Delicious snacks are a must-have for any foodie, especially when exploring the rich flavors of Kerala. One of the most iconic delicious snacks is Kerala Banana Splits in Jaggery Syrup, where ripe bananas are fried to crispy perfection and coated in sweet, sticky jaggery syrup. Another favorite among delicious snacks is Banana Roast, a simple yet flavorful treat where bananas are sautéed in ghee until golden and caramelized. Finally, Unniyappam, small, round rice-flour fritters infused with jaggery and coconut, stand out as one of the most beloved delicious snacks from Kerala. These crispy and delicious snacks are perfect for indulging in traditional flavors with every bite!
Kerala is a land which is famed for its fruits particularly those belonging to the banana variety. There is a host of bananas and plantains of different varieties in God’s own land. Naturally some of the most popular teatime snacks are made with bananas and plantains.
1. Kerala Banana Splits in Jaggery Syrup (Pazhamnjurukku)
This is a dish that has a rich flavour and and a glossy shine satisfying to sight and taste alike. It is an old recipe and so can be called a great grandma dish which is filled with the abundant love of the grandmother.
- Jaggery – 250 gm
- Kerala banana of medium size and ripeness – 1 kg
Preparation
Peel and cut the banana into rounds each 1 ½ inches long. Put them into a big, flat pan and add about 300 ml water and set to boil for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from flame when done. Care must be taken to see that the cooked banana rounds are firm and not crumbling.Then add the jaggery which has been previously boiled and cleaned of impurities.
Boil the jaggery and swirl it so that it is evenly boiling. Swirl the pan and allow the banana rounds to be coated with jaggery which has by now become sticky. The banana rounds will now be golden brown in appearance. Sprinkle a little ghee over the golden brown pazhamnjurukku and then remove from flame. Garnish with grated coconut which is, however, optional. Serve when cool but do not refrigerate.
This was a recipe that was handed down to me by my dear mother in law who is now no more. She was an expert cook and a gentle person who loved everything and everyone who came into contact with her. She lived in an old house built in the traditional style of Kerala with a large courtyard inside and extensive paddy fields outside complete with ponds of water lilies and lotus plants, plenty of coconut trees laden with fruit and nests of a vast variety of birds.
She loved them all – living and nonliving, man and beast alike. In her firewood kitchen with its sooty walls and spacious hearth with its wood stove, with big gleaming copper and brass vessels and earthen pots and pans she turned out delicious dishes of which pazhamnjurukku was just one which she cooked in the traditional vessel called Uruli.
Far from the madding crowd in the remote village of Ullala, my mother in law had lived being a source of comfort for every hungry mouth and a sweet never fading memory in my heart.
2. Banana Roast (Ethackappam) – Delicious Snacks
This is ripe banana fried in oil and though it is actually a tea time snack it is served with other major breakfast dishes like dosa/idli/puttu/ palappam etc on special occasions. However, Kerala banana must be used in order to savour this snack to the fullest.
- Medium ripe Kerala Banana – 3
- Sesame seeds, cumin seeds (optional)
- Wheat powder/maida/rice powder – 1 cup
- Sugar – 2 to 3 tbsps.
- Coconut oil/ any cooking oil – 1 ½ cup
Preparation
Peel and cut the bananas into two halves. Take each half and cut each lengthwise into 3 or 4 pieces each a quarter inch long. Make a batter with all the other ingredients with the same consistency as idli batter. Heat oil in a large frying pan, dip each slice in the batter and put in the boiling oil. Be careful to see that your fingers are not burnt. Repeat with 3 or 4 pieces and fry the whole until golden brown. Transfer to absorbent paper when done and serve with evening tea or coffee.
3. Unniyappam
Uniyappam, along with Modakam, is said to be a favourite of Lord Ganesh, one of the most beloved among the Hindu gods. Lord Ganesh who is also called Lord Ganapathy, was accepted by the epic poet Ved Vyasa as his scribe in writing down the lines of the epic poem Mahabharatam. Lord Ganapathy himself a great scholar, agreed to take down Ved Vyasa’s dictation of the lines provided the latter did not repeat himself.
Thus, the reciting of the lines by Ved Vyasa and writing them down by Lord Ganapathy proceded without pause until the great epic was completed. Uniyappam is a delicious sweetmeat made of rice flour mixed with plantain and jaggery and fried in ghee. No wonder it is such a favourite with Lord Ganapathy because ordinary and simple ingredients are transformed into a sweet fit for the gods.
- Raw rice – ½ kg
- Jaggery – ½ kg
- Small banana (Palayankodan if possible or Kela) – ½ kg
- Coconut cut into small thin slices – 2 to 3 tbsps
- Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
- Sesame seeds – 1tsp
- Cardamom powder – 2 pinch
- Salt – ½ tsp
- Ghee – ½ kg
- Sugar
Preparation
Clean and soak the rice for at least one hour. Wash, drain the rice and then pound it to a fine powder. Peel the plantains and mash them very well. Add thick jaggery syrup as well as the other ingredients, except sugar and ghee, to the plantain pulp and mix well. Fold in the rice flour to this mixture and knead well adding water to produce a batter that is neither thick like idli batter nor thin like dosa batter. Keep aside for 2 to 3 or 4 hours.
The unniyappam is made in a special vessel called `appakkara’. This is a kind of frying pan made of cast iron having a number of depressions each of which may contain about 30 ml of oil. Fill these depressions half full of ghee and heat the appakara.
When the oil in the depressions is hot pour 15 to 20 ml of the batter into each depression. Keep the flame at medium. The unniyappam when half done turns on its own as it gets cooked. Transfer onto a plate which is spread with sugar crystals, only a few crystals will stick to each unniyappam. Repeat until the batter is over.
These unniyappams can be relished for 2 or 3 days and they are truly appetizing because of the special flavour of the plantains. Replace the rice flour with ½ cup maida or wheat flour and the unniyappams thus made are also satisfactory. Non stick appakkaras are also available in the market.
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