Grilled Peanut Butter- Banana(Plantain) Sandwich

Sweet Sandwich ? Definitely not my kind of thing but my kids come up with such crazy ideas and this is born out of them. I was sure am not going to taste this but did make it for them. However after the grilling the cinnamon, ghee and peanut butter wafted out that I could hardly resist my taste buds. Sandwiches to me were always a savory version and I loved it that way. For a change I must admit that this also tastes delicious for a tea time snack, I wouldn't like it for breakfast though.

This sandwich is quite simple to make with minimal ingredients and I have used plantains in this recipe. You can use regular bananas too but here I have to find ways to finish off  plantains and so tried out this sandwich. I have tried many recipes with plantains earlier which are listed below at the end of the post, please check if interested. II have used peanut butter but if you or your kid is allergic to peanuts then try chocolate- almond spread which should work fine too. Am sure you will love it!!

                                                             

Preparation time~ 10 mins

Cooking time ~ 5-7 mins

Author ~ Julie

Serves ~ 6 sandwiches

Ingredients

bread slices 6 

peanut butter 2 tbsp

banana 1 sliced 

unsalted butter 1 tsp + 1 tbsp

brown sugar or white sugar 2 tsp 

cinnamon powder 1/2 tsp

Method

• Heat butter in a pan, add the banana slices. Add in the brown sugar or granulated white sugar and mix well. Wait till the banana slices are carmelized. Finally, add the cinnamon powder and switch off  flame.

• Spread the peanut butter on one slice and then arrange the caramelized banana pieces(I prepared caramelized bananas in two batches and so cut both in different ways, one sliced & one chopped). Close with another slice of bread.

                                           

• Apply butter or ghee on top of the slice and invert on the pan with the buttered side up. Grill the bread and then cut in two diagonally . Pour chocolate sauce on top (optional) and then serve warm.

                                               

                                               

NOTES

* You can use white granulated sugar instead of brown sugar.

* I have used homemade peanut butter and so its a bit chocolaty peanut butter than the color of  the original peanut butter. You can use store peanut butter or use almond chocolate spread or nutella too.

* I have used ghee instead of butter for grilling. You can use whichever you prefer.

* You can use regular dole or robusta bananas to make this sandwich too instead of plantains.

RECIPES THAT I POSTED USING ETHAKKA(NENDRAN PAZHAM )-

*Ethakka (Nendran Pazham)Cutlet

*Nendran Pazham Bonda

*Ethakka Puffs

*Nendran pazham Puttu

*Pazham Pradhaman

*Ela Ada with pazham filling

* Pazham Pori(Ethakka Appam)

* Ethakka(Nendran Pazham) Kumbilappam

Ethakka Kumbilappam | Steamed Plantain Cones

Kumbilappam is a famous treat for Keralites made using vazhana ela or edana ela. The edana or vazhana ela has a special flavour or aroma, and this gets imparted to the appam as it gets steamed. Vazhana ela or Edana Ela is popularly called 'bay leaf' in English. Any regular kumbilappam is made of rice flour, jaggery, grated coconut, but there is always scope for trying this out with different fruits like jackfruit(chakka) or plantain (ethakka). I have already posted the recipe of chakka kumbilappam in my earlier post, please do check.

The making of kumbilappam is not a hard task, but the availability of the leaves to wrap or make cones is a concern. I have these leaves in my home and so get it whenever we go home and freeze them in ziplock covers, stays good more than six months. Thaw and clean the leaves to shape in cones once you take out from freezer. However, the aroma of fresh leaves reduces in the freeze up ones and fresh ones have a unique aroma of its own. These are a guilt free snack that can be made at home, oil free and filling too. This time I tried making these with some nadan ethakka (over ripe plantains) and it really tasted delicious. The dough of kumbilappam should be loose to get soft steamed ones. So don't add more rice flour to make the dough stiff. Also, the ratio of rice flour to plantains should be 1:2 to get the right texture. All loved to snack ethakka kumbilappam with a cup of tea, you can also try these in banana leaves or aluminium foil wraps if there is no scope for fresh leaves. Check the recipe below :) 
                                                         

Watch the YouTube #shorts of this recipe.

