Sunday, February 17, 2013

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

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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36 comments:

  1. hmmm... droolin here... i love this but so scared of the calories that i dont make it often... or lets say dont make it at all...

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  2. Haven't tried unnakkaya this way..Hope kids will love this..Yummy !

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  3. hi vimi, this is my fav sweet dish - i dont miss this when am in india from anandha bavan :) lovely...got to try

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  4. oh wow... very innovative idea... yum...

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  5. Very unique and interesting stuffing.

    http://sabdhaskitchen.blogspot.in

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  6. This is very knew to me. but sounds very interesting Vimitha. Thanks for sharing this traditional dish

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  7. Lovely one with natural sweet banana,new to me,but quite interesting.
    www.soundaryasbeautyworld.com

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  8. truly delicious one...great idea :)

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  9. omg what a stuffing....i should try this...

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  10. That's a wonderful filling...must've tasted yum

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  11. Seriously am in love with the filling, very droolworthy polis Vimi.

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  12. Such a nice & interesting recipe!!
    Prathima Rao
    Prats Corner

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  13. Very unique n interesting recipe....

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  14. Wow! Delicious and lovely stuffed flatbread! Interesting recipe.
    http://www.rita-bose-cooking.com/

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  15. I've never tried poli with banana stuffing, looks delicious, bookmarked..

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  16. Delicious.. new to me. sounds yummy.

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  17. I never ate anything like this and it looks so interesting!

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  18. That's an tempting filling....poli looks yum....

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  19. wow..this is very healthy idea,looks yummy!

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  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  21. Great idea,can imagine the taste,yum

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  22. First time here, you have loads of good recipes. Happy to find you.
    Following u, do visit mine some time :)
    http://houseofspice.blogspot.com/

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  23. As a sweet loving person , instead of savoury, I totally love this flatbread..banana makes it extra yum!

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  24. delicious filling, love this stuffed poli...

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  25. Looks perfect and yum ..drooling here

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  26. this is new to me...sure to be yummy...thanks for sharing

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  27. This is something new to me too, but looks great!Wouldn't mind trying this.

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  28. luv this version of your recipe. Drool.

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  29. Very creative idea Vimitha. Yummy and delicious flatbread.

    today's recipe:
    http://sanolisrecipies.blogspot.in/2013/02/paal-kozhukattai-kollukattai-modaks-in.html

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