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!

PASSIONFRUIT ORANGE WHOOPIE PIES

There are some fruits that I like to eat and some in the form of drinks. Passionfruit is one such fruit. I liked it only in the juice form,until I baked these chubby pies. Daisy Mummy is our unlimited supplier for passion fruit juice. It's so tasty and addictive. This time when we reached India , we visited her and she sent us home with 2 big bottles full of it. Appans sister , my Mammaie,also served me enough to fuel myself for those days we stayed in Kothamangalam .

One of the first sweet something I ate after reaching America was a whoopie pie.A pumpkin flavoured one from a mall in Virginia.I ordered it for it's name.It called out to me. Jobin bought it for me and I really liked that tiny cross between a cupcake and a cookie. The filling was so delicious that it haunted me every now and then.

Almost 3 years flew past by and now,only after coming to Kannur did I bake a batch at home.It was just too good! The texture is definately cake-y. It shoudn't become crisp like a cookie(well,then where's the difference!).The filling that I've used here is a passionfruit butter/ curd. It's very quick and easy to make. You can sandwich these and store in an airtight container and they will stay good for 3 days.I was afraid if it would get soggy,but it didn't.

So have you all soaked your fruits for the fruit cake yet? I did a while ago and the cakes are now maturing. I love visiting our friends and family this time of the year in Kerala as we are almost always served a fruitcake,to munch on. What do you generally serve your guests at this time of the year?

PASSIONFRUIT ORANGE WHOOPIE PIES
Recipe from Taste.com.au

Ingredients:
100 grams salted butter,softened
1 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoon freshly grated orange rind
1 egg
2 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk

Passionfruit butter:
2 passionfruit
50 g butter,softened
2 eggs,lightly whisked
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Orange icing:
1 1/2 c icing sugar
2-3 teaspoon orange juice

Method: Preheat oven to 180C and line 2 cookie sheets.
In a medium bowl,cream together butter,sugar,orange rind until pale and creamy.Add egg and beat until well combined. Add flour,baking soda and buttermilk in alternate batches and stir until just combined.Spoon level tablespoonful of the batter onto the cookie sheet,5 cms apart leaving room for spreading.Bake for 8-10 mins,turning the sheets halfway to ensure even baking.Bake until puffed and golden.Set aside to cool for 5 mins and then remove from the tray. Repeat with the remaining batter.

For the passionfruit butter,add all the ingredients into a small saucepan and cook on low heat for 5 mins until it boils and thickens.Transfer it to another bowl,cling wrap it and chill for 30 mins.
For the orange icing,mix together the ingredients to form a thick paste.

Sandwich the cooled whoopies with the passionfruit butter and spread some orange icing over it. Icing will set as it cools.

I cannot let go of my favourite month,December without posting atleast one recipe on my blog! That too when I baked something so simple and delicious. Jobin is here with us and we are busy travelling right now,so there won't be much activity here until next year.
Wishing you all my dear readers a very Merry Christmas!

MOIST EGGLESS VANILLA CUPCAKES

I don't usually care for the amount of eggs in a recipe I am about to try because I love eggs,especially hardboiled eggs.When I say hardboiled,it should be perfectly hardboiled.No rubber like yolks for me,please!Okay,now lets get back to the topic. Well,Kannur is not a place where you can get wonderful ingredients for baking.I know it,so Amma and myself stock up really well. But on how on earth will we know that there will be shortage of eggs,especially in a place where there are atleast 3 bakeries on a street!

Well,it happened.Kannur town was out of eggs,for almost a week and that was too long for me to wait,without baking a cake of some sort. Our house is swamped with guests these days,to see our Ian vaava. So we need something,and when I say something,it has to be homemade because Amma & I cannot think of serving  anything storebought to our guests.

The hunt for something eggless started.I found way too many recipes online but only a few grabbed my attention. When I chose this recipe,it reminded me that I had tried out the same a few years ago and found the cake to be very oily.I thought of giving it a second chance and it worked just fine.

I had some buttercream with me,from the movie star's cake,so tinted it pink and used it to decorate the perfect cupcake tops.I usually don't go for such lavish decor on my baked goods for our daily consumption but since it's for the lovely folks who are visiting us,I didn't think twice.

MOIST EGGLESS VANILLA CUPCAKES
Recipe by Nita Mehta as seen on Recipe on Click


Ingredients:
300g all purpose flour
250 ml thick plain yogurt
150-180 g granulated sugar
125 ml oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Method: Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350F. Line your 12- cup cupcake tin.

In a large bowl,beat the yogurt until smooth.Add granulated sugar and beat till dissolved completely.Add baking powder,baking soda and mix to combine.Leave aside for 5 minutes or until frothy.Add oil,vanilla and beat to mix.Spoon in flour little by little and fold it into the batter.Beat with beaters for 30 secs to make the batter smooth and lump free.Pour into tins and bake for 25-30 mins or till done.Cool in the tin for 5 mins,remove and cool completely before frosting.

For the Vanilla Buttercream recipe,click here.

Ritchie loved the frosting and mentioned that he likes cupcakes with eggs better.I found these to be really moist and perfect for eggless days!

A CAKE FOR A MOVIE STAR!

The past few weeks have been excitingly busy with baking classes,cake orders,friends and family calling by & me coming up with another original recipe for a cake.So in between these, I recieved an order for a cake for the newly married movie star,Samvritha Sunil. They wanted a layered chocolate cake with Vanilla buttercream,for the chocoholic star! She celebrated her birthday a day before her wedding day,October 31st to be precise.
So that's the cake,you just saw above :-)

JOBIN'S SPECIAL 3 INGREDIENT COOKIE

Last night as I put Ian vaava to sleep,I felt a sense of achievement.I was able to share something with you on my bloggie's birthday. Around 5 am this morning,I recieved a call from Jobin asking if we had shredded coconut at home. I wondered why and asked him the same.I don't remember what his answer was as I was very sleepy then. As usual when we spoke again this morning, the question popped in my head as to why would he need shredded coconut! The question was repeated and the answer was,'check your email'. And that was one of the best surprises ever! Read on for the surprise!

12 Oct 2012
08:15
Jobin wrote:

Ria’s blog has turned four, given that she has almost no hobby time I thought something should be done to celebrate the four year mark. So I baked a very basic macaroon cookie to keep up the spirit. All I needed was a cup of shredded coconut, a banana and four pieces of dates. Grind them all together, roll it up and bake it for fourteen minutes on each side at two hundred and seventy five degree and let it cool down. It’s a good cookie for coconut lovers and for people who just love to bake. It is a bit crunchy, filling, satisfying and healthy. I hope people try it and enjoy it. My very dear friend Cor shared this with me and I am sure he will be happy to know it’s been put to good use.

Caution : I am a bad "food photographer".

What should I say other than I am so very very happy right now? :-) And yeah, I think the temperature mentioned is in Fahrenheit. This is definately going to be one my bloggies best birthdays!

Thank you so much,Jobin! And Cor, to you too :-)

4 YEARS & A BAKING DEMO (again!)

Hello everyone! It's been so long since we had a chat,right? Well, we are currently holidaying in Kannur and will be here for a while just like last time. Oh yeah! one more thing...my little bloggie just turned FOUR yesterday :-) So with my Babychoo in one hand & a 4 year old blog on the other, I've gathered some courage (again!) to conduct another baking demonstration this year as well! So if you are interested,send me a message via feedback form.

Hope to meet some of you in person :)