Unnakaya

This is a very famous Malabar cuisine. Unnakaya or stuffed plaintain sweets are rolls made out of banana stuffed with coconut and egg and friend in Ghee. This is usually made out of Kerala bananas (Nenthrampazham) but I tried this with the banana type “Robust”. It was not bad but honestly not upto the standards of Nenthrampazham.

Ingredients:

Bananas – 250 grams

Eggs – 2 nos

Coconut – 25 grams

Sugar – 25 grams

Cardamom powder – 5 grams

Cumin seeds – 5 grams

Cashew nuts – 15 grams

Raisins – 15 grams

Ghee – 100 grams

Method:

• Steam the bananas until they are soft. I microwaved the bananas for 5 minutes. Let it cool.
• In a pan, add little ghee, fry the cashews and raisins until they turn brown. Drain and keep it aside.
• In the same pan add the coconuts, sugar. Fry until coconut turns light brown.
• Now add the cardamom powder and cumin seeds. Mix well.
• Beat the eggs and pour into the pan, scramble it and mix well.
• Remove from stove and make 8 portions.
• Remove the black seeds in the bananas.
• Mash the steamed bananas without any lumps or grind it in a mixer. Don't add any water. The consistency would be like chapathi dough. Make 8 portions.
• Grease your hands with little ghee.
• Take one portion of the banana dough. Flatten it on your palm into small circular shape.
• Place one portion of the filling. Close the edges and roll it in your hand. Make sure that all the edges are sealed properly.
• Add the remaining ghee into a frying pan.
• Once the ghee is hot carefully place the rolls and shallow fry the same until all sides turn brown.
• Drain and serve hot with tea.

Note:

• Don’t use too ripe bananas. It would be difficult to shape them into circles.
• If the banana dough is very mushy, add 2 spoons of rice powder.
• Instead of using ghee for frying, we can also use a mixture of ghee and oil. But don’t avoid ghee. The taste of this dish comes from ghee.
• Eggs can be avoided.