Sweet Surrender--Nut 'n' Fruit Maalpua

"I prefer to regard a dessert as I would imagine the perfect woman: subtle, a little bittersweet, not blowsy and extrovert. Delicately made up, not highly rouged. Holding back, not exposing everything and, of course, with a flavor that lasts." ~Graham Kerr

Picture this, its 4.15 am here. I wake up just to drink water and end up writing this blog post (which incidentally I had decided would do tomorrow..err...today in the normal waking hours that is). Needless to say I am a blogoholic...but I ain't complaining.


I made this dessert yesterday. It was the result of visiting Jenn's blog sometime back,which had challenged bloggers to create a dish with the following three ingredients- bananas, rice, coconut (or coconut milk). This was for the Royal Foodie Joust, and the ingredients were given by Cynthia (of Tastes Like Home) who also is sponsoring the prize for this Iron Chef competition, her book My Caribbean Cookbook, Tastes Like Home.

How could I keep myself away from this challenge (especially because its my first one) !!








Indian cuisine is known throughout the World as a sweet cuisine because almost half of its dishes are either sweets or desserts. Actually, Indian sweets have made Indian food famous throughout history, and they have been accommodated to European and North American menus.



The 19th century renaissance in Bengal brought about a dramatic change in the lives of Bengalis in Calcutta. It is during this time that Calcuttans witnessed the birth of several sweetmeat shops.


And Calcuttans are notoriously known for their sweet tooth. Yours truly is a live example.

Food has always been a weakness for the Bengalis. Studying their food habits since the yester years you will be appalled to find the time and money they spent on food. They were never hesitant in throwing parties and if, for the sake of it, they had to exhaust all their wealth they never did mind. Not only in marriage ceremonies, any occasion to them was a party time (like almost all Indians) and in these parties lavish expenditure on food reduced many to a pauper.

Bengalis, like their brethrens from all parts of India, have been winners in all the delicacies they have presented to the world. Not just mutton, fish and vegetables but the variety of confections and array of fruit dishes have always overawed the gluttons of the world.

I present to you my version of the famous maalpua (luscious pancakes soaked in syrup).

Nut 'n' Fruit Maalpua

Ingredients-

For pancakes-

4 cups rice flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup dessicated coconut

2 ripe bananas, mashed to pulpy form

10-12 black peppercorns-- ( to add a little heat to the otherwise sweet dish)

3 tbsp golden raisins
5 tbsp chopped blanched almonds
1 tbsp fennel seeds

1 cup broken jaggery pieces, finely chopped/broken/ground-- (can substitute this with sugar )
2 cups lukewarm milk

1/2 cup or less tepid warm water-- (the heat helps in dissolving the jaggery pieces)

oil for deep frying

For syrup-

3 cups sugar

3 cups water

1 tsp cardamom powder

Method-
In a big bowl, mix well with a wooden spoon, all the ingredients for the pancakes (except water).

Then slowly add the water(as per requirement) to form a thick batter of pouring consistency.

Note: The batter should not be too viscous, it should be slightly thinner than a cake batter, but not too thin.

Prepare the syrup by boiling together the sugar and water. Add the cardamom powder. Once the syrup is soft ball consistency (that is ek-taar or single thread consistency). Remove from heat.

In a deep bottomed pan, heat oil to smoking point. Reduce the heat to medium flame.

Now, using a ladle pour the batter carefully, one at a time into the hot oil.

Tip: I suggest use half full ladles to make small pancakes as they are easier to manage and don't take long to cook.

Deep fry. Once cooked/browned take out from the oil and dip straight into the syrup.

Repeat the process, till all the batter is used. Let soak in the syrup for a couple of minutes.

For serving- lift the pancakes out from the syrup carefully and place them on a plate. Garnish with flaked almonds. Serve while still warm for optimum taste.

The maalpua will be soft and spongy in the middle while crsip on the edges, with syrup oozing out each time you dig in with your spoon.

