Pazham Pori / Ripe Banana Fritters

Pazham Pori/ Ripe Banana Fritters is one of the most common snack in any Kerala household. One of the easiest and yummy snack with a cup of tea or coffee. This snack is made from ripe Nendra variety bananas. The trick to making the best pazham pori is the ripeness of the banana. It should not be too ripe.

You will be surprised to see the variety of dishes prepared with banana in Kerala. The banana plants are put to the maximum use. We use the banana flower, banana stem, the raw banana, the ripe banana and of course the banana leaves (for sadhya and making ada). 

I still have fond memories of my summer vacation in Kerala. We used to get so excited when our flight is about to land in Kerala. The view is amazing. The only thing you can see is lush green landscape. It is so cooling to the eyes and soul. Like coconut trees one thing you will find in common in Kerala are the banana plants. Bananas are something we cannot do without any day. The variety available is amazing.

INGREDIENTS

3 Ripe  Banana (Nendra variety) also called Ethapazham
1 Cup All purpose flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
A small pinch Baking Soda
A small pinch of Salt
1 cup water*
Oli for deep frying

METHOD
Peel the bananas and thinly slice them length wise.
In a bowl mix the dry ingredients together.
Add water and make it into thick batter.
Heat oil in a kadai.
Transfer the sliced bananas into the batter.
Coat the bananas well with the batter.
When the oil is hot (not smoking hot) add in the banana pieces. About 3 at a time.
Fry both sides till golden in colour and using a slotted spoon transfer to a plate layered with kitchen tissue.
Serve hot with tea /coffee.

Tips:
You can cut the banana into 2 and then cut them lengthwise to make smaller fritters. Check the above picture.
For the authentic taste use coconut oil.
* Keep adding water till it is of thick pouring consistency.
Turmeric powder is added just for colour.
While frying, if the bananas stick to each other just separate them with the slotted spoon in the kadai itself.

Kinnathappam / Malabar Style Rice Cake in an Uruli

It is yet another famous tradional dessert famous in the Malabar region. Kinnathappam is served on all major occasions like weddings, house warming, baby shower...the list goes on. 

Kinnathappam is a rice cake cooked in rich coconut milk, enriched with ghee, sweetened with jaggery and spiced up with cardamom. The texture is very soft and the color is deep brown.

'Kinnam' refers to the vessel or plate in which it is transferred to and 'Appam' is the rice cake.

I have always seen people buying it from bakeries and wondered how this soft and tasty appam is prepared and decided to find the traditional way of preparing it. The first reaction I got from all was ''ohh..that is very time consuming and takes a lot of heavy stirring.'' But I was still for it to learn a very authentic dish. Finally I got the recipe and here it is for my dear readers.

Coming to the preparation part it is very tedious but the end result just makes us forget the time taken to prepare this yummy rice cake. It requires a minimum of 3 people just to stir. And since it requires lot of  effort it is usually prepared in bulk. Home prepared kinnthappams stay longer compared to the ones at bakeries. Here are the step by step preparation of Kinnathappam. Enjoy!!

INGREDIENTS

Raw Rice	1 kg
Jaggery	¾  kg light + ¾ kg dark
Chana Dal (Kadala Paripu)	¼ kg
Coconut	5 large
Cardomom	5
Sugar	2 tbsp + 1 cup
Water	7 litre
Ghee	3 tbsp

METHOD

Melt jaggery by adding 200 ml water. Filter it in a sieve to remove impurities. Let it cool.

Cook Chana Dal  with one piece of Jaggery in a pressure cooker. Add water just enough so that it sinks and cook till 1 whistle (half cooked).

Grind the rice to a thin paste form.

Powder the cardamom along with 2 table spoon sugar and remove skin from the mixture.

Grate coconut and sqeeze to remove the first milk(Onnam Paal). Keep aside.

Add 200 ml warm water to the coconut and squeeze to remove the second milk (Randam Paal) and third milk (moonam paal).

Keep a thick bottom vessel/ Uruli ready to start the cooking process.Mix the rice batter, second and third coconut milk, jaggery, remaining water and start stirring on high flame.

This has to be continuously stirred using a long steel spatula. It has to be steel or a heavy duty stirrer as the mixture will thicken as you stir and it will be difficult to stir otherwise.

When the mixture starts thickening (it will take about 2 hours) add the first milk and cardamom powder. Take a small portion and hold it b/w your thumb and index finger, press it and pull. A strand consistency is formed.

After about 15 minutes add ghee to the sides of the vessel. Add the chana dal and mix well.

Add sugar at this stage as per your taste/or you feel the sweetness is not enough.

This is the tradional kinnam. Keep the kinnam/vessel/ any other dish ready

 Keep scrapping off any mixture that sticks to the sides with a knife.

The mixture will start leaving the sides and start wobbling like a jelly and leaving the sides of the Uruli.

By this time keep the Kinnams /Brass vessels/ any dish ready with ghee smeared on it.

The right consistency is when you hold a small portion in between your thumb and index finger and roll, it forms a ball shape without sticking to your fingers.

Remove from fire and quickly transfer it to the vessels and flatten it so that it takes the form of the vessel.

Cool, invert it on a plate, cut and serve.