Spiced Rum Banana Fritters

If you are mallu you know what pazham pori is. Or maybe you call it Ethakka appam. Either way, it holds a special place in every malayalee's heart. It's Kerala's favourite tea time snack and you can buy it anywhere in the state; from restaurants to road side carts to trains. I particularly have fond memories of eating this in the train and really looked forward to Kerala journeys because of it.

The trick to making these Banana fritters is using over ripe Kerala plantains (ethakka or nendra pazham). On the occasion of Vishu, I really wanted to twist this traditional snack, so I decided to serve it with a very untraditional rum sauce. You can obviously eat it as is minus the sauce, and it's still delicious. Remember to serve piping hot!



For the Fritters:

2 Kerala plantains (the riper the better)
3 tbsps all purpose flour / maida
1 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp sugar (castor sugar preferred)
Pinch of Salt
Coconut oil to fry

For the Sauce:
2 tbsp sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2-3 cloves
1 star anise
2 tbsp cream
1/4 cup rum


Heat oil in a pan. More often than not these fritters are deep fried. I don't see the need for it and uses a shallow frying pan instead. Peel the plantains and slit it lengthwise. In a bowl mix the flours, sugar and salt with water to form a thick paste. Dip the plantains and coat evenly. Fry till golden brown, turning occasionally to fry on all sides. Once golden brown, drain excess oil with a paper towel. Serve piping hot with tea or dust powdered sugar and drizzle with sauce below.



For the sauce:

In a pan, add the rum and the whole spices and let it simmer for 7-10mins. Remove the cinnamon, cloves and star anise from the rum. Now add sugar and stir continuously till sugar is fully incorporated. You'll get something that resembles caramel. Add the cream slowly, and step a little away while doing so as the mixture will start bubbling vigorously. Immediately remove from heat and keep stirring till cream is incorporated and the sauce thickens. Spoon over the banana fritters. You can store the leftover sauce in the fridge for upto a month. A spoon of this goes deliciously well with ice cream, cakes or even coffee.

Barbecue Pulled Chicken Sliders

Heaven comes in 360 degrees of bread, chicken & saucy goodness.

I had quite a bit of home-made barbecue sauce left from my pork ribs recipe and I was still in my American diner food phase. For the record, there are tons of things you can do with BBQ sauce. It goes with everything! While grocery shopping this week I was basically looking out for something to recycle my sauce in. I found bagels and really fresh pita bread, but eventually settled on mini burger buns. Which gave me the idea to made some pulled chicken sliders. I had most of the stuff at home, so this is really is star leftover dish and even though there were many elements, it really took no time to put together. Didn't think pulled chicken was possible in less than 20mins? Read on below, and you'll become a believer of this delicious sweet and savoury sandwich.



Serves 4
4 mini burger buns
400gms chicken
2 cups BBQ sauce
4 slices cheese
4 eggs
4 cloves of garlic, grated
4 tbsp butter
2 onions finely sliced
Salt & pepper to taste

Boil the chicken in water with some salt added. Once cooked and cooled, shred the chicken. Save the water as this is now chicken stock and makes an excellent base for gravies. I usually freeze it in an ice cube tray and use it to flavour practically anything.

In a sauce pan, add the shredded chicken with the BBQ sauce. Cook for 5-10mins till chicken is thoroughly coated. if the sauce is too thick, use some of the leftover chicken stock to loosen it up.

Now comes the best part, assembling the slider. I toasted the buns with some garlic butter. Just melt butter in a pan and add the grated garlic. Cut the buns in half and place on the melted butter and get it nice and toasty. Once fairly brown, remove from pan. In the same pan, fry the eggs sunny side up. I love a half fry eggs, but for those fussy about the runny yolk, skip the egg all together.



To plate up, place some finely sliced onions on the base bun. Now add good spoonful of the shredded chicken. Place a slice of cheese on top of the chicken and then top off with the fried egg. You can eat the slider open faced as is, or place the top bun and dig in! The slider is extremely juicy and will have a lot of goodness oozing out, so make sure you have plenty of tissues at hand.