Preparation time ~ 15 minutes

Cooking time ~ 20 minutes

Author ~ Julie

Serves ~ 7-8 kumbilappam

Ingredients
ripe plantain / ethakka 3
rice flour / ari podi roasted 1 cup
cumin powder / jeeraka podi 1/2 tsp
cardamom powder / elakka podi 1/2 tsp
jaggery / sharkara 1/3 cup
water 1/4 cup + 1/2 cup
grated coconut 1/2 cup
salt, a good pinch

Watch on YouTube -

Method

• Wash and cut the plantain in half. Steam cook the plantain pieces nicely or steam for 8–9 minutes and then mash the plantains. If seeds are big, remove seeds by scooping it out and mash.
• Melt the jaggery with 1/4 cup water, strain and keep aside.

• In a bowl, add the grated coconut, rice flour, elakka podi (cardamom powder), roasted cumin powder and salt. To this add hot melted strained jaggery syrup. And prepare a dough with mashed plantain. The mix shouldn't be very tight, as the cooked kumbilappam will also turn hard and not soft. Add water (approx. 1/2- 3/4 cup) to make the dough, add as needed. The dough should not be like chapathi dough, much looser than that.
• Check the sweetness of the dough, it should be sweeter than required, then only it will be perfectly sweet when steamed.Steaming reuces the sweetness.
• Prepare the edana ela cones using tooth pick or coconut leaves stem (eerkil). Fill each cone with the prepared mixture and place in a steamer. Steam, cook for 8–10 minutes until done.
• Remove from steamer and serve warm with tea, remove the leaf wrap and enjoy.

NOTES

* Use fully ripe or over ripe plantain for best results.

* Use room temperature water to prepare dough and add as much as required.

* Always use rice flour to plantain in the ratio of 1:2 that is plantains should be more compared to rice flour. Then only kumbilappam will be soft.
* As we are kneading the rice flour not with hot water, it's recommended to add hot strained jaggery to the rice flour and mix.

* Check the sweetness of the dough, it should be sweeter than required, then only it will be perfectly sweet when steamed.Steaming reuces the sweetness.

FEW RECIPES THAT CAN BE MADE USING RIPE PLANTAINS (ETHAKKA)-

* Ethakka Puffs (Sweet Puffs)

* Ela Ada with plantain filling

* Pazham Pori (Ethakka Appam)

* Kaya Pola

* Pazham Cutlet(Ethakka cutlet)

* Unnakaya

* Ethakka Puttu

* Pazham Nirachathu

* Ethakka Bonda

* Pazham Pradhaman

Pazham Pradhaman | Pazham- Macaroni Pradhaman | Macaroni- Plantain Kheer

Its been quite some days since I posted something new. I wasn't feeling like opening up the blog or pinning down any recipes for the past few days after the floods. As you all know Kerala witnessed one of the worst floods in a decade. Still many people are stranded in rescue homes and many have lost homes and their loved ones too. Twelve out of the the fourteen districts of the state were badly affected. Waters gushed near my parents home too luckily stopped by the roads and didn't enter our home. I had never seen waters coming up so high in my home area. Dad was saying he had seen the similar waters once in his life time in his childhood. It was so painful to see people lose homes and many valuable things that they had to leave out and run for life.The fishermen were the biggest heroes who helped people day and night to rescue them to the nearest safe locations without expecting anything in return. I appreciate the new channels for their commendable work to help people by getting the latest updates in each corner of the state and the best part is they removed all ad breaks,continuously focused only on helping the rescue operations. Army, Navy, Air force, Para military, Fire Force and Kerala Police also worked hard at the same time. There were no racial,religious or caste discrimination and each one served humanity at the best possible way.  Its now time to rebuild the state in its glorious form again and let's strive to help each other gain the basic necessities of living once again. I'm sure Kerala will surely come back with its full glory in no time.

