Avalum Sharkarum - Beaten Rice with Jaggery

A simple sweetened snack made with beaten rice, jaggery, coconut and ripe plantain.

Ingredients

3 cups - Beaten rice / poha/ Aval
1/2 cup - Freshly grated coconut
3/4 cup - Jaggery syrup
2 pods - Cardamom, powdered
1 - Ripe plantain, chopped to small pieces



Method

1 ) Wet the beaten rice with little water. If you have freshly opened sweet coconut water, use that to wet the beaten rice.

2 ) Mix all the ingredients listed with beaten rice.

Serve as a snack and enjoy this jaggery sweetened Aval.

Peas Peda

From a long time i wanted to try and make peas halwa and today is the day. When i started to make it, i was having doubts, will it taste like a halwa. Now the final taste is more like a milk peda. So i think peas peda will be a proper name.

Ingredients

1 lb - Frozen Sweet peas ( Defrost )
One 12 fl oz can - Evaporated milk
3/4 cup - Mawa powder
10 - Almonds
1 1/2 cup - Sugar
4 - Cardamom, powdered
1/4 to 1/2 cup - Ghee
Pinch of salt

Method

1 ) In a blender, grind peas to a paste. Put almonds in hot water and remove the skin. Chop the almonds a keep aside.
2 ) Heat a heavy bottom pan, add evaporated milk and the peas paste. Mix and stir well. Cook the peas on low heat for 5 minutes. Then add sugar, cardamom powder and mawa powder. Keep stirring till it thickens up.
3 ) Add the chopped almonds, pinch of salt and ghee. Stir till it has thickened and forms like a ball, leaving the sides of the pan.
4 ) Grease a plate with ghee. Transfer the contents to the plate and spread. Once cool you can shape it round or any shape you like.

Serve as a dessert.

What is Mawa or Khoya

Mawa or khoya is a dairy product used in making Indian sweets. Ready made khoya or mawa is available in indian stores. I found mawa powder instead of the solidified milk.

Puran Poli

Puran poli is a sweet, prepared and served as a snack or a dessert in different parts of India for different occasions. Different stuffing's are used in making poli. I came up with a stuffing with Tapioca, coconut, groundnut and jaggery.

Ingredients

For dough

I cup - Whole wheat flour
1 cup - Maida / all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
Water

For stuffing

1 cup - Cooked Tapioca
1/2 cup - Sweetened coconut flakes or grated coconut
1/2 cup - Roasted groundnut powder
1 cup - Jaggery ( thick syrup )
2 - Cardamom , powdered
Ghee or oil

Preparation

1 ) Cook tapioca in water with little turmeric powder. When well cooked drain off all the water. Mash and make a smooth dough. Set aside.

2 ) Roast groundnut lightly and powder it.

Method

1 ) First make the stuffing.

In a utensil, add mashed tapioca, grated coconut, groundnut powder, cardamom powder and jaggery. Mix in all the ingredients well and make small size balls of it, like in the picture below. If the mixture has more liquid content, then add little roasted rice powder to make thick mixture dough.


Secondly make the dough, like chapati dough.

2 ) Add enough water to make dough, by mix all the ingredients listed. Make small balls of the dough equal to the number of stuffing balls.

3 ) Roll the dough and then place a stuffing ball in center, like the picture below.

4 )Wrap and cover the stuffing ball with the dough fully.

5 ) Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, as thin as possible.

6 ) Heat a pan and place the rolled out poli in the pan. Cook on both sides. Smear some ghee or oil on both sides. Take off the pan and serve in a serving plate.

Enjoy this puran poli as a snack.

Check out the recipe at Neivedyam for puran poli with a different stuffing.

Pazham Pori - Ripe Plantain Fritters

This snack is very popular in kerala. Quick and easy to make.

Ingredients

3 - Ripe plantains
1 cup - Rice flour
3 tbsp - Maida / all purpose flour
3 tbsp - Sugar
a pinch or two - Turmeric powder
a pinch - salt
oil to fry

Method

1) Peel the skin off the ripe plantain and cut into two parts. Then cut each part into 3- 4 slices,lengthwise.

