Banana Bread

The first Sunday of every February, United States selects a new Pope. They shift the Vatican to a stadium, build up some holy smoke, chant, sing hymns, worship and reinforce the only religion they truly believe in -- American Football and the event is the great Super Bowl. In between they watch the most expensive commercials, true to the American capitalism and eat lot and lot of food, like any festival on earth.

We too had a SuperBowl party, though I dont know or I dont care to know heads or tails. I am only bothered about the food. I made BananaBread as a snack dessert amongst many other things.

This is the super moist super delicious bread (or is it a cake) I have ever eaten or made. My guests kept on asking me whether it is a cake. It is not a cake, but then again cake it is with the texture and taste. I am bowled over. Super bowled over!

I got this recipe from Betty Crocker website and true to what was written on there, it was all that and much more.

(Recipe slightly modified)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
4 mashed very ripe bananas
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used Danon)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur's)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped almonds
1 tsp powdered cardamom seeds

Mix the butter and sugar until it is fluffy. Add the eggs and beat it well into the mixture. Add bananas, yogurt, vanilla. Mix it well. Then add flour, baking soda, salt and just stir in the ingredients. Add almonds and mix slowly. One important thing I learned about baking is after you add flour, do not beat it. Just stir and mix slowly. This makes very soft breads and cakes.

I used a spring foam pan. Grease the pan with butter. Pour in the batter and bake in a preheated oven in 350 degrees for around 1 hour or until a tooth pick inserted comes in clean.



Take from oven and wait for two hours before you slice it.

Idiyappam

Try telling the people in Tamil Nadu, that their staple food iddlis are not theirs but imported from Indonesia. Kakka Kakka, a Tamil film, which I loved, for the major part because of Surya ;) has an amusing scene. In that while the villain is questioning the lady, the co-villain interrupts the main one and asks, "anne pasikkathu, iddli saappittu varenne?" (Brother, I am hungry, can I go and eat some iddlis).

At such a tense moment, I burst out laughing. The dialog was so natural, accurately tamilian, cleverly put into the whole scene, it was amusingly ticklish. Iddlis are taken for granted in Tamil culture.

This post is not about iddlis, but about the stringy idiyappoms. Though as usual like we are proud of everything Malayalee, we are proud of Kerala's 'own' idiyappom too. Now tell that to the Konkanis, the Srilankans (it is called Indiappa....hmm...), the Malaysians etc. These food delicacies have legs, I say. They travel, roam the World, get stuck in various forms and shapes, in various cuisines and in hearts, we defend it as our own.

Idiyappam or String hoppers is a plain rice noodle made fresh. You can use double boiled rice or parboiled or raw.

Roast any rice flour in low flame, stirring constantly until it is just warm to touch. Boil water , add salt and add slowly to this rice in very low heat until it takes on the texture of wet clay. You are going to play with these.

Idiyappam press is similar to a cookie press, but it has an additional filter that will have very tiny holes. Make small balls and press the flour out to a steamer or your idli steamer.
At our home, we add fresh grated coconut between the layers of an idiyappam. First layer of strings, a little bit of coconut, second layer of strings, then a little bit of coconut.

Steam for around 10 minutes like idlis. You dont separate the strings as in a noodle, it is like rice steamed cake, with the texture of strings. Egg curry is a complimentary accompaniment with this breakfast dish.

Tale of Puttu and two events

I didn’t like puttu...oops! I uttered that word…that’s like a food crime in Kerala. Can you imagine an American saying ‘I don’t like cheese’?

What cheese is to America is what puttu is to a Malayalee. If you can read Malayalam, go to this blog specially made for all puttu fans. So you know how crazy Kerala is about puttu, especially since it is Kerala’s own simple and easy breakfast. I disliked puttu before marriage since what I tasted was always hard and chewy.

Since God is funny, my husband loves puttu! He loves to eat it 24/7. No kidding, but puttu enjoys a more important place in our house than yours truly. I think Malayalee wives can understand that plight of mine.

Now, for puttu you need a puttu-maker or at least a pressure cooker and a chiratta (coconut shell). To complicate things, there is even a Bamboo Puttu Maker:). There are many puttu recipes from fellow Malayalee bloggers like RP, Priya, Reshma and a lovely pictorial link from RP's blog.

But how will someone without all these gadgets make the simple puttu?

Puttu is just the simple process of steaming roasted rice. Yes, you don’t need a complicated puttu-maker, but just a close weaved strainer and a pot that would fit the strainer without leaving any gaps for the steam to escape, just like a steamer basket. It would be good to have a lid which fits the vessel with a hole on the lid for the steam to escape. Now, if you don’t have a lid also, fine, just close with aluminum foil and punch a small hole.

