I am getting ready for Ramadan which is starting on Monday. While talking with my sister and my cousins last weekend, they all had asked me to share the recipes for some healthy snacks that can be made during Ramadan. Since then, I have been thinking and researching on healthy snacks. Today, I tried making a snack with plantain and dates. Plantain and dates are my favorites, and they both are packed with all good nutrients and are quite healthy too. I mashed the plantain along with dates and coconut, made into a dough. Stuffed the almond into the cutlet and ghee roasted it after coating it with egg and coconut. The aroma that came out while the cutlets were roasting in the ghee was so seducing and the cutlets tasted incredible.

Wishing everyone a Happy Ramadan!!!

Almond Stuffed Plantain Dates Cutlet

Ingredients:

For making dough:

• Plantain, medium ripe- 1
• Dates, pitted- 10 no’s
• Coconut, sweetened flaked or grated- 1/2 cup
• Ground Cardamom- 1/4 tsp

 For coating:

• Egg, beaten-1
• Coconut, sweetened flaked or grated- enough to coat the cutlets

Other ingredients:

• Almonds- 1/cutlet
• Ghee- 1 tbsp/cutlet

Preparation:

1. Plantain for making this should be medium ripe, it shouldn’t be too ripe.
2. Steam boil the plantain till it gets cooked well, let cool down.
3. Mash the plantain along with the dates without any lumps.
4. Add sweetened coconut and ground cardamom to it, combine well and make it into a dough.
5. Make small balls out of the dough, keep aside.
6. Flatten each ball and place an almond on it, close the ball and make into round shape, slightly flatten it between your palms.
7. Beat an egg and place the sweetened coconut on a plate.
8. Dip each cutlet first into the beaten egg and then coat it with sweetened coconut.
9. Place a frying pan over medium heat, use 1 tbsp ghee/cutlet.
10. Let the ghee melt, place the cutlet over the ghee.
11. Lower the heat to medium low and roast the cutlets till both sides turn golden brown in color.
12. If the heat is high coated coconut will get burned, so make sure to keep the heat to medium low.
13. You don’t have to deep fry the cutlet, just pan roast it. If you prefer you could use more ghee to roast it.
14. Serve hot, if you want you could garnish the cutlets with almonds.

Last Saturday, though I got the feeling of dining out I kind of overcame it and decided to give myself a fine dining experience sitting in my own home. I had never thought of stuffing chicken breasts before as I had other things to make with them. When everything sounded unimpressive I finally had to try stuffing the chicken breasts. I had a lot of fun stuffing and baking the chicken, served it over sauteed swiss chard and topped it with ghee roasted plantain. The appealing look of this dish itself made my taste buds go wild and it tasted like a five star restaurant dish. Guess what?  I ended up making a second batch.

Baked Stuffed Chicken Breasts

• Preparation time: less than 15 minutes
• Baking time- 30 minutes

Ingredients:

For stuffing chicken breasts:

• Chicken breasts or thin chicken cutlets- 4 no’s
• Tomato ketchup- 1 tbsp/chicken breast
• Swiss chard or spinach- 1 leaf/chicken breast or a few spinach leaves
• Parmesan cheese, grated- 1 handful/chicken breast
• Ground pepper- 1/8 tsp/chicken breast
• Salt- little

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• If you are using chicken breast, cut it in half vertically to make it thin.
• Sprinkle ground pepper and a pinch of salt over the chicken breast.
• Spread 1 tbsp tomato ketchup over the chicken breast.
• Place swiss chard or spinach over it.
• Top with a handful of parmesan cheese.
• Gently roll the chicken breast, and keep it tight.
• If there is any cheese popping out of the roll, remove it and spread it over the chicken.
• Have a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and greased with cooking spray ready.
• Place the rolled chicken breast with the opening side as the bottom on the baking sheet.
• Bake it in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes, turn on the broiler mode in the oven to high.
• Place the baked chicken breasts in the broiler and broil for 10 more minutes.
• Remove from the oven and keep aside.

For sauteeing swiss chard:

• Swiss chard or spinach- a bunch
• Butter- 1 tbsp
• Red dry whole chilly- 2 no’s
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Parmesan cheese- 2 handfuls

Preparation:

• While the chicken breast is baking, start making this.
• Place a cooking pan over medium heat, add butter and let it melt.
• Add the red dry whole chillies, saute for a second.
• Add swiss chard, cook till it has wilted and starts to get fried.
• Sprinkle ground pepper over it.
• Add parmesan cheese and cook till the cheese melts a bit.
• Remove from the flame.

