Moist Banana Cake

          Climate in the G.C.C has become all the more horrible. The sun is sizzling at degrees above 50 and you could literally fry an egg on the foot path. Taking kids to the park or going for a walk is out of the question. To top it all, there is the lingering episodes of summer colds and fever spiced up with sore throat and tonsillitis. The boys were down with fever and it made dreams of cooling the air with the air conditioner shattered to vapours pieces. Now, where have I heard something like 'between sea and the serpent'? So it was impossible to cook up anything new, nor was I in the mood for experimenting after culinary fads.. The hot weather and temper together with the sickness made me wee bit lax and lethargic. So I thought of posting something I have had in the draft for a long time. Banana cake is something you can rely on when the time is a bit scarce.

         If there is anything which I used to make every weekend, it is the banana cake. There are two reasons. Firstly, it is very quick and easy to whip up the batter and secondly it always helps to use up the over ripe, pitiful looking bananas which dwell on the corner of the kitchen, declined to be eaten by even my banana lover son. So, almost always, the last one or two bananas of the week, ends up as a cake and finally in the tummy of whoever declined to eat those bananas (queer, aint it?). It is one of the cakes, which always came out good for me. The addition of vegetable oil instead of butter makes it all the more moist and soft. It is a bit different from the banana bread, I posted sometime back and uses cinnamon for flavouring instead of nutmeg. You can see that cinnamon and banana blend well for a delicious flavour. Sometimes it takes the simplest ingredients to make a most delicious blend of flavours and here is an example. If you like to have a nutty bite to the cake, feel free to throw in some walnuts or pecans. Here I have left it plain.. just a delicate whiff of banana and cinnamon. Simplicity wins....., I guess :)

Moist Banana Cake

Things you need:


(To make a medium cake enough for 8 to10 persons)

2 cups (260g)all purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups (300g) powdered sugar
1 cup (240ml) veg.oil/canola oil
2 ripe bananas, peeled and smashed
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1.Preheat oven to 180 degreeC (350 degree F) and place rack in center of the oven. Butter a medium cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

2.Peel and mash the bananas in a mortar or in the blender. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon.

3.In a bowl, beat the eggs until frothy (about 1 minute). Gradually add the sugar and beat until the batter is thick and light coloured (abt 3-4 min). Add the oil in a steady stream and then beat in the vanilla extract. Now fold in the flour mixture and mashed bananas with a rubber spatula until just combined.

4.Transfer the batter to the lined baking pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hr at 180 degree C.

5.Remove from oven when done or when a skewer inserted into the center come out with out crumps and let cool on a wire rack. After about 5 to 10 minutes, invert the cake carefully onto the wire wrack and cool completely.

6.Serve sliced with tea or coffee. Enjoy!

This cake goes to Favorite Cake Recipes event at Swathi's Zesty South Indian Kitchen.

Pazham Nirachathu / Stuffed Plantain

                Mom in law had sent a bunch of plantains which grew in the kitchen garden. I was on the eager wait to get them ripe. We ate the first batch, steamed and mixed with coconut milk. It is one of my hubby's childhood favourites. I hadn't decided what to do with the next batch, when my better half suggested, "you haven't prepared Pazham Nirachathu for us yet. Why not try it now?". So it was going to be Pazham Nirachathu, another Malabar Dish which is usually made during Iftars or on special occasions.

               Slitting the plantains and filling them proved to be challenging for me. When I had watched my mom do it, I had thought it to be too easy. But when I filled one slit and moved over to the other, the filling from the previous slit was slipping out. So I made only three slits in the plantain (Some people makes four) and was with  much efforts that I managed to hold everything in place until I covered the slits with the batter and deep fried them. And was really happy with the outcome. It looked like Pazham Nirachathu perfectly made and tasted quite the same... :)

              Pazham Nirachathu is almost similar to Unnakkaya which I had previously posted. But in Unnakkaya, steamed and mashed ripe plantain is used unlike in Pazham Nirachathu which uses the whole plantain as such. So it's easier to prepare Pazham Nirachathu than the other.

