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.

Proof in the pudding.....

"A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man,and takes a grain of salt with everything he says to her."

----Helen Rowland.

I don't know whether others (like me) have suffered what I like to call the "sugar-magnet" craving.
As a child I sometimes craved for sweets all of a sudden...anything..even plain sugar would do. Unfortunately this has stuck with me over the years. The only thing that has changed is that now plain sugar wouldn't do! A few days back this craving struck, without any warning ....and yours truly had to make 'some' (read 'lots' of) dessert.

I made Fruit Custard (another of my husband's eternal favourites) , to try and keep my dessert a little on the healthier side. ;-) Also, because its so quick!
My earliest memories of custard are when returning after school,we (my bro and me) sneaked into the refrigerator to see if there is something sweet that mom had made...bread pudding, choco-biscuit cake, shahi tukde, sandesh or custard. We secretly smiled at each-other like partners-in-crime,when we saw our sweet-treasures. And even before mom could serve it up for us...we would have attacked the fridge and left only morsels..lol. Mom obviously knew about our sneaking...so she religiously kept some dessert. Well dessert for us kids was not confined to the after meal pleasure, it could be had at anytime during the day-breakfast, lunch, dinner or even in tiffin. lol.

I will do the same for my kids eventually, but for now I'm making my hubby happy..and not to forget myself too! :-)

Vanilla Mixed Fruit Custard--
Ingredients-
2 tbsp custard powder ( I used Brown & Polson, you can use your favourite brand)
3 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 cup skimmed milk
favorite fruits, chopped (banana,mango,strawberry,orange,grapes,gooseberry,pear,apple)

Method-
Heat the milk (leaving 1/2 cup aside) on medium flame, with the brown sugar.
To the half cup milk add the custard powder and mix till lump free.
Now, add this mix to the boiling milk. Remove from heat. Add vanilla essence.
Pour in a separate bowl and refrigerate till cool.

Serve chilled with freshly chopped fruits ( in my case I added the Ritters' Sport Dunkle Voll-Nuss chocolate too !!).