For making Ghee roasted plantain:

• Ghee- 3-4 tbsp
• Very Ripe Plantain, cut thin- 2 no’s
• Sugar- 2 tbsp

Preparation:

• Heat a non-stick cooking pan over medium heat.
• Use very ripe plantain for making this, the riper the better.
• Peel off  the skin and cut the plantain in half horizontally, now cut each horizontal half longitudinally into thin slices.
• Melt the ghee in the heated pan, place the plantain slices over it.
• Fry it till both the sides start to turn brown.
• Sprinke sugar over it and fry for a minute.
  
• Remove from the pan and keep aside.

How to plate:

• On a clean plate, place some sauteed swiss chard, place 2 stuffed chicken breasts, pour any juice from baking the chicken left on the baking sheet and top it with 3 slices of Ghee roasted plantain.

Tips:

• If you don’t have swiss chard, use spinach instead.
• Don’t exclude parmesan cheese, it gives a really nice aroma and taste to the chicken.
• Topping with ghee roasted plantain is just optional, you could use other fruits like caramelized pears or peaches.

When I look at vegetables or meat, I ponder for a second if I could stuff something into it. Oh ya I love to stuff. Until now, I’ve successfully stuffed collard greens, red peppers, zucchini, banana peppers and whole chicken. If you can create a hollow in the vegetable then you can definitely stuff them with anything you love.

A few weeks ago, I had bought plantain without even knowing that I could stuff them. I was thinking of making steamed plantain cake or sweet plantain or plantain fritters, I had way too many options. Before starting my cooking, I had a brief food talk with my mom over the phone and I told her that I would be making something with plantain for snack that day. She asked me right away: “have you tried stuffing plantain and pan frying it?” I was like Hmm not really, can I stuff that too? Then she started explaining the preparation methods, at the end of the talk I screamed “Thanks mom” and I rushed into my kitchen to stuff the whole plantain.

I made the same stuffing that I use to make Unnakaya or stuffed plantain fry. I then pan fried the stuffed plantain in ghee/oil. The aroma of the ghee along with the stuffing gave a totally different taste to plantain. It was incredibly easy and delicious. This would make a healthy breakfast or a healthy evening snack for both kids and adults.

Not to forget, plantain is packed with all the essential nutrients to keep us healthy and strong. If you haven’t yet tried plantain, make sure you soon start including it in your diet.

Stuffed Whole Plantain:

Ingredients

• Plantain, ripe- 2 no’s or more

For making stuffing:

• Grated coconut- 1 cup
• Cashew nuts or Almonds, chopped- 1/4 cup
• Raisins- 1 handful
• Egg, beaten-1
• Sugar-2tbsp
• Cardamom powder-1tsp
• Ghee or butter-1 tbsp + 1 tbsp for pan frying
• Oil- for pan frying

For pasting:

• All purpose flour- 2 tbsp
• Water- 1/2 tbsp or so to make a thick paste

Preparation:

• Select ripe plantains for making this.
• Remove the skin of the plantain.
• Using a sharp knife, gently make a shallow slit lengthwise on the plantain.
• Carefully remove the black seeds from the inside of the plantain, make sure you rip the plantain apart.
• If it’s hard for you to remove the seeds, it’s no big deal just leave it there.

How to make the stuffing.

• Heat a non-stick cooking pan, add 1 tbsp ghee, add the grated coconut and the sugar and roast it until it turns golden.
• Add cardamom powder to the coconut.
• In the meantime fry cashew nuts and raisins in 1 tbsp ghee.
• Add eggs to the roasted coconut and scramble the eggs.
• Now, add the fried cashew nuts and raisins and mix everything well.
• Stuffing is ready, allow it to cool down.

How to stuff the whole plantain:

• Take about 2-3 tbsp of the stuffing and gently place it into the slit made in the plantain.
• Using your hands, push the stuffing inside the plantain as much as you can.
• In a small bowl, combine all purpose flour and water to make a thick paste.
• Apply this paste along the slit and paste it, apply some over the top of the sealed plantain too.
• Make sure the gap is closed well.
• Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat, add 1 tbsp ghee and little oil, place the stuffed plantain sealed side down on the oil/ghee.
• Let the sealed side of the plantain turn golden brown, the slit will be closed tightly now.
• Using a flat spatula, carefully flip the plantain and let the other side turn golden brown too.
• When done pan frying, transfer on a paper towel.
• Serve warm for breakfast or as an evening snack.