Here is the recipe..

Things you need:

2 medium sized ripe plantains
1 Egg
25 g Cashew Nuts, broken to small pieces
25 g Raisins
3 tbsp Sugar
1 tbsp grated coconut
1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
2 tbsp pure Ghee / Clarified Butter
2 tbsp All purpose Flower
1/2 cup of Veg. Oil

Method

1)   Beat the Egg with Sugar and keep aside.
2)   Heat Ghee in a pan and add the Cashews and Raisins and saute until cashews turn brown and raisins are puffed up. Add the grated coconut to this and saute for a couple of minutes. Then add the egg and sugar along with cardamom powder and saute with until the egg is cooked and granulated. Remove from heat and keep aside.
3)   Peel the plantains and make 3 slits on each of them length wise with a knife in such a way that the slits join each other at the center along seed part and stops just before the two ends of plantains.
4)   Now fill these slits with the filling previously prepared taking care not to over stuff them.
5)   Mix the flower with adequate water to form a thick batter. Using this batter seal the slits of the plantains until the filling is not visible.
6)   Heat oil in a wok and carefully fry the filled plantains in it until all sides are equally brown and done.
7)   Take out from the oil and drain on a kitchen tissue. Serve hot by slicing the plantains into small circles. Each circle will have three slits of filling on them.

Sending this to Charitha's A-Appetisers event.

Banana Strawberry Smoothie

                
          I know it is not the time for a cool drink or smoothie. But the weather is not like it used to be over here. December is the month which is supposed to be freaking cold… when your feet and hands would go numb, not knowing if you are holding a hot thing or cold one. It is the time of the year when you dither on doing anything without getting into the sanctity of your sweater or woolen jacket or a fleece around your neck. And a cold smoothie is the last thing you want on earth. But it is not at all as it used to be. No doubt the global warming has its impact on every single place on earth. The weather is actually not cold at all. When the dust wind brought the coldness with it last week storming into our lives, everybody thought it was going to be a flipping cold December. But nay… it went as it came after two days and the winter clothes everybody had enthusiastically purchased still dwells in the remote corner of the closets unable to display their flying colors. Now what shall I describe the climate lately? Well, pleasant… not at all cold, sometimes sunny… sometimes cloudy… anyway far from daunting cold. So why not a slobbering smoothie to refresh you after a hard time with homely chores or when your husband returns home after work…?

Here is the recipe…

Things you need:

Yields three cups

2 ripe bananas, peeled
4 ripe strawberries
4 tbsp sugar
1 cup of milk
1 cup of ice cubes
½ tsp vanilla essence

Preparation:

       Slice the bananas and strawberries into small pieces and blend well in a blender with all the other ingredients until a smooth and thick juice is formed. Pour into glasses. Decorate with sliced strawberries and serve immediately.

Unnakkaya / Kayada (Banana sweet pocket fritters)

              Bananas have always been part of the culinary culture in Kerala.. especially in Malabar. Houses with out a couple of plantain trees were rare in the gone decades and hence there are many out standing Malabar recipes made with ripe as well as raw plantains.. The ripe plantain which is quite different from the various kinds of bananas seen world wide, is used both cooked and uncooked in preparations.. Those who are familiar with Malabar cuisine wouldn't need an introduction to Unnakkaya, the widely popular and delightful delicacy. It has lured a lot of loyal fans to it in the past and still rocks..

              Thinking about banana's nutritional extravaganza, no health nut can ever resist it. More than being a good source of fibres, potassium and vitamin C, it has all the 8 amino acids our body cannot produce itself.. Musing about the yum yum dish, I think I would rather have these amino acids every day even it be in excess ;) I should say my family shares my views.. ditto :)

             The only thing which push me into a dilemma is how to keep the banana adequately ripe for the dish. The recipe needs medium ripe bananas, that is.. with the skin just yellow and a little brown with no traces of green. It should not be over brown or over ripe too. If it is, you are sure to have a cooking disaster. If the banana is adequately ripe for the recipe, it would work like butter.