Today's recipe was saved in drafts to publish during Onam time but the flood overturned all the planned. This year Onam wasn't celebrated in most of the places and we too didn't celebrate at home. Anyways this is a very delicious and tasty pradhaman(kheer) made with plantains (ethakka) and macaroni. Pazham Pradhaman is one of the sweetest pradhaman(kheer) that I have tasted so far. Plantains or ethakka is used for making this pradhaman. Pazham pradhaman in itself is delicious but I like chewing something in between thick pradhaman. So I added our kids favorite item, macaroni to the delicious payasam. Believe me, there isn't any obvious taste difference. Kids were like amma, this tastes like ada pradhaman. Yes, the plump macaroni soaked in jaggery and coconut milk tastes similar to ada pradhaman. Adding macaroni to this pradhaman is totally upto you as macaroni minus the pradhaman is pazham pradhaman itself, no worries. However, if you like chewing something in between the thick pradhaman then go ahead and add without fail. We totally loved the idea of adding macaroni. And if you live in a place where ada isn't easily available then substitute macaroni for ada pradhaman too,it will be great. The plantains should have black spots to make a tasty payasam, just ripe ones may not be right.

Ingredients
plantains(ethakka) 2 very ripe
macaroni 1/2 cup
jaggery 200 gms
3rd coconut milk (thin)  1 cup
2nd coconut milk 2.5 cups
1st coconut milk 1/2 cup
cardamom powder 1 tsp
chukku podi /dry ginger powder 1/2 tsp
ghee 2tbsp + 1 tsp

for garnish 
cashews 1 tbsp
raisins 1 tbsp
thenga kothu / coconut bits 1 tbsp

Method

• Boil the macaroni in enough water (without adding any salt ) as you normally do for making. Drain the water when its 3/4 th cooked and add a tsp of ghee to it. Mix well and keep aside.
• Peel and cut the plantains lengthwise. Cut out the seed portion of the plantain and then cut the plantain in bite size pieces. Do this step for both plantains ,chop and keep aside.
• Dilute the jaggery in 1/3 cup water over low heat. Strain the impurities and keep aside
• Heat a thick bottomed pan and add ghee(2 tbsp), add in the coconut bits. Fry till lightly wilted, slide in the cashews followed by raisins. Fry till golden brown,drain on a plate and reserve the ghee in the pan.

• In the ghee,add the cut plantains and saute on low heat until its nicely coated. Add the diluted jaggery syrup(about 3/4 th of it), reserve the rest. Saute the plantains in the jaggery mixture till its nicely absorbed.
• To this,add the 3rd coconut milk and bring this to a boil. Let the mixture boil and thicken,it may take about 5-7 minutes on medium flame. By this time the plantains should have nicely cooked,mash with the back of the spoon and add in the 2nd coconut milk. Also add the 3/4 cooked macaroni. Simmer the heat and let it cook slow in the coconut milk mixture. Check the sweetness and add the remaining 1/4 th jaggery syrup which was reserved or leave out if there is enough sweetness. It may take about 20 minutes for the kheer(pradhaman) to thicken and the plantains fully mashed,macaroni well coated with jaggery- coconut milk mix. 

• Finally,add in the cardamom powder and dry ginger powder. Give a quick stir,also slide in the fried cashews,raisins and coconut bits. And the final ingredient in the pradhaman is poured - 1st coconut milk(thanpaal). Mix it well and when you see one or two bubbles popping up, switch off flame. Keepo covered for 10 minutes and serve. Pradhaman tastes best once cooled.

NOTES 
* I have used 3/4 th of a coconut to extract coconut milk. You can check this post here to learn the steps of coconut milk.
* If using canned coconut milk, then add 1/2 cup undiluted as thick coconut milk. Then dilute half cup canned coconut milk with 2 cups water to get 2 nd coconut milk.
* If you aren't interested in making with macaroni, then omit the macaroni steps and proceed with the same steps.
* I used 250 gms of jaggery(weighed on weighing scale) which yielded a very sweet pradhaman and so have mentioned 200 gms of jaggery. But if you have a very sweet tooth then add 250 gms of jaggery. Also, keep in mind that the plantains once cooked also will leave out sweetness which will add to the pradhaman.


For more payasam/ pradhaman /kheer recipes, click here.

