaurants. It’s typically made at home and distributed among family and friends. 

This year I made patoleo for the first time. It was interesting to see how a simple leaf can transform a pile of ingredients. 🥬

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