Pazham Nirachathu/ Stuffed plantain

Ingredients

Plaintain/ nenthra pazham ( ripe) – 2

Grated coconut – 1/2  cup

Cashewnuts -1 ½ tbs

Sultanas/raisins – 2 tbs

Sugar – 1 -2 tbs

Cardamom seeds  -from 4 pods

Ghee – 1 tbs

Flour/maida – ¼ cup

Water ( as required)

Salt ( a pinch )

Oil

Method

• Peel the plantain and run a knife through to make a slit keeping the end intact.
• In a pan add some ghee and fry cashewnuts and sultanas until cashewnuts have browned and sultanas have plumped. Remove and keep aside.
• Powder cardamom seeds with sugar in a mixie (skip this step if you have cardamom powder  )
• In the same pan add some more ghee and add grated coconut and cardamom sugar. Cook for a minute or so until sugar has melted and coated the coconut well. Mix this well with roasted cashewnuts and sultanas.
• Stuff the plantain with the filling.
• Meanwhile make a  batter with flour, salt and water.
• Seal the gap with the batter.( make sure your batter is thick enough to coat, my batter was little thin so it didn’t coat the plantain well)
• Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the plantains for few minutes flipping the sides until it become golden brown.

Unnakaya/ Unnakai /Kayi ada

Unnakaya is another Malabar special delicacy made with medium ripe plantain which is stuffed with a sweet coconut filling.

This time, it was my 11 year old  who did the stuffing part and I think he did a pretty good job shaping it like unnakayas.

Here goes the recipe

Ingredients ( makes 8 unnakayas)

Medium ripe plantain – 2

Grated coconut – ½ cup

Cashewnut – 1 ½ tbs ( chopped pieces)

Raisins/sultanas – 2 tbs

Sugar – 2 tbs

Cardamom – 5 pods

Ghee -1 tbs

Oil for frying

Method

• Steam cook the plantain for about 8-10 minutes. Do not overcook it, otherwise it becomes too watery and you won’t be able to shape it.
• Peel the skin and slit the banana into half to remove the black seeds inside.
• Mash the banana well without any lumps to form smooth dough.
• Powder 5 cardamom seeds with 2 tbs sugar and keep it aside.
• Add ghee in a pan on medium heat and when it melts add chopped cashews.
•  When it starts to turn light brown, add raisins. Fry it until it plumps up.
• Add grated coconut to it and fry for a minute or so. 
• Add cardamom sugar and cook for few more seconds until sugar melts.Filling is ready.
• Take a lemon sized ball of the mashed banana and flatten it with your palm.
• Place some filling in the middle and seal the edges and shape it like unnakaya.
• Repeat until all the dough is used up. I got 8 unnakayas from two  medium sized plantain.
• In a pan add oil and heat it on a medium flame. When the oil is hot fry the unnakaya in batches by flipping the sides in between until it’s golden brown.                                           

Enjoy !

Kalathappam in non stick pan/ Kannur style Kalathappam

Kalathappam is an extremely popular malabar delicacy. I grew up eating this as my Amma is a bit of a kalathappam expert. She used to make this as one of our afterschool treats and  for all  special occasions. Usually kalthappam is made in an aluminium  pressure cooker but I don’t own one, as all  my cookers are steel. Steel cookers don't work for this, as it burns the bottom. So I had to look for other options.
In 2010,  I posted the recipe of how to make kalathappam  in an oven . You can find that recipe here.This is an alternative way of making it and my Amma gave me confidence as she has tried it in non stick pan many times. So for people who don’t own an aluminium cooker, please go ahead and try it in a good quality  non stick pan. It didn't burn at the bottom and I got the beautiful 'aaru" !

You get judged whether it’s a good kalathappam  by checking whether ‘aaru"  (icicle-like structures) has formed inside. It’s a bit like getting a feet for macarons !

Ingredients

Kaima rice/ Jeerakashala rice/ Biriyani rice or non-starchy rice – 1 cup

Cooked rice – 2 tbs

Cardmamom – 5 small

Shallots ( thinly sliced ) – 5 -6

Coconut slices/Thenga kothu – 2 tbs

Baking soda – ¼ tsp

Salt – pinch

Jaggery – 250 gm

Water – 1 cup

Coconut oil/ghee  – 3 tbs

This is wha t' Aaru " looks like

Method

Soak the biriyani rice for 5-6 hours.

Grind the rice with cardamom seeds and  cooked rice adding ½  cup water into a fine batter.

Meanwhile melt the jaggery with ½ cup water and strain any impurities.

Add the melted jaggery to rice batter and make sure you mix well while adding to avoid cooking the batter.

In a pan add 1 tbs oil and fry the sliced shallots until light brown. Add this to the batter and mix well.