Ethakka (Banana / Nendran Pazham) Bonda | Sweet Plantain Balls ~ A Guest Post for Soumya

Soumya and me have been introduced through blogosphere with our similar tastes (food blogging) three years back. Eventually we became good friends over chat, mail and blog posts in this virtual world. She is a very simple and humble person. She has a beautiful family with a cute little daughter. When she wrote to me if I could do a guest post for her, I was more than happy to be part of our space. She gave me the freedom to select a recipe and to let her know about the same. Thanks Soumya for inviting me on your splendid blog- Tuma's Tongue Treats. Her blog has many south Indian delicacies,ice creams,desserts,shakes and sweets. Apple rice, Raspberry Ripple Ice cream, Mangalore Bonda is one unique recipe that I fell in love with. So as far as you all remember my guest posts are always something sweet to share the happiness with some of my dear friends.

Ethakka bonda is similar to potato bonda or sukhiyan  but made with ripe plantains (ethakka). This has a good flavor of ghee with a soft filling inside and a perfect crispy cover. I saw a similar one in a cookery show and was instantly hooked by the idea. However, I made some changes to suit up to my family tastes. Over to Soumya's Tuma's Tongue Treats  for the recipe details and step by step pics, see you all there. Enjoy :)

MORE RECIPES USING ETHAKKA( RIPE PLANTAINS)

SWEET PUFFS

PAZHAM PORI(ETHAKKA APPAM)

ETHAKKA CUTLETS

PLANTAIN PANCAKES

PAZHAM NIRACHATHU

ELA ADA(PLANTAIN FILLING)

KAYA POLA

ETHAKKA PUTTU

Pazham Nirachathu | Stuffed Plantains (Banana) | Ramzan Malabar Special

Its been more than a week since I posted something here.Sorry for the wait,guys. I was quite busy at home so couldn't spare some time here. Though there are many posts in drafts but due to time constraints I was away. Anyways,hope you all are doing good. Eid is just a few days from now and many of you are busy with everyday Iftar preparations,I know. Today's post is a simple snack made from plantains popular in Malabar.  This snack is very simple to make but tastes delicious with the coconut flavors and crunchy bites of nuts and raisins. I make this as a after school snack for kids which they totally enjoy. Please don't forget to click the right side corner of the page for more yummy Ramadan recipes. Do try and let me know the feedback if you haven't tried yet !!

Ingredients
ripe plantains 3
oil 200 ml

for filling 
coconut grated 1/2 cup
raisins 8-10
cashews 6-7 ,break in pieces
cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
sugar 2tbsp
ghee 1tsp

for cover
maida / all purpose flour 1/4 cup
sugar 1tsp
water as needed
turmeric powder a pinch(optional)
salt a pinch

Method

• Heat ghee,fry raisins and cashews.Add grated coconut,cardamom powder and sugar.Stir well. Saute till the moisture is dried.

• In a bowl, add the ingredients listed to make the cover.Mix well,add salt and make a thick batter like dosa. Keep aside.

• Peel the plantains and make a slit just like the way in pic,keep that piece of plantain aside. Remove the seeds  and keep aside. Fill the filling in the slit and cover with the cut out piece or leave the slit out and cover just with the maida batter.

• Next,dip the filled plantains carefully in the batter or just cover the open spaces in the cut out plantains so as to seal the filling and to make sure it doesn't seep out.I have dipped the whole plantains in batter but its totally your choice about how to seal the cover.

• Heat a pan and add oil.When the oil becomes hot,slide in the plantains and fry till golden brown on all sides.I have used very less oil and have turned frequently to get that proper crispy effect.

• Repeat the same step with remaining plantains. Serve warm with tea !!

NOTES
* You can add the cardamom with sugar and powder it.
* Use ripe plantains for preparing this snack.Though semi ripe plantains are preferred, but its tastes better with ripe plantains.

13+ PLANTAIN RECIPES (NENDRAN PAZHAM/ ETHAKKA RECIPES)

These are the ripe plantain recipes(Nendran pazham recipes)  that I have tried. They make a filling after school snack for kids and older age group. Check these out!!

KAYA POLA

ELA ADA 

SWEET PUFFS

PAZHAM PORI

PAZHAM PRADHAMAN

ETHAKKA CUTLET

ETHAKKA PUTTU

ETHAKKA BONDA

ETHAKKA KUMBILAPPAM

PLANTAIN PANCAKES

PAZHAM NIRACHATHU

UNNAKAYA

PAZHAM CHIPS