{Ramadan Special} – Unnakaya from Thas of Cooking with Thas
Next in your journey of this joyous ride of Joy From Fasting To Feasting – VII is million dollar smile Thas of Cooking with Thas from Ontario…a dear buddy who always come up with an interesting post for this event….Don’t miss to check out her Ramadan Entrees galore and Ramadan Snacks galore for new ideas to add to your Ramadan food chart…..Thank you so much Thas for bringing in these droolicious Unnakaya for the event….
Ramadan Mubarak everyone!
It’s that time of the year again when Muslims around the world will be found devoting themselves to religious and spiritual activities. It’s a special month to fine tune the soul, to seek blessings and forgiveness from the Almighty God. Along with prayers and fast, it’s the time to help and reach out to those in need. I wish everyone a blessed Ramadan.
Now, during Ramadan, I also look forward to sharing one of my favorite Ramadan recipes at Lubna’s blog. I truly appreciate her effort in bringing so many wonderful bloggers together and sharing their recipes for 30 days of Ramadan. In deed, Ramadan is a time for togetherness, unity and sharing. Thank you Lubna for your kind invitation to be a part of this event once again this year.
It’s during Ramadan I miss my family the most: the family get together, the delicious homemade food, family prayers, the list just goes on. Since, I live miles apart from my family, making all those family favorite dishes gives me a feel of having my family close to me. While thinking about my favorite Ramadan dishes, so many dishes flashed through my mind.
In my family, dates, juice and snacks are first served at the time of breaking the fast; porridge and main course will be served after Maghreb (Sunset prayer). Snacks put a smile on everyone’s face, especially kids. I remember how my mom used to make special snacks when I fasted as a kid. The more days I observed the fast, the more variety of snacks my mom prepared; one of the perks of fasting as a kid 🙂
I wanted to share one of my family favorite snacks that is served during Ramadan and other special occasions. It’s called Unnakaya or Stuffed plantain, this is a popular Malabar specialty snack. Plantains are abundantly available in my hometown; hence so many snacks are made with it. However, this is my most favorite snack: it’s crunchy outside and the sweet filling inside makes it taste delicious. When I make these, I always find it hard to stop munching on this, so make sure to fry a few batches 🙂
Unnakaya or Stuffed Plantains
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 Plantains
- Oil for deep frying
For making the stuffing:
- 1 cup grated Coconut
- ¼ cup chopped Cashew nuts or Almonds
- 1 handful Raisins
- 1 Egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp. Sugar
- ¼ tbsp. Cardamom powder
- 3 tbsp. Ghee or butter
PREPARATION:
Making the sweet coconut stuffing
- Heat a non-stick cooking pan, add 2 tbsp. ghee, add the grated coconut and the sugar, roast till coconut turns golden.
- Add ground cardamom to the roasted coconut.
- In the meantime, fry cashew nuts and raisins in 1 tbsp. ghee.
- Add beaten egg to the roasted coconut, scramble the eggs.
- Add the fried cashew nuts and raisins, combine well.
- Stuffing is ready, allow it to cool down.
Cooking Plantains and stuffing it.
- For making this, the plantain should not be too ripe nor too raw, it should be somewhat in the middle stage.
- Steam cook the plantains with the skin.
- After it has cooked well, remove from the steamer and let cool down completely.
- Peel off the skin, cut the plantains into two halves and remove the black seeds from it.
- Mash the plantains using potato masher or with wooden spoon without any lumps.
- Make into soft dough and make small balls out of the dough.
- If the dough is too smooth, add a few tablespoons of rice flour to make it thick, it should have a soft dough constituency.
- Grease the palm of your hands with ghee or oil and flatten the balls into round shapes, keep it aside.
- Place 1 tbsp. of stuffing on the centre of round shaped plantain dough, the dough is very soft so it’s easy to paste them and make into an oval or round shape.
- Fry the stuffed plantain in oil (add enough oil for deep frying) until it turns golden brown in color.
- Transfer to a paper towel, let absorb any excess oil.
- Enjoy this crunchy and sweet snack.
Last year from Thas @ Chicken Samosa.
You can find Thas @ Blog | Facebook.NOTE: You can find updated list of entries @ Joy From Fasting To Feasting – VII.
Sadaf Afshan says
At first these looked like Bread Rolls to me but after reading the post I found out that these were a completely different dish. Never heard of it before but I am sure it must be delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Rafeeda AR says
Unnakayas are a bit of work, but then love to have it everytime… lovely guest post…
Beena.stephy says
Yum yummy unnakaya