Now you can buy puttu flour at stores. But Ah! You don’t get the real flavour of freshly ground rice with that. This is an entry for For the Love of Rice and I wanted to make it from scratch, yes precisely for the love of rice. (If planning to buy puttu flour from stores, precisely look for 'Puttu Podi' or 'Puttu Flour')

Soak 1 cup of raw rice overnight. Strain the rice next day. Dry the rice completely on a flat tray with a paper towel on the try.drying soaked rice
When the rice is completely dry, dry roast it on low flame for 10 or 15 minutes. The rice should NOT turn brown nor it should change it’s color. It should be roasted until the rice becomes very brittle, that’s all.ground rice
Grind it in your clean spice grinder. You don’t grind it fine like ‘All Purpose Flour’ for puttu. A fine sooji like texture is also okay. Store them. This will store good for one week or so.This ground flour from one cup of rice will make puttu for 4 people.

The next part is to wet the flour. Add salt to the flour. Wet flour should have a texture of wet sand. But it should flow smoothly if you take the flour and drop it. To make this texture, Mix hot water into the flour. Try adding only 1 table spoon of hot water each time until the texture becomes like wet sand. You will get a fantastic aroma, when you wet the flour from freshly ground flour. Keep aside for 10 minutes.wet puttu flour before steaming
Now we are going to make puttu. When buying or selecting the strainer keep in mind that, grated coconut should not fall off from the strainer. Take ¼ cup of fresh grated coconut and spread it on the strainer like a base. Now add wet flour on top of the coconut. Then add ¼ cup of coconut.using strainer instead of puttu gadgetssteaming puttu with close lid
Steam this with closed lid. Make sure the steam doesn’t escape. Cover with kitchen towel on the sides if your strainer doesn’t fit properly. Steam this for 15 minutes. Make sure the strainer bottom doesn’t touch the water in the pot.After 15 minutes of steaming, open lid and take off from heat and flip the strainer with the puttu on to a plate.Serve with bananas, boiled plantains, papad, boiled moong dal, kadala curry or anything you can imagine. I like it with some Fish Curry.

You can add cardamom powder or cumin powder to the puttu flour before steaming to make it aromatic.

I think someone named Ann posted a comment asking me, whether we can make puttu without coconut. Of course! It is upto you. The layering of puttu is protein – carbs – protein - carbs. So instead of coconut, add beans or meat any other protein you would like to add. Anything which you want to steam. I have never tried it, but have heard people trying it. So do at your own risk ;-)

Though innocuous to look at, puttu is a very heavy breakfast. So eat only half the quantity of what you think you can eat.Now what other entry is good for lovely Nandita’s Breakfast Event, than some God’s own puttu?

Plantain Boiled or Steamed (Nenthrakka / Pazham puzhungiyathu)

I had a shower of guests over the Memorial Day weekend. I love the long weekend concept in U.S, where all the holidays are 'intelligently' designed to fall on either a Monday or Friday. So you get 3 straight days to leisurely rest, sleep... Oh-ho! I spoke too fast, I guess. I am now more tired than the normal working weekdays.

Guests staying at home definitely mean quick snacks since everybody is tired from the shopping, small local trips,talking endlessly etc.One of the many quick snacks I misunderstood, is the simple delicious boiled ripe plantains

I never understood why people boiled an already ripe plantain. The very few times I tasted them, I never liked them any better than having a ripe plantain (I think, they were not done right). But my husband loves it! He would buy plantains from the shop and would ask me to boil it. I would roll my eyes and ask him to eat it just plain. He wouldn't and I ended up eating them plain.

So, I had to 'learn' to boil them. And now I just love it. I think this is a very typical Kerala preparation. I am now a little scared to write traditional Kerala preparation, since these blogging days, I am amused to find so many 'traditional ' recipes done the same way in lot of other places too :)

Plantain is rich in fiber and potassium than her other banana cousins. Plantain is Nenthrakka in Malayalam.

Recipe for Pazham puzhungiyathuRipe Plantain - There are certain things you should keep in mind when you choose to boil them. The skin should be yellow in color and no black spots (means it is getting over-ripe). It should be firm and not soft to touch. Buy semi-ripe plantains and as soon as they turn a complete yellow, you can boil them.Cut off the two ends and cut into two inch round pieces. Steam them in a steamer basket for 10 minutes or until the yellow skin turns to dark. When steamed, plantains become more digestible (excellent for kids) and the sweetness is enhanced to higher proportions. The plantains we get here at my place, almost tastes like honey when boiled or steamed.If the plantains are a little on the unripe side, they will turn hard when boiling or steaming. So make sure they are ripe but firm.It can be served as a quick evening snack with tea, or as breakfast with puttu. Some sprinkle grated coconut on them. This is my entry for Meena's Picnic

Art of Paalappam (Milk Pancake?)