Pazham pori with a cup of hot cardamom tea, even the thought of this makes me nostalgic and cozy. Pazham pori (in malayalam) or Plantain fritter is one of the most famous evening snacks in Kerala. It’s one of the simplest and the humblest snacks as well. As Kerala is the land of plantain, you will come across many plantain dishes while in Kerala. Among those, plantain fritter or pazham pori has been the popular and the favorite snack of almost all the poeple there. This snack is often fried in most of the homes to serve along with tea in the evening.

And yes! Keralites need something to chew on while sipping tea or coffee and this habit hasn’t changed even now. When I visited Kerala couple of months ago, everyday during tea time my mom had made snacks to serve with tea. I haven’t come across even an evening without some snacks being served. Not in just houses, you could see this snack being sold almost every where from small restaurants to fine restaurants. People buying and eating hot pazham pori from road side vendors is a common scene in Kerala. It’s one of the fastest and hot selling snacks in trains; in the cafeterias of hospitals, offices and universities.

I am sharing the recipe for making eggless pazham pori, the fried plantains came out crispy and crunchy.

Pazham Pori

Ingredients:

• Plantains, ripe-2

• All purpose flour- 1/2 cup
• Sugar- 3 tbsp
• Baking soda- 1/2 tsp
• Water- 3/4 cup
• Oil- for frying

Preparation:

• Remove the skin from the plantains, first cut it vertically, then cut it into halves.
• Cut the halved plantain vertically to get two thin slices out of it and keep aside.

• To make the batter: Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and water using your hand to make a thick batter without any lumps.

• Don’t make the batter watery, so make sure to add water little by little.
• Place a frying pan over medium heat and add enough oil for frying.
• Dip the plantain slices into the batter, coat it evenly with the batter.
• After the oil gets hot, add the plantain coated with batter into the oil one by one.
• Don’t crowd the plantains.
• Fry till both the sides turn golden in color.

• Using a slotted spoon, transfer the fried plantains to a plate lined with paper towel.

• Let the oil drain from the fried plantains and serve hot along with tea or coffee.

Tips:

• Make sure to use ripe plantains.
• You could even add 1 egg while making the batter.
• You could even add a pinch of saffron or turmeric powder to the batter give a vibrant yellow color.
• Don’t throw away any leftover batter, using a spoon pour the batter into the oil and fry until it turns golden in color. The fried batter tastes really good.

Good Morning World!  ”I do this everyday, I wake up in the morning and seeing the sun rising up over the horizon, I raise my eyes up into the heaven and Thank God for giving me the privilege to see this day”-Touching words from the person who successfully completed his 100 years of life, you heard me, 100 years. Can you believe this, living for 100 years in this amazing world, that’s a pretty long long lifeline. Obviously, when we see such people the first thing we would like to know would be the secret of their long life. And this was his secret which was really touching and inspiring…

My humble effort in learning to say Good morning in different languages, I thought I would share with my dear readers too.

• Afrikaans (Southern Africa)         Goeie môre
• Arabic (Lebanon)                             Sabah el-khayr
• Bulgarian (Bulgaria)                       Dobro utro
• Czech (Czech Republ                       Dobré ráno
• Dutch (Netherlands)                       Goedemorgen
• French                                                 Bonjour
• Farsi (Pakistan)                               Sobh beh’khayr
• German (Central Europe)              Guten Morgen
• Greek (Greece, Cyprus)                  Kalimera
• Hakka (China, Malaysia)            Zao sin
• Hindi (India, East Asia)              Shubha prabhaat
• Hungarian (Hungary)                 Jó reggelt
• Italian (Cent. Europe, E Africa) Buon giorno
• Japanese (Japan)                           Ohayo
• Kwéyòl (Haiti)                                 Bon maten
• Latin (Vatican, ancient Rome)   Ut vales hatie mane?
• Polish (Poland)                                Dzien dobry
• Russian (Russia)                              Dobroye utro
• Spanish (America, Spain)              Buenos días
• Thai (Thailand)                                 Sawatdi torn chao
• Ukrainian (Ukraine)                        Dobri ranok
• Vietnamese (Vietnam)                     Chào buổi sáng
• Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil)         Bom dia

Finally in my Mother tongue, Malayalam: Suprabhaatham!