2 )Mix rice powder, maida, sugar, turmeric powder and salt. Make a thick batter.

3) Heat oil in a deep frying pan. Dip the sliced plantains in the batter and deep fry till golden brown in colour.

Serve with evening tea.

Variation

With the sliced ripe plantain....Heat ghee or butter in a non-stick pan. Fry the slices on both side till light brown in colour.Drain and place on a serving plate. Sprinkle some sugar on the fried plantains and serve.

Also try pazham pori in slightly different batter. Check the recipe here

Banana Halwa

Nenthra Pazham halwa is prepared used extra ripe plantain. Nenthra Pazham is the malayalam name for ripe plantain. My hometown calicut, is very famous for it's halwas and banana chips. Banana halwa is one of the best halwas to try, when in Calicut...also known as Kozhikode. This is my version of making banana halwa.

Ingredients

3 - Extra ripe plantain
1 cup - Whole milk
1 cup - Sugar or Jaggery syrup
1 - cardamom, powdered
1/2 cup - Ghee ( Clarified butter )
Few cashew nuts to decorate.

Method

1 ) Place the ripe plantains to steam in a steamer.


2 ) Steam till banana is well cooked. You will see, like in the picture below, the skin split from steaming and banana is cooked. Or you can microwave the banana. Cut to 3-4 pieces and place in microwave safe plate and cook till cooked.


3 ) Remove the skin and cut the banana in the center. You will be able to see, black seeds in the center. Remove the seeds and mash the banana well.


4 ) In a heavy bottom pan add milk. When using sugar, add sugar to milk and boil, to melt the sugar. Then add mashed banana, cook till all the milk is used up.Add cardamom powder and mix in. Then add ghee and cook till halwa is leaving the sides of the pan and has browned in color.

5 ) When using jaggery, mix mashed banana and milk and cook till the banana is well mashed up and all the milk is used up. Add Jaggery syrup and cardamom powder. Stir and cook till all the liquid is used up. Add ghee and keep stirring till the banana paste is leaving the sides of the pan and the colour of the paste has turned to a deep brown.

6 ) Grease a plate with ghee and spread the banana halwa on the plate. Apply some ghee on the back of a spoon ( this will help to shape the halwa ) and smooth down the top of the halwa and shape it.

Cut into squares and decorate with roasted cashewnut. Serve when cool.

Pazham Pradhaman

Welcoming 2007 with this sweet treat from kerala.........Pazham Pradhaman !Pazham Pradhaman is cooked with ripe plantains knows as 'nendra pazham', jaggery and coconut milk. Traditionally it is cooked in a vessel called uruli. Cooking in uruli gives a better taste to the pradhaman.

Ingredients

250 gm - Extra ripe plantains
250 gm - Jaggery
1 big whole - Coconut grated (for extracting milk)

For Garnishing

1/4 cup - Coconut chopped into bits
1/4 cup - Cashew nuts
1/2 cup - Ghee ( clarified butter )

Method

1 ) Extract coconut milk three times with the grated coconut, using a blender. 1st extract - 1 cup, 2nd extract - 1 cup, 3rd extract - 1 1/2 cup. Set aside.

2 ) Chop the ripe plantains into 4 parts and steam cook till well cooked. Cool and then peel the skin off. Cut in the center and remove the seeds. Grind with little water to a smooth paste and set aside.

3 ) In little water melt jaggery and make a thick syrup. Strain to remove any impurities and set aside.

4 ) In a heavy bottom pan, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of ghee. Add the ground plantain paste and the jaggery syrup. Cook till it thickens to a Varattiyathu stage.

5 ) Add 3rd extracted milk. Stir and cook till it thickens up. Then add 2nd extracted milk and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the 1st extracted milk and take off the stove


6 ) In a pan fry coconut bits and cashew nuts in ghee till it's a golden brown in colour. Garnish the pradhaman with this.

Serve hot. Personally i like to refrigerate the payasam and have it cold.