I served my sliders with some traditional fries and a potato salad. I admit I got a little carried away with the potatoes, but my brother wanted fries, and I wanted a potato salad.

For the potato salad, just mix up all these ingredients:
1cup baby potatoes, boiled and peeled
1/2 cup yoghurt
1/4 cup tahini sauce
 Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Salt, pepper & chilli flakes to taste
1tsp sumac (optional)



Trust me, don't skip on the salad. Its a perfect balance to the tangy slider. And you can also serve it cold straight out of the fridge. How cool is that? (pun intended)

Spiced Rum Banana Bread

I had bananas that were mushy and way past their prime. Now most people would throw out these bananas, but not me. Infact I wait for them to over ripe. I know its weird, but in my opinion over ripened bananas have more potential than its just-ripe ancestor. Not only is it sweeter, making it perfect for desserts, its also melt in your mouth soft. One of the many things I do with leftover bananas, is make banana bread. Did I mention you can make this in one bowl?

Adapted from www.smittenkitchen.com

Makes 1 loaf to fit a tin of approx.16"

4 ripe bananas (I used those big Kerala plantains. If you are using regular bananas I'd suggest using 6)
1/3 cup melted salted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar (over ripened bananas are generally sweeter hence I cut down on the sugar, you can up the level of sweetness)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp dark rum
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp nutmeg
1 1/4 cup flour

Preheat the oven to 175°C. In a large bowl cut and mash the bananas. Its ok if the bananas are not equally mashed and its lumpy. Mix in all ingredients except the flour and baking soda. Mix to combine. Now add in the baking soda and mix in. Add the flour last, and mix. Pour the mixture into a buttered loaf tin. Bake for approx. 1hour or until a tester comes out clean. Cool, and then slice to serve.



I think the best thing I love about this bread is the cracked top crust.



Tip: If you prefer a more savoury bread, add a pinch of salt. But note that I've used salted butter so be careful how much salt you add




You can eat as is. I had some leftover buttercream frosting from my red velvet recipe which I happily slathered here.

Caramelized Onion Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Valentine's Day is nice. But wouldn't you rather have this hottie for dinner? (pun intended). Cheesy lines aside...I had a lot of my French Onion Soup leftover. So I used the onions from the soup for this recipe. I'll find another way to use the rich soup broth, thank you for asking. I should ideally name this French Onion Soup sandwich, but who cares about technicalities?



This sandwich is sex on toast (again pun intended).

Ingredients:

2 slices of bread
1 tbsp caramelized onions
2 slices cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste

Toast the bread with some butter (optional). I used regular sliced bread, but I'd really recommend using a baguette for this sandwich. The crusty bread is perfect for the soft filling. Add the cheese slices to the open faced bread and microwave for 10secs. The aim is to soften the cheese so that its just about to melt. I used regular sliced cheese, but if you are in a mood to indulge Gruyère or Brie is what I would recommend.

Now spoon in the onions and bring the sandwich together. Et Viola!

Shakshuka

Shashouka means a 'mixture' in Arabic slang. Its a dish of poached eggs in a flavourful tomato sauce that originated somewhere in the middle east or north africa. Because egg is the star of this dish, it often features in breakfast menu. I find the dish very hearty, so its perfect for winter suppers. It is also a very community dish. It is usually served in the pan its made with some bread on the side. So you and your family need to just gather around the pan and dig in.

Never heard of it? It is also commonly referred to as eggs in purgatory. Buzzfeed even did a section on it!

Serves 4

1tbsp Olive oil
1 Onion
2 cloves Garlic finely chopped
1 can Tomato puree
1 Tomato finely chopped
2 medium Red Peppers chopped
1 Bay Leaf
1 tsp Chilli Powder
1tsp Cumin
1tbsp Harissa (optional)
1/2 cup Cheese (optional)
4 Eggs
Salt & Pepper to taste

Note: I roasted the peppers (see directions below) before adding them to this dish, but omit this step if its too much effort and you don't feel like it.