Fridays are  always filled with excitement, everyone will be seen cheerful and bouncy. The undebatable reason: today is the last day of the week and knowing that weekend is ahead of us, makes Fridays the best.

On weekdays, my breakfast is mostly limited to cereals, oats or just fruits. So, on weekends I try to make something different and delicious. Here is an easy and healthy breakfast you could whip up real quick on weekends. Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend!

Banana Pancake

Ingredients:

• Plantain or banana, ripe- 2
• Corn flour-2 tbsp
• Sugar- 2tbsp
• Milk- 1 1/2 tbsp
• Cardamom powder-1/4 tsp
• Raisin- 2 tbsp
• Cashew nuts- 1 tbsp
• Ghee or Butter- 2-3 tsp

If someone placed a hidden camera in my house, and watched me secretly, Ok, I know what you are thinking now, don’t think wild, you have no access to my bedroom and restroom, may be just in the living room. One activity you could see me doing is lying on the couch and day dreaming. You could even watch some of my insanities: talking to myself(mostly while cooking as if I am on a cooking show), laughing, even talking to an imaginary figure. Before you all make a statement about me, I would like to make it clear that all these insanities are confined within the walls of my house. Now, don’t even think of hiding a camera anywhere in my house:) Many times my hubby had asked me to whom are you talking to, I will be like ‘to myself ‘ and his reaction would be ‘whatever with his eyes rolling’. He is obviously too sweet to not to label me as mad.

Now you will be starting to think, isn’t this the blog for steamed plantain cake and why is she talking about all these craps. I can explain, I have a point here, since I have revealed some of my insanities, one of which is day dreaming. One daydream that keeps recurring to me is the clip of me strolling among the plantain crops that I would have in my backyard some day. Hailing from kerala, which is the land of plantain crops, could be the reason for my obsession with plantains. Almost all houses there have at least one plantain tree in their backyard. I can never forget the huge plantain crop at my grand parents. Whenever I visited them, one activity I always loved to do was to run/stroll among the plantain crops touching the leaves and looking for the bunch of plantains ready to be harvested. I even helped my grand father in harvesting the plantain, this was one memorable moments for me. I can still feel the joy I had after harvesting the plantain and eating one from the bunch. After the harvest, next thing I did was eagerly waiting for all the dishes my grandma would make out of the plantains. One dish, I wanted immediately was the plantain chips, my grandma would fall for my sugar coated request and she would start frying the chips first. It would start with the chips and followed by the variety of dishes made from the harvested plantain by my sweet grandma.

One such dish from my grandma’s edible palette is steamed plantain cake. This is an authentic Malabar dish which is often served as an evening snack.This recipe has been handed down for 3 generations in my family and now I pass it on to all the food lovers out there. A dish filled with lots of memories and love of my grandma.

Ingredients

• Plantain, ripe-2
• Eggs-4
• Sugar-3 tbsp, or as needed
• Cardamom powder-1/2 tsp
• Raisins- 1 handful
• Cashew nuts-2 handful
• Ghee/butter-2tsp
• Oil- required for frying

For Garnish:

• Raisins, roasted in little ghee/butter-1 handful
• Cashew nuts roasted in little ghee/butter-6

Preparation:

• Cut the plantains lengthwise and slice into small pieces.
• Fry the plantains in oil until golden brown and keep aside on a paper towel.
• Take a large oven proof glass bowl, grease it with 2tsp ghee/butter.
• Combine the eggs, sugar, cardamom powder, raisins, cashew nuts using a whisk .
• Add the fried plantains to the egg mixture.
• Pour the mixture into the bowl.
• Steam cook this mixture for 20-25 minutes or till it has cooked well.

How to steam cook:

• If you don’t have a steamer, don’t worry, follow this method.
• In a large vessel, fill 1/4th of it with water. Cover the bottom of the glass bowl (with the mixture) with aluminum foil.
• Also, cover the top of the glass bowl tightly with aluminum foil.
• Place the glass bowl into the water in the vessel, cover the vessel with its lid. Now turn on the stove to medium flame and steam cook for 20-25 minutes, until the egg has cooked and gets fluffy.
• After it has cooked, remove from the water bath and let it cool down.
• Now run a knife along the side of the cake in the bowl.
• Cover the bowl with a plate and turn it upside down, the cake would nicely fall onto the plate.
• Garnish the cake with roasted raisins and cashew nuts.

