Unnakkaya stuffed Poli | Flat bread stuffed with sweetened mashed bananas & coconut mixture

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Unnakkaya or unnakaya is a traditional dish of Kerala or to be precise, Malabar. Ripe Plantains are steamed, mashed, stuffed with a mixture of coconut, nuts and raisins and then deep fried in oil. I had two ripe plantains in my fruit basket and when the huss was not ready to eat them, I had to resort to other ways to use them up. My search ended up here and I started assembling the ingredients. Put the plantains in the pressure cooker to steam em up and switched on the tv. Bling..."Re-telecast of last night's Grey's anatomy" which I had missed watching and there I was sitting in front of the tv, hooked to it. With the second ad series, I remembered the plantains and I ran into the kitchen. I had forgot to place the pressure knob, thanks to that, and calling all available gods to save me, I opened the cooker. There they were, fully disintegrated and floating around in bits. I drained them yet they were too mushy to be handled. Not knowing what to do with the residual mushy plantain, I was scratching my head to find a way.

Then I thought about the most famous puran poli and thought of adapting that technique here. Mixed all the ingredients together, popped it over the heat to evaporate off the water and formed lemon sized balls out of it and that replaced the traditional paruppu stuffing. The sweet hint of banana with the tropical coconut-y flavor seeing through the soft chapathi was very new and we loved to have it with tea.

~*What U Need*~ Ripe Nendrapalam - 2 nos Ghee - 2 tbsp Almonds - 1 tbsp, chopped Dry grapes - 1 tbsp Grated fresh coconut - 1/2 cup, divided Sugar - 4 tbsp Cardamom powder - a big pinch For outer covering Maida - 1 cup Salt - a pinch Water - to knead Oil - 2 tbsp + to fry Turmeric powder - a pinch

How I made it:
Mix maida, salt and turmeric powder with enough water to get a soft dough. Add 2 tbsp oil and knead to get a non sticky, elastic dough. Cover and allow rest for 3o mins.

Meanwhile, steam and mash the bananas after removing the black seeds. Heat ghee in a non-stick pan, add the chopped almonds and raisins and fry till brown and toasted. Add 1/4 cup coconut and fry till brown. Add sugar and stir well. To this add the mashed bananas and mix well. Then add the remaining coconut and combine. Remove from flame. Divide this mixture into lemon sized balls and set aside.

Take a plastic paper, spread some oil. Oil your hands and pinch equal sized balls from the maida mixture. Spread this on the oiled plastic, place a banana ball on the middle, close from all ends. Spread to get a paratha. Heat a tsp oil in a pan, place the poli and fry on both sides till you see brown spots.

Serve hot as evening snack!!!

** My Notes:
** I used a mix of all purpose flour and wheat flour to make the outer dough but you can use either all purpose flour or use only wheat flour to make it extra healthy.
** You can also add chopped dates in the stuffing.
** Be generous in adding the oil as that gives the soft texture to the poli.
** Soak the dough in oil for minimum of half an hour.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

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