Easy
The kayada is a humble sweet made with bananas, rice flour, jaggery powder, and grated coconut. This dish is a popular dessert in Mapilla cuisine. This recipe by veteran chef Ummi Abdulla can take you to her grandmother’s kitchen in Thikkodi, Kozhikode. “She would hide the kayada from everyone because she believed that if we cast eyes on it, the sweet would get spoiled. But I was so intrigued. I would go in with the pretense of peeling the bananas and watch her,” says Abdullah. “They taste even better when eaten the next day,” she suggests. She recommends the use of poovan or Mysore banana varieties to make this snack. This can also be a good alternative to a banana pancake for breakfast.
Ingredients
Preparation
1.Peel the bananas and mash them till they are creamy. Do not use a food processor or blender or hand blender for this process. It should be done by hand using a masher.
2.Mix jaggery with 2 tbsp hot water and melt it on medium flame.
3.Add the rice flour, grated coconut and jaggery syrup to the mashed banana and mix well.
4.Wash and cut the banana leaves into 10-12 cm wide square pieces.
5.Place the steamer on the stove so that it is steaming by the time the first ada is ready to cook.
6.Now fold the leav into a cone shape. Pour the banana mixture into the cones and fold the ends.
7.As soon as the cones are placed in the steamer, they will moisten and hold together.
8.Cover and let it cook in the steamer for half hour. Remove from the stove and allow it to cool. The Kayada will harden when cooked.
9.Peel off the banana leaf and serve cold.
9.This recipe is an excerpt from chef Ummi Abdulla’s cookbook, ‘A Kitchen Full Of Stories’’
Published - November 02, 2023 05:48 pm IST
