Sweet Banana fry - Sweet from Kerala

This is a traditional sweet from Kerala. It should be served hot.
Ingredients :
Ripe Banana (Nendran banana) - 3
Maida - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Salt - a pinch
Water - as required
Oil - for frying

How to :
- Mix maida, sugar and salt and add enough water to the mixture to form a thick batter.
- Peel ripe bananas and slit them lengthwise once. Cut each into half.
- Dip the banana pieces in batter and deep fry in oil
- Serve hot

Potato stew - Jain style

I prepared this version of Kerala style Vegetable stew for a friend who does not eat onions and garlic. It came out almost as good as the real one with lots of onions.

Ingredients:
Potato, peeled and cut into big pieces - 2 cups
Green chillies, slited - 2
Ginger, peeled and chopped - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 stalk
Coconut milk powder - 1 small packet
Salt - to taste
Coconut oil - 2 tsps

How to:
- Pressure cook potato pieces in 2 cups water, green chillies, ginger and salt.
- When it is done, mash lightly with a spoon
- Mix coconut milk powder in warm water and mix well
- Add the coconut milk to the potato and mix well.
- Simmer the mix on stove and keep stirring till it starts boiling.
- Remove from stove and add the coconut oil. Mix well and serve with Appam, Idiappam or Chapathi.

Soya chunks cutlet

I tried this over the weekend and my family loved it. It goes very well with tomato ketchup.

Ingredients:
Soya nuggets - 1 cup
Potato - boiled and peeled, 1 large
Thawed frozen green peas - 1/2 cup
Grated carrot - 1/4 cup
Chopped Onions - 1/4 cup
Chopped green chillies - 2 tsp
Amchoor powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Chilli powser - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Bread slices - 2

How to make:
- Soak the soya chunks in very hot water for avout 15 minutes. (Keep it covered).
- Drain the water completely and mince in a mixer
- Mash the potato and add to the soya.
- Add all vegetables, salt and masalas
- Dip the bread slices in water and remove quickly. Press the pieces to remove excess water
- Add the bread to the soya and mix everything thoroughly.
- Form cutlets and deep fry in oil
- Serve hot.

Dosa pizza

Kids like this yummy snack :)

Ingredients:
Dosa batter - 1 cup for two small pizzas
Pizza sauce - 2 tablespoon
Capsicum - 1/2 (cut into thin wedges)
Black olives - 4 or 5 (cut into thin rings)
Tomatos - prefereably cherry tomatos, cut into small discs
Cooked Corn kernels - as required
Pizza cheese - as required
Oregano - as required

How to make:
- Keep the dosa tawa on very low heat and when it is slightly warm spread about 2 tablespoons of batter with medium thickness (similar to Oothappam).
- After a few seconds, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce on the dosa when the batter is still not cooked.
- Spread the vegetable pieces and grated cheese on top of the dosa and close the dosa with a lid.
- Keep the stove on very low heat
- Remove the dosa pizza after 5-7 minutes when the pizza cheese has melted.
- Spread oregano on top of the pizza and serve hot

Note: If you don't like the raw taste of capsicum ,you may saute it beforehand.

Aval Moru Kuzhu (Snack from Tamilnadu)

We got the recipe of this yummy snack from Jayashree, another colleague of ours.
Ingredients:
Thick Avalakki - 1 cup
Green chillies - to taste
Thick curd - 1 to 2 cups
Asofotedia, salt - according to taste
Grated coconut - 1 to 2 cups
Coconut oil - 1 table spoon
Mustard - 1 t spoon
How to:
Wash the avalakki thoroughly else the stuff will taste raw.
Soak the avalakki in water for 5 min
Grind all the above things till it becomes like idli batter… Let the batter be thick.
Take coconut oil in a kadai. Spread it around the kadai… add mustard seeds. Once they pop, add the ground mixture and add a few spoon of coconut/gingelly oil on the mixture… Stir the mixture till the mixture stops sticking to the kadai. Pour this mixture on a plate which has oil smeared on it… cut the thing into pieces… Leave it to set for 10 minutes.. And u r done…

Note: the thicker the ground paste is, the earlier the thing cooks. Also pls don’t add thin curd/butter milk. The word "moru" can be misleading :-))

Malabar burfi (Sweet from Karnataka)

A very easy sweet that can be prepared with out any cooking !! We got the recipe from a collegue whose mom-in-law made this for Diwali.
Ingredients:
1 cup ground kaDale poppu (powdered puffed chana dal)
1 cup ground sugar
1 cup ghee
1 cup milk powder

How to:
Mix the above ingredients well and leave it on a plate to set and cut into pieces.

Ottada (Sweet from Kerala)

For batter :
Maida - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 tbsp

For filling :
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Grated Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - a pinch

Banana leaves - 2 or 3
How to :
- Add enough water to maida and form a thick paste. Add sugar to the paste and mix well.
- Mix the coconut, jaggery and cardamom together and keep aside.
- Cut banana leaf into pieces of A4 size paper and warm then on the gas stove for about 2-3 seconds (This is to remove the stiffness of the leaf).
- Spread thinly one tablespoon of batter on one piece of banana leaf and spread about a tbsp of filling on it.
- Fold the leaf into two and put it on a hot tawa for a minute. Turn the leaf when the first side start burning.
- Remove the ada from the leaf after it cools.