Tips:

• Don’t forget to grease the bowl, otherwise the cake would stick to the bottom of the bowl.
• This would make a healthy breakfast to jump start your day.
• Plantain: eggs should be in 1:2 ratio

Whenever I come across plantains, I make sure to buy it to make this dish. I love this dish as much as I love stuffed plantain fry (check for recipe). This is very easy to make and at the same time makes you want more. So when making this dish, make sure you make it generously, otherwise trust me you are going to make this again. This dish is very rich and nutritious, hence good for even kids.

Ingredients:

• Plantains(ripe)-2
• Egg-1
• Sugar-3tbsp
• Raisins-2tsp
• Cashew nuts-3 tsp
• Almonds-2 tsp
• Ghee-3tsp
• oil- for frying

Preparation:

• Cut the plantain vertically and slice it into small pieces.
• Fry the plantain in oil until golden brown and transfer into a paper towel to remove all the excess oil.
• Beat the egg with sugar and keep it aside.
• Roast the raisins, cashew nuts and almonds in 1tsp ghee and keep it  aside.
• In a bowl, mix the fried plantains, egg, roasted raisins and the nuts and mix well.
• In a skillet, add 2tsp ghee, add the mixture to this and saute until the egg gets cooked.
• Serve hot or cold, garnish with more nuts if you want.

Tips:

• You could make more by increasing the quantity of the ingredients. Plantain: Egg ratio is 2:1
• While feeding this to kids, you could mash this dish with wooden fork, hence it would be easy for them to eat and digest.

PS:  I submitted this recipe to LiveSTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow 2009

In Barbara’s (Winos & Foodies) words, “LiveSTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow is my way of supporting the  Lance Armstrong Foundation by raising awareness of cancer issues world wide. It is a way for all food and wine bloggers to share their stories. The happy and the sad, the struggles and the triumphs. If you are lucky and have not be touched by cancer you are still welcome to participate”.

It’s crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside and tastes absolutely delicious…

If you ask me what my favorite evening snack is, without any doubt I would have to say “Unnakaya”. This evening snack is very common and popular in my family. This is also a famous appetizer in Malabar cuisine, which is made with plantain. It is very easy to prepare and tastes absolutely yummy. Plantain is available all year round in my home town, kerala. Hence, this is made often in my house.

The stuffing used for making this itself tastes so good. When fried, the stuffed plantain becomes so crunchy on the outside and very soft on the inside.  Here in the US, whenever I find the right plantain for making this, I grab them immediately

Unnakaya or Stuffed Plantain Fry

Ingredients:

• Plantain- 2 nos ( try to get the right plantain for this recipe, not too ripe and not too raw)

For making the stuffing:

• Grated coconut- 1 cup
• Cashew nuts or Almonds, chopped- 1/4 cup
• Raisins- 1 handful
• Egg, beaten-1
• Sugar-2tbsp
• Cardamom powder-1tsp
• Ghee or butter-2tbsp

Preparation of Plantain dough:

• For making this, the plantain should not be too ripe or too raw, it should be some what in the middle.
• Steam cook the plantain.
• When it’s cooked well, let it cool down,
• Remove the skin, cut the plantain into two halves and remove the black seeds from it.
• Mash the plantain using potato masher or with wooden spoon, there shouldn’t be any lumps.
• Make into a soft dough and make small balls out of the dough( just like making chapattis).
• If the dough is too watery, add enough rice flour to make it thick, the end result should be a soft dough.
• Grease the palm of your hands with ghee and make the balls into disc shapes, keep it aside to fill the stuffing.

How to make the stuffing.

• Heat a non-stick cooking pan, add 1 tbsp ghee, add the grated coconut and the sugar and roast it until it turns golden.
• Add cardamom powder to the coconut.
• In the meantime fry cashew nuts and raisins in 1 tbsp ghee.
• Add eggs to the roasted coconut and scramble the eggs.
• Now, add the fried cashew nuts and raisins and mix everything well.
• Stuffing is ready, allow it to cool down.
• Place 1-2 tsp of stuffing on the disc shaped plantain dough, the dough is very soft so its very easy to paste them and make into an oval or round shape. 
• Or use little water to paste the ends.
• Fry the stuffed plantain in oil (add sufficient oil for deep frying) until it turns golden brown.
• Serve it on a platter and enjoy this crunchy soft appetizer.

Tips:

• For hardcore veggies: You could make the stuffing without the eggs, it tastes yummy.