In the same pan, add another tablespoon of oil and fry coconut slices until light brown and  add it to the batter and mix well.

Add a pinch of salt and baking soda and mix well. Batter should be like a thin dosa batter consistency and should be warm to touch ( this is important)

Take a non -stick pan and heat it on medium flame just like you prepare the pan for making dosa.

Add 1 tbs oil and swirl it around.

Pour the warm batter to the pan and  cover. Cook it  on medium flame for a 1 minute.

Reduce the flame and cook it for further 18-20 minutes on low flame.( cooking time may vary depending on the depth of your pan/ gas  flame  etc)

Turn off the flame and let it rest for another 20 -30 minutes. Donot open it. It cooks more in that heat and that’s when the ‘ aaru’/ icicle like structure forms.

Let it cool completely for another 15-20  minutes before cutting.

Enjoy !

Malabar Mutton Biriyani

Every night   just after winding up everything  and just  before hitting bed I get some free time, a nice 1 hour for me and that’s the only time I really get to sit down and do things I like. Even though I always think I should make  the time useful and do a  post here I don’t get into that mood and I rather spend the time watching TV or  trying to finish  a book which I borrowed almost a month back from the library. Some days I just don’t do anything and just spend time in social media and that’s it pretty much it, so until I find motivation, my  blogging is going to take a back seat I guess.

These days more than cooking I find shooting it rather challenging. If it’s a weekend our day usually start very late and by the time lunch / dinner is ready we are usually so hungry so if I take the camera out for taking pictures with a hungry child and hubby, it would be like putting myself into trouble, so to be safe I don’t take that risk !Anyway few weeks back when   I made this  mutton biriyani  I  took some extra effort to take pictures to blog about it. We don’t eat mutton much and hardly buys mutton at home as we tend to avoid red meat as much as we can, so I didn’t have a trusted mutton biriyani recipe with me .That's when I came across this recipe in  Kothiyavunnu and decided to give it a go. It’s an awesome recipe and have made this few times now and every time  it went down as a treat for us  !

Recipe adapted from - Kothiyavunnu

Ingredients

For rice

Biriyani rice/ Jeerakasala rice/ Basmathi rice – 2 cups ( I usually use Jeerakasala rice for all my biriyani's which I bring from Kerala )

Onion – 1 ( thinly sliced)

Water drained from cooked mutton – 2 1/2 cups

Boling water – 1 1/4 cup

Lime juice – 1 tbs

Cinnamon stick – 1

Cardamom – 4 pods

Cloves – 4

Ghee – 1 tbs

Oil – 1 tbs

Salt

For Mutton masala

Mutton – 500 gm

Onion – 4 ( sliced lengthwise)

Tomato – 1

Cinnamon stick – 1 inch thick stick

Cloves – 3

Cardamom pods – 3

Bay leaf – 1

Star anise – 1

Peppercorns- 1 tsp

Green chillies – 15

Ginger – Thumb size piece

Garlic – 4-5 cloves

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Yogurt – ½ cup

Water – 1 cup

Lime juice – 1 tbs

Salt

Ghee – 2 tbs

Oil – 2 tbs

Mint leaves - few

For garnishing

Fried onions- Handful

Cashewnut halves – 2 tbs

Golden raisins – 2 tbs

Ghee – 2 tbs

Coriander leaves

Method

Make a paste of green chillies, ginger and garlic in a mixie and keep it aside.

Marinate the mutton with above paste along with chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, yogurt and whole garam masala and keep it as long as you can(preferably overnight ) or at least for ½ an hour.

In a thick bottomed saucepan/ wok add ghee + oil and sauté the sliced onions until it’s nicely browned.

Add in chopped tomatoes and cook until it’s mushy.

Add the marinated mutton, salt, mint leaves, 1 cup of water and transfer it into a pressure cooker and cook  for 4-5 whistles.

Once the pressure is released drain the 2 1/2 cups of water from mutton and keep it aside.

Cooking Rice

Soak the rice for ½ an hour, drain and keep it aside

In a big pan add oil+ ghee and add the whole garam masala and sauté for a minute.

Add in the sliced onions and sauté until soft.

Add the rice, salt, lime juice and fry the rice for a minute or so.

Add the mutton stock, remaining water and bring it boil.

Cover and cook the rice until done.

Layering

In an oven proof dish spread a layer of rice evenly.

Add mutton masala on top; continue layering until all rice and mutton masala is used up.

Cover the dish tightly with a lid or seal it with maida and dum cook it in a preheated oven of 180 degree C for 15 minutes.

Garnishing

In a small pan add ghee and fry cashewnuts until golden brown and raisins until plump.

Open the biriyani pot and garnish the biriyani with fried onions, cashewnuts, raisins and some chopped coriander leaves.