Roast Peppers: Place the peppers on a hot grill or oven stove flame. It will starting 'popping' so don't be alarm by the sound. Once blistered, put in a bowl and cover with cling wrap. Let it steam for 15-20mins. You can use them as they are or peel & deseed them to use.

Heat the olive oil in a pan. The pan should be large enough to hold the ingredients and shallow enough for the egg to not sink in. Add the garlic and onion and cook till its translucent. Add in the peppers, and cook for a minute. Now stir in the cumin, harissa and bay leaf. Add in the tomatoes & puree and let it simmer for 10-15mins. Stir occasionally. Discard the bay leaf and add in salt and pepper.

Now crack in the eggs. It helps to create a clearing or 'well' in the sauce and adding the eggs in it. You can now pop this in the oven to bake or cover the pan with a lid. I love the lid version as the whole egg poaches in the tomato sauce. Turn off the heat once the whites are set, but the yolks are still runny. I had some feta cheese from a food hamper someone gifted me. And I think it goes beautifully with this dish, but you can add in any cheese you have handy. Garnish with some coriander and dig in!

Tip: This dish is usually served with warm pita bread, but you can use any carb. I recently received a gourmet Mexican hamper, so I'm going to serve this dish with some exotic tortilla chips from it.
You can also go crazy with what you put in this dish. While I've made the veggie version today, you can add any meat or veggie combination. It is also an excellent dish to make with leftovers.

Cake Pops

Is it a cake? Is it a lollipop? Hell, its both those things!!! I think Cake Pops were the pioneers of hybrid desserts. In a world of Cronuts and Crownies, I still think these pops take the cake (pun intended). I mean what is there not to like? Its cake on a stick!

However having said that, I read up on a lot of 'easy' recipes and tutorials online before attempting mine....and they are not even remotely easy. Sure the recipe is simple...leftover cake and some chocolate. Sure its hardly 2-3 ingredients. But that is where the easy ends. Assembling these babies takes time, effort and a bucket load of patience. If you made these perfect at your first attempt, I must give you a standing ovation. I don't want to scare or discourage people from trying this out...it is a lot of fun! You get your hands smothered in chocolate, which you can later lick. But be prepared for your pops falling out, not coming together, not sticking etc. Like I said, you need a lot of patience. So if you are brave enough to try this out, here are my two cents:

• Crumbing: Using your hands to break bits of cake and crumb it up the cake, is actually quite relaxing and a lot of fun. But if you don't want to get your hands dirty or are a tad bit OCD about crumb size, use a food processor or blender. It will break the cake into even crumbs with no chunks.
• I didn't know this: You can melt chocolate in a microwave! Hallelujah! No more double boiler nonsense. Just roughly cut the chocolate and put in the your microwave at high heat. It takes all of two minutes!
• Go easy on the chocolate: Now the cake is already moist (and like always, I added a dash of brandy in mine), so only add a little chocolate. The only job of the chocolate/ frosting is to bind the cake. So add a little and check out if the cake comes together. Adding too much will make your 'batter' moist and you will end up having to add more cake to balance it out.
• If you do end up adding a lot of frosting/chocolate (like I did), put the cake in the fridge to cool so that the chocolate solidifies again and your mix will be easier to roll after. However, the only disadvantage to this is that once you remove the cake from the fridge, you have to work quickly else the chocolate will melt again and you are back to square one.
• Use your hands: It helps to mix and roll the cake in your hands so that you can get a feel of it. When I used a spoon, I couldn't tell if I had put too much chocolate. It was when I touched it that I realized the 'dough' was too moist and I couldn't roll it into a ball.
• Use ice cream scooper: This isn't mandatory, but use an ice cream scooper to scoop up the 'dough'. You will get neat and even balls. Not only does it save you a lot of effort, it will save you cleaning up time as well.
• Use a deep narrow cup for dipping. The bowl should be deep enough to be able to dip the ball completely 
• Use styrofoam (thermocol): A block of thermocol makes for a great holder to stick the pops in
• And lastly, why stick to boring straws and skewers? Have your cake and eat the stick too. I got a little creative and used wafer roll sticks and candy canes. 