The bananas make it moist while the coconut and dried fruits add the nutty flavour. Ofcourse the peppercorns innundate the sweetness while the fennel enhances the aroma alongwith the cardamom.

A truly royal bengal treat! :p

A Request- If you guys liked this recipe, I would request you to vote for this dish, on the FoodieBlog Forum, once the voting starts for this month's January '09 Joust here.

SHUBH DEEPAWALI

O Ram! The light of lights, the self-luminous inner light of the Self is ever shining steadily in the chamber of your heart. Sit quietly. Close your eyes. Withdraw the senses. Fix the mind on this supreme light and enjoy the real Deepavali, by attaining illumination of the soul.

Yes, Diwali the festival of lights...the homecoming of Lord Rama..and the beginning of the new year for the Hindus. So I was all busy,like many of my clan, in cleaning up the household.Every nook and corner cleaned and lit.Its a no-moon night, yet the lights of the world make this the brightest night of the year.

Here in Hong Kong, away from home and family (though they all call and send letters and cards which give a warm touch in this age of emails), it still does seem a little forlorn..no crackers( I was the daring one at home bursting the most dangerous looking 'bombs'...alas!) ,no diyas inside the house (fire alram !!)....however, alongwith the other Indians here, I shared the good cheer with my Chinese and Cantonese(HongKong Residents) friends too.

I gave them sweets that I especially made for the occassion. Jasmine Green tea and Coffee Marble cake and my favourite- Narkel Nadu. This is a humble benagli delicacy.Does not require too much of expensive ingredients.Its sweet coconut laddu with jaggery. The former dessert was an authentic and complete innovation...infact a tad bit of forced creativity...lol. Will talk about it at length in my next post. :-)

I love playing hostess and serving up delights to my friends and family. Quite a few times I have had bizarre requests of people who want to be my house guest/house arrest(whichever way as long as they are being fed) for atleast a month...lol.Infact when I was in Florida (USA), I was cooking for people at my place during Diwali and then again at their place when we went for Halloween and Thanksgiving...lol. It would be amusing if I mentioned that I had even offered food to my now husband, when I had first met him in the States! Thats another story though. '-)I attribute this from seeing my grandma (nani) and ma(mom) playing gracious hostessess, in my growing up years in Kolkata.

Both the sweets were so very well appreciated that I was overwhelmed. The Narkel Nadu was from my "place of birth" and the green tea and coffee delicacy was inspired from my "current place of stay". They looked so much in harmony, sitting on the plate, when I presented them to my guests, accompanied with some beguni and palak pakode.

Narkel Nadu

Ingredients-
1 tbsp ghee/clarified butter
150 gms desiccated coconut (about 2 cups)
1 1/2 cups crushed jaggery
2 tbsp white (plain) sugar
1 tbsp coconut milk

Method-

In a deep pan(wok), heat the ghee. Now put the coconut and fry a little on low flame.

Tip:Be careful not to burn the coconut. Keep moving the coconut with a wooden spoon.

When the coconut leaves a little moisture and its nutty aroma(about after 30-40 seconds), add
the broken jaggery pieces and the sugar. Set the flame to medium.
The heat will melt the jaggery and the sugar. This is the labour intensive part. Quickly keep mixing the coconut and the jaggery together, till it becomes one sticky brown chocolate colour mixture.
(The mixing action can be tough as the mixture will be sticky.)
Now, add the coconut milk and mix further.
Remove from heat. Cool for about a minute. And start making ping pong sized balls with the mixture, while it is still a little warm. The mixture won't stick to your palms, but it will feel a little warm.

Store in a sealed jar. It has a long shelf life (as no water is involved in cooking it).

N.B. If you do not find jaggery, you can sunstitute it with brown sugar/palm sugar. It tastes
equally good. Almost toffee like. Enjoy!

P.S. This ones for you Sudeshna ("Here I Cook") ! For Event of the month on her blog-"Satisfy your Sweet Tooth". Trsut me I did...lol.

Also Sudeshna has been kind enough to encourage me with The Butterfly Award. Thanks Sudeshna! My very first award. :-)