Ada

The most tempting kerala dish mostly in sweet form. It's welcoming smell of rice flour,  jaggery,   coconut everything makes it purely ethnic dish of kerala.  It's very nutritious too.
Its cooked in steam. It's an apt snack with tea.  It can also be consider as a breakfast item.
I had made this with rice flour.
We have to make batter with roasted rice flour. It must be prepared with hot water. Add some salt also.  Filling prepared with grated coconut,  jagged,   ghee and two pods of cardamom.
It has always a smell of plantain leaves.  It's time consuming also.

Whenever I make such dishes I will recreate the aromas and taste to my little ones.  We had called this dish as nalumani palaharam.  Plaharam means snack and nalumani means tea time. 

In my childhood days it was not tedious to get plantain leaves from our own yard.  

My amoomma allowed me to clean the leaves.  

The most time consuming portion of this dish is the spreading of the batter.  My grand mother had so much patience,  she had spread the batter so evenly and the ada was so delicate.  It was her passion to make such everlasting taste to her children.  Perfection can be attained only by passion,  patience and hard work.  This post is a dedication to my grand mother who had taught me to make dishes filled with love will last forever.

It's our custom to make ada on karutha vavu. These adas are called vavada. 

On thiruvonam we make poovada to welcome thrikkakkara appan.   In that ada we fill with grated coconut and sugar.

Chakka Appam

Chakka appam is my all time favourite.  My options for getting ripe jack fruit is so limited but every year my father will arrange one or two jack fruits on my occasionsal visits to my home.  We had a vazhana plant in our yard.  Last time we had collected some leaves of vazhana to make chakka appam.  It was very tasty.  Aroma when we cook this in vazhana ela is unbeatable.  I am very proud to post this authentic cuisine of Kerala.

We have enough time to make this item.  Firstly we have to separate chakka chulas and then clean it removing chakka kuru.  I had cooked it in pressure cooker with some water.  Then we have to add jaggery and roasted rice powder to this cooked jack fruit.  Mix it well and then add small pieces of coconut roasted in ghee.  Last ingredient is powdered cardamom.  Then clean the vazhana leaves and put the mixture according to the size of leaves.  Cook it in steam.  Its a nice palaharam. 

Unniappam

'Unniappam' is a sweet dish made of rice flour and jaggery. Its an all time favourite of our gods too. We can offer this sweet dish to our diety in most of the temples. I had eaten the unbeatable 'Kottarakkara Unniappam' its very famous like 'Ambalappuzha palpayasam '.

I had made this for our tea time. I have some guests also. That's the reason behind these pictures...

Usually unniappam is made up of rice flour. This time I had made this by grinding rice with jaggery and banana.

At first we have to soak the rice. We are using pachari for these snacks. It needs two hours of soaking. I had taken one cup of rice. For this I had used one ball of jaggery 'Unda sharkara'. Just break it and add some water. Put these in a vessel and allow to boil. Its to make 'Sharkara paani. When the jaggery reaches a clear liquid form switch off the stove and allow it to cool. After that we have to grind the rice. Instead of water we have to add the sharkara paani. For fermenting the mixture we have to add some fruits. In this I had used banana. Its also added in the grinding process. After thorough grinding of the mixture I had added a pinch of yeast for better fermentation. I had also added some small pieces of coconut fried in Ghee as a topper. Allow the mixture to ferment atleast for 2 hours.

The vessel to make unniappam is known as 'Appakkara'. I had one from my mother.

After 2 hours place the appakkara in the stove add sufficient amount of coconut oil. Pour the mixture to the holes in the appakkara. Allow some time to fry and turn it around. We can take them within minutes. Children will love it and its also an elegant snack for guest time.

Kozhukkatta

Kozhukkatta, have a lot of images in me. It can be prepared in umpteen ways. But this is from my dearest friend, filled with lot of love and care. She had sent me this recipe and the image from Bangalore. Simple things can trigger a stream of memories. Dedicating this sweet post to my friend and praying for her family.

Recipe of kozhukkatta(Steamed rice dumplings filled with sweet)

Rice flour-2 cups

jaggery-1/2 cup

shredded coconut-1/2 cup

Salt-as needed

Ghee-2 tsp(optional)

Cardamom-2 powdered (optional)

Method

For the filling

Mix shredded coconut with ghee, grated jaggery and cardamom powder.

Mix the rice flour with small amount of salt. Make it a dough using warm water. Make small balls from the dough. Make a big depression inside the ball and fill the sweet filling then close it. We can make it a perfect ball by shaping it. Steam these balls for 20 minutes.

The perfect kozhukkatta I had eaten is from my neighbour. Its their custom to make these sweet balls on the day of 'Kuruthola perunnal'(Palm sunday). This perunnal had a local name as 'Kozhukkatta perunnal'. She always made a perfect ball.

In her recipe she will always make 'Sharkara pani' for the filling, all the other things are same.

For making sharkara pani we have to melt jaggery with 1/4 cup of water , then strain it. Then we can add the coconut.

The other images are of the 'Nadan kozhukkatta' made by my mother. I had not tried to make it. Its with Kuthari. We have to soak the rice for 6 hours. Then grind the rice with salt, one spoon full of cumin seeds and half cup of shredded coconut. It must half grind, and the water content must not be too much. Make small round balls with the half grind rice mixture. Cooking method is also different, this kozhukkatta is not steamed instead of that we put these balls in boiling water and close it for almost half an hour. After that we can take it from the water and the water which is called 'Kozhukkatta vellam' is also very tasty. We can have this with little sugar.

These sweet snack can be made with different types of filling. We can make it with coconut filling only for adults. We can fill it with coconut scrapes with sugar. I like this taste more than jaggery, its also easier than the other type. Another variety is with aval(poha) filling. Aval with jaggery and coconut is a common combination. We always make it with 'Chakkavaratti' its the jam made with jack fruits. This filling is very tasty. My in law's make this kozhukkatta with green gram, jaggery and coconut mixture. If you are too health concious you can make the filling with sprouts also. In this filling we can add nuts and raisins for extra taste. It is considered as sweet snack with coffee(nalu mani palaharam), it can be served as a break fast item. Anyway its an easy and healthy snack for children.