To me, making a perfect paalappam always was/is an art. The cook pours a ladle full of batter and then rotates the pan and makes a mini flying saucer, tiny aliens of the food world can travel on. The speed, with which this is done, looks like a mini hand acrobat.

However, attempts after attempts never gave me that perfect lazy saucer appam. I tried changing pans, changing flour; changing yeast and what not. Even wore a lucky charm.

Then, I would call up a friend to crib about how my appam flopped, and before beginning the cribbing session would casually ask, “How are you? What are you doing?”. She would answer, “Oh, I am eating paalappam and this time it came better than all times!” Clunk! I hate her.

But Ah! Now it is my turn! Any one with lousy paalappam can call me up and I can talk forever about my lacy paalappams. I have learned the art and now those tiny little aliens can travel safely!

Recipe for Paalappam made with yeast

1½ cups of Raw Rice soaked for 8 hours. Grind together soaked rice, 1/2 cup grated coconut to a smooth thick batter with minimal water.Cook ¼ cup raw rice powder with 1 cup water to a thick paste.pic of rice powder paste

In 5 tsp warm water (not hot, just warm), add 1 tsp sugar, mix and then add ¼ tsp (heaped) yeast and mix well and keep aside undisturbed in a warm place until it rises. (Usually for 10 minutes). If the yeast doesn’t rise, then there is no point in continuing. If the yeast rises, thick froth will appear on the surface of the sugar dissolved warm water.

Mix ground raw rice, thick paste (cooled down to normal temperature), yeast mixture and mix thoroughly. The batter should be thick-thick. Add 2 tsp of sugar also and mix again and keep aside.a pic of the batter

Remember to keep the batter in a vessel 6 times the original volume. Yeast is very naughty; it will spill your mixture otherwise.

Okay, after say 8 or 10 hours, it is time for some acrobatics. The batter will be double in volume.

You need an appam pan. You get nonstick pans. I have an iron one which makes perfect saucer shapes.Now, below is a pic of my cute sprayer. I got it from Bed Bath and Beyond.Use gingelly oil which is good for iron pans. I fill this sprayer and use it on my dosa and appam pans.
Very Very handy! (A good buy for India trip). Back home, we use small pieces of coconut husk dipped in oil to rub on the appam pan surface.

For iron pans, spray the pan with gingelly oil the previous night and keep, if you are going to make appam next day morning. This will prevent it from any sticky issues.

Now when you are ready to make appams, heat the pan, spray it with gingelly oil, the surface should completely be sprayed. Make sure your ladle will fit ¼ cup of the batter for pouring.

The batter you prepared might be thick. Add milk (plain milk) to make the batter for thinner consistency, like the dosa batter. Add salt.The batter should flow easily from the ladle and you should be able to rotate the pan with the batter.

Heat the appam pan, spray the appam pan with oil, when the oil starts to smoke, make the flame to medium, hold one end of the pan’s ear, and pour a ladle full of batter in to the middle of the pan.a pic of batter spread completely inside the pan, immediately after pouring

Immediately hold the other end of the pan’s ear and rotate and make the batter spread completely on the inner surface of the pan. This is done in rotating the pan clockwise or anti-clockwise in a 45 degree angle.a pic of appam covered for cooking
The trick is the middle portion of the appam will be thicker and the sides will be thinner, thus forming the saucer shape.a pic of the saucer shape appam

Now cover and cook, until you see the sides the appam detach from the pan or turns crispy. Sugar makes the appam brown on the sides. But don't add, more sugar since it might make the appam stick to the pan. Keep a kitchen cloth near so that you can hold the ears of the pan quickly after pouring the batter. Make sure you hold one ear of the pan before pouring the batter so that you wont lose time.Appam is ready. Serve it with any type of gravy you like. I served it with egg curry. Egg curry is a favorite combination for paalappam.

In the mornings, you know your train has reached some station in Kerala, when you hear the vendors calling out “appam..muttee.. appam…muttee” meaning “appam…egg curry”.

Oh! I miss those train journeys. Holding a 10 rupee note and waving at them to buy the “appam muttee” packed in sautéed banana leaves and some old malayalam newspaper.