            When I got bananas with the 'so said' qualifications from the market last day, I had to give it a try immediately or it would go naughty right under my noses... Good thing that US Masala is hosting the Veggie/ Fruit a month event with banana , this time, earlier conducted by Priya.  I think I am luckily on time. So this Malabar delight goes off to the Veggie/Fruit a month event.

                                                      

Things you need:

     Makes 10 Unnakkayas..

3 medium ripe plantains
1     egg
25 g of cashew nuts, sliced into small pieces
25 g of raisins
2 tbsp of grated coconut
4 tbsp of sugar
4 tbsp of pure ghee/clarified butter
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp of cardamom powder
1 cup of vegetable oil

Method:

    Cook the ripe plantains with a little water or by steaming. Drain it properly.  Peel, seed and mash it with a pestle or potato masher until a smooth pulp is formed . Kneed it with hands until dough like with no lumps and keep it aside. Heat ghee in a pan and fry the cashews and raisins until brown.Add the coconut and 1 tbsp of sugar to it and saute in medium heat until the coconut becomes crisp. Remove from heat and keep aside. Beat the egg with the rest of sugar. In another pan heat coconut oil and scramble the eggs in it. Add cardamom powder to it and mix with the cashew raisin filling. Now oil your palm lightly and take a small portion of banana dough, about the size of a lemon and flatten it on your palm. Put a teaspoon of the filling on the middle of it and roll the dough into the shape of unnakkaya as shown in the picture. Smooth it out. Now heat a kadai with vegetable oil and deep fry the Unnakkayas until it turns brown. Drain on a kitchen towel and serve hot or cold.

                                                                                                 

Banana Bread

                  This is one of the first specifically flavoured breads I started experimenting with.The fact that it is too easy to make than any other cakes elevates its fondness among beginners. And you need not wander anywhere out of your kitchen to collect the ingredients. If you have some over ripe bananas which you hesitate to throw out, then just mash them up and add into your cake batter and you have a delicious bread for the afternoon tea which your family is gonna love. I usually use the bright yellow Chiquita bananas . There are many virtues in using it.. like, they are easily available year round and very economical. And you can easily say whether it is adequately ripe or not from the skin colour. The skin tends to turn brown when it is very much ripe..

                The banana bread is thought to be more dry compared to a banana cake but mine turned out to be quite moist and soft.So I am still in doubt whether this is a bread or cake. I came to know that banana bread is a traditional bread of England and started baking with a child like exuberance. But I was also worried if I may be botched. The original recipe had mentioned adding treacle in it. But I baked it without adding treacle as I did not have it handy. The bread was not that dark with out treacle but it had the quintessential flavour of bananas and was incredibly moist. As I was baking it, the endearing fragrance of the cooked banana wafted out into the hall which brought hubby into the kitchen a couple of times. Usually he is unaware of what goes on in the surrounding world, drowned in news browsing in his computer..

                
Coming to the recipe...

Things you need:

125 g butter plus extra for greasing
150 g light soft brown sugar
2 eggs beaten
3 very ripe bananas mashed
250 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

How to:

 Preheat the oven to 180 degree C/ gas mark 4. Grease a 1 kg capacity loaf tin and line the base with parchment paper. Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in colour. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time ,beating well after each addition. Add the mashed bananas to this mixture. Sift the dry ingredients together with a pinch of salt and then fold gently into the banana mixture.( It is important to fold the dry ingredients in gently with a spoon until just incorporated rather than simply stirring) Transfer the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer placed in the middle of cake comes out clean and dry. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve the sliced loaf with peanut butter or whipped cream.