Pazham Pori - Plantain Fritters

Pazham Pori is a sweet dish made with ripe plantains dipped in flour mixed with sugar. This is a popular dish in Kerala, usually sold in road side tea-shops. It is easy to prepare and it goes well with a cup of tea. Here goes the recipe!!

Ingredients

• 1 ripe plantain (Nendra Pazham)
• 1 cup plain flour/ all- purpose flour/ Maida
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• Pinch of salt
• ½ cup water and oil to fry
  

Method

• Peel plantains, cut is two halves, and slice each halves into four to six slices. One plantain yielded 12 pieces for me.
• Mix flour with ½ cup water to make a smooth batter, mix in sugar, turmeric, and salt.
• Heat oil in a pan; dip plantain slices in batter and deep fry till golden brown. Drain and serve hot with tea.
  

Fruit Cake

Hi Guys, here I am back to blogging. There is no reason for me not blogging apart from saying that I have become bit lazy these days. My friend had recently been to her home town, Kerala, and guess what she got for me? Bakery items, what else I could ask for than eatables like jackfruit halwa, plum cake, jackfruit chips etc. The plum cake got all my attention and droved me to search the recipes at Google. Still I do not know the difference between a plum cake and a fruit cake because the ingredients are almost the same, expect the plum cake has more of plums, for me, both tastes the same. So as I was searching at Google I came across RP’s fruit cake and here , I ended up following the method of RP’s recipe and here goes the method!!

Method

Step 1- Caramel stage: For this you will need ¼ cup sugar, 1 tbsp water, ¼ cup warm water, and 1tsp vanilla extract.

• In medium heat, heat ¼ cup of sugar with 1 tbsp of water and keep stirring until the color changes from light brown to dark brown. This would take minimum 15 minutes. Once the color becomes darker, remove the pan and pour ¼ cup warm water. To this add the 1tsp vanilla extract.

Step 2- First Mixing: Bring 1 cup sugar, ¼ lb butter (room temperature), 3 eggs. Blend sugar and butter by adding the eggs one by one.

Step 3- Second Mixing: In a mixing bowl, add 1 cup all- purpose flour, 2 tsp baking powder , ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp spice powders (cinnamon powder, ginger powder, cloves powder, and nut mug powder).

Step 4: Bringing Step 1, 2, and 3 together. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, spice powders, add caramel water and blend well, and add the sugar, butter egg mixture and blend them together.

Step 5: Bringing the nuts and dry fruits together. To the above, add 1 cup of dried fruits (apricots, dates, raisins, cherries, currants, plums, tutty-fruity, etc) and ½ cup of nuts (cashews, almonds, walnuts, etc). Add the fruits to the mixture and add ¼ tsp grated orange or lemon zest.

Step 6: Pour the mixture into a greased baking pan, and bake at 350F for 50 minutes to 60 minutes. Once done, remove the cake and keep in a cooling rack and allow it cool and store in a air tight container.

Notes:

• I did not use Rum or Brandy, still the taste was unbelievable. You can try with or without alcohol for this recipe.
• In the caramel stage, be careful, while pouring the warm water into the hot content, it might splatter.
• This proportion yields about 20 small pieces.