Since I went ahead and did my own thing, no credits for this post. For the Cake Pops you will need:

Cake (duh): Preferably old crumbly cake. I used my parents anniversary cake. It was a rich plum cake with some fondant that was lying in my fridge for over 6 months. Its perfect because it was rich and crumbly at the same time

Chocolate: I used dark chocolate to bind the cake and white chocolate as frosting to coat it.

Optional:

A dash of cream: I added this to the chocolate to make a ganache instead of just plain regular chocolate

Sprinkles etc to decorate the cake pops. I omitted this in my pop as it was already too rich.
A dash of booze for added flavour

Crumb the cake to workable bits. I added some rum at this point.

Add the melted chocolate

Combine together to form a rough 'dough'. Roll into bite sized balls. I used thick straws and edible wafers as holders and hence I went for larger balls. But if you are using lollipop sticks aim for smaller balls.

Dip sticks into melted chocolate and insert into the balls. The chocolate acts as glue. Don't insert the straw too deep or the ball would start to come undone.

Refrigerate until firm. Use this time to prep up other supplies. Warm your chocolate or make a ganache. Bring out the sprinkles.

Dip the pop in the melted chocolate. Allow excess chocolate to drip from the pop before putting them in a holder. Once the chocolate is set, they are ready to be served!

I was going for the whole 'north pole' theme, hence I've used wafers as sticks and my ganache is set only half way, giving a snow covered effect.

You can go crazy with these. You can use any flavoured cake, even leftovers. You can use butter, frosting or even oil as a binding agent for the cake. And obviously you can go crazy with toppings. My favourite place to gawk at cake pops is www.bakerella.com (she apparently invented it! such genius).

Frittata

A Frittata is an egg dish, kinda like a cross between a quiche and an omelette. Frittatas have saved me countless hungry nights. I can just whip whatever I have on hand to make a sumptuous meal. Its perfect to get rid of any leftovers. Your kids hate veggies? No problem...make a frittata!

Traditionally frittatas are eggs with some veggies and meat, thrown into a skillet. But I'm anything but traditional. I have these beautiful Chorizo sausages I got from Goa, which got me thinking on giving a Spanish twist to this Italian favourite. So I have decided to marry the Italian Frittata with the Spanish Tortilla de Patatas...and voila!

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)
6 Eggs
2 Potatoes
4 Cloves of Garlic
200gms of Chorizo
100gms Cheddar cheese

(Like I mentioned, you can use absolutely anything but the kitchen sink. I'm going for a Spanish twist, but feel free to try mushrooms, cauliflower, chicken...whatever you have in the fridge)

Pre-heat the oven to 200°Celsius. Chop up the chorizo into bite size pieces and sauté in flat heavy based pan. I don't add in oil as the meat releases its own oil as it cooks. Once the sausage is cooked, add in the garlic. In another pan, boil the potatoes with some salt, until cooked. Chop up potatoes into bite size pieces and add it into the sausage pan. Whisk eggs in a bowl and add add in grated cheddar cheese. Now pour this to the sausage mix. Tilt the pan to make sure the eggs settle evenly. Cook for a minute or two until you see the eggs at the edge of the pan beginning to set. Sprinkle some more cheddar on top (this will give a nice cheese golden crust)

 

Put the pan in the oven and bake for 10mins or until the eggs are set. Cool and cut into slices to serve.

To serve:
Frittatas are a meal in itself so you can serve a slice as it is. Or try it with some toasted garlic bread. Leftovers are nearly as good as out of the oven. I like to eat it as breakfast, or mush it into crumbs with some rice and soy for fried rice.