BAKERY STYLE CHICKEN ROLLS

The earliest memories I have of these rolls are from Cochin Bakery, Kannur. It was many years ago when I was in school. That bakery was located in a corner on Fort Road and after a few years, they shut it down. By then, these rolls were everywhere. Somehow, I was never excited to try them after that. I think it was the size and colour that threw me off. They were huge and ugly brown. It was fried sometime early in the day and still lingered in those shelves till they were sold.

I think Amma needs to be blamed for that! We were and still is spoilt with choices at home. Food is always served hot at home and there was a point when my brother wouldn't eat anything other than those right off of the stove! Imagine! He will not eat any snack that was stored in tins but only those which came out piping hot from the oil! He is so much better now, hostel life changes you in so many ways!

I was scrolling through my cousin Priya Chechy's food photographs yesterday and saw these rolls .I don't know where I got the craving for them but it was very strong that I decided to take action right away. I always have poached chicken with me,either in the fridge or in the freezer. So making these were a breeze.Seriously,these are so much better when made at home.They taste so fresh and are unbelievably flavourful!

BAKERY STYLE CHICKEN ROLLS

Ingredients:
Filling
3 cups of poached chicken, shredded
1 large shallot or 8 pearl onions, diced
3 green chilies,chopped
1 inch ginger, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
5 curry leaves,chopped
1 teaspoon vinegar
Oil
Salt & pepper

Wrapper
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 egg
1 1/2 tablespoon sugar
Salt

Coating
3 egg whites,lightly beaten
Fresh breadcrumbs from 6 slices of bread

Method:
Filling: Heat oil and saute all the ingredients from shallots through curry leaves.Once the shallots have softened, add the chicken and mix well to coat. Add the vinegar and saute for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat and check for seasonings.Let it cool.
Wrapper: Mix all the ingredients together,reserve 1/4 cup of the batter and make sixteen 6 inch pancakes using the remaining batter.
Assembly: Divide the filling into 16 and place them over the 16 pancakes,a little lower than the centre of each pancake. Fold them like how you would with a spring roll and seal the edges with the reserved 1/4 cup batter.Dip each roll in egg white and roll them in breadcrumbs. Deep fry them in hot oil ,drain on paper towels and serve with ketchup!

I wasn't very sure if the filling would be Ian friendly but went ahead with it anyway. Ian was fast asleep when I made these rolls and by the time he woke up, I had fried a few for us to enjoy . He was overjoyed to see the deep fried goodies and happily munched on them!
 

UNNAKKAYI / PLANTAIN COTTON PODS

I am pretty sure most of you,Malayali's, would have seen this atleast once in their lifetime. Or am I wrong? If that's the case,you really have to try it. It really is delicious.Since I was brought up in the Malabar region of Kerala, this was a very common snack sent across by our Muslim friends and neigbours.It used to be the snack in my school friend's tiffin box.The later was slightly different from the ones I had tasted before,interms of the filling.

'Unnakkayi ' literally means 'cotton pods'. Have you seen a cotton tree with cotton pods on it? Cotton is called as 'Unnam' therefore cotton pods gets translated into Unnathinte Kaaya / Unnakkayi.

This tea time snack (for us) is always filled with grated coconut,cashewnuts,raisins sauteed in pure ghee.Like how I've mentioned before,this snack has another filling which is made of scambled eggs. Oh! wait! Before you make that funny face,let me tell you ,it's really tasty. I have eaten it many times but we cannot think of making and stuffing that filling into our plantains,so we usually stick onto the coconut one.

When I say plantains here,I am talking about the 'Ethakka'/ 'Nenthrapazham' and not the Puttu-nte pazham. I used to call the 'Ethakka' as banana and the Puttu-nte pazham as plantains until we went to America. Then the light dawned upon me!

UNNAKKAYI /  PLANTAIN COTTON PODS
My own recipe

Ingredients:
2 half ripe plantains (Nentrapazham / Ethakka)
2 tablespoon granulated sugar or as needed
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 tablespoon cashew nuts,chopped
1 tablespoon golden raisins
2 teaspoon ghee
Coconut oil,for frying

Method: Cut the plantains into two,leaving the peel on and steam till cooked and fork tender.Grind them to a smooth paste without adding water.Keep it aside.
In a small pan, melt ghee and fry the nuts to golden.Add the raisins and wait till it has plumped up.Add the coconut and sugar and cook till the sugar melts.Keep aside.
Divide the plantain dough into golf ball sized balls. Smear some oil in your palms and take one such plantain ball. Fatten it and fill it with some coconut mixture.Carefully seal it by pressing the plantain mixture together.Shape them as you saw above.Repeat.
Deep fry in coconut oil. Drain excess oil and serve.

This is best served on a rainy day,like all deep fried goodies! :-)
FYI, I'm a lot more active on my Facebook page these days,where I update our day to day stuffs along with Vaava's photographs.It's much easier than blogging,no cooking involved! :-D So join the bandwagon,if you feel like it!
Happy New Year,everyone!