Suma's Recipes: #Covid19# Lockdown Specials# Steamed Banana leaf Pancake ( Ela ada)

Lockdown specials are coming up everyday with some dishes. Travelling back in my teenage. Nice old nostalgia is a great thing that we always like to talk and share. Our home in village surrounded by our garden land comprised of all the garden crops coconut, arecanut, jackfruit trees, mango trees, cashew apples, jambakka , custard apple, sapota, bilimbi, gooseberry, Moringa likewise all the fruit trees and seasonal crops like banana, papaya, vegetables it goes on. Our mom used to prepare different types of ada twice or thrice in a week. At that age the value was not known to me. We kids preferred fried and baked snacks more than steamed. My Agriculture college days gave more interest in home grown and traditional dishes. I became more interested to get involved and enjoy. There starts my passion in knowing more about ammas cooking magic.

Let me stop this description now or otherwise I shall get away from the track. Coming back to Ela ada, it is a traditional delicacy of our State. For me, now I should say for us, Ela ada is one of the healthiest delicacies. If we are out in a restaurant in evening I love to have this delicious dish wrapped in banana leaf. The smell and flavour of the banana leaf adds better taste to this steamed dish. Here I am sharing two types of ela ada, one is stuffed and the other one is direct mix. Both are good with its unique taste. I prepared the ada with wheat flour, why, because we like wheat more than rice in case of ela ada. Ela means leaf and it is referred to banana leaf here.

Stuffed Ela ada

Banana leaf 1, stew both sides of the leaf over flame, cut into small pieces, wash it, wipe it dry.

Wheat flour 1 cup, ghee 1 tsp., crushed cumin seeds 1/2 tsp., sugar 1 tbsp., salt to taste. Combine the ingredients in a bowl, add enough water to prepare a soft dough. Divide it into lemon size balls. Place the balls on the centre of the leaves, flatten and spread the dough thinly with your fingers moist.

For stuffing

Jaggery 150gm, water an ounce,

Grated coconut 1 cup, ghee 1 tsp.

Melt the jaggery in a pan pouring the water. When done, pour it through a sieve to the coconut and ghee . Mix together. Stuffing is ready. Let it cool down.

Place enough stuffing on one half of the banana leaf and fold. Press down with your fingers to seal the sides of the ada. Place the raw adas in the steam wok. Cook the ada in a steam cooker like idli or momo pot. Put enough water on the base pot, when the water starts to boil, put the ada wok on top of the steamer and cook for 15 minutes. You can smell the delicious flavour of the cooked ada and aroma of banana leaves. Serve hot with your favourite tea or coffee ☕️

Stuffed Ela ada

Banana ada

We both love to eat raw bananas. That’s more healthy and hassle free. But what if it gets over ripen. Banana is highly perishable. We don’t like to waste food. That’s so cruel. This Corona season is not allowing us to share. Then ammas magic cooking awakes me. The basic idea is amma’s but always I take the liberty to improvise. Here the bananas got transformed into ela ada in our kitchen. Being a steamed food ada is having top priority in our meal.

Ingredients

Robusta banana 4, mashed in a bowl

wheat flour a cup, ghee 1 tsp., crushed cumin 1/2 tsp., grated coconut 1 cup, sugar 2tbsp., salt to taste.

Instead of sugar you can use jaggery powder.

Put the ingredients on the mashed banana, knead it to make a loose dough.

Prepare the banana leaves like above.

Scoop a small ladle of dough, place it on the centre of the banana leaf. Fold it and put it in the steam cooker and cook for 15 minutes like described above. Serve hot.

The taste of ada is really heavenly. The crunchiness of coconut, sweetness of jaggery and richness of ghee turns the ada super delicious.

We prefer ela ada for breakfast and dinner also. Why because steamed foods are super healthy foods.