PLANTAIN STUFFED CREEPS / MADAKKU APPAM

Kerala_Diaries_4

Here is my 4th winning recipe that i had submitted for the Cookery contest, based on Monsoon Recipe.  Stuffed rolled pancake known as “Madakku Appam” in Kerala.  Here in this recipe I have added 2 twist: one by using Ripe Plantain in the stuffing and to end with dipped the pancakes in egg batter and sautéed in Ghee or Butter.   My intention was to use home grown ingredients, as I did mention in my previous recipe post.  So in this recipe I have used 3 ingredients from my mom’s kitchen garden; coconut, plantain and eggs.  Yes u read it right, Eggs from our kitchen garden.  We have a small chicken coop (or hen house) to accommodate 5 hens and every day is an eggy day. 

Traditionally Plantains are not part of this recipe.  The regular stuffing is just made of coconut and sugar or jaggery.  Now you might wonder why I added Ripe Plantains.  Since, I had excess overripe Plantains I did not know what to do.  Usually ripe Plantains are steamed and eaten, but my kids don’t like the texture of overripe Plantains, neither had I wanted to let it go waste.  Hence I thought to give a twist to traditional recipe by adding the ripe Plantains and replace the sugar / jaggery.   

Yet again, a quick, super healthy, simple ingredients that are mostly home grown, is used to prepare this Snack.  This is such a lovely recipe that be relished during breakfast, evening snack or into your tiffin.

So here comes my 4th recipe in my venture to explore traditional Kerala recipes with a twist, “Plantain Stuffed Creeps” 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup All-purpose flour
• 1 ½ cup Water / milk
• 1 tbsp Sugar (optional)
• 1 pinch Salt
• 1 pinch turmeric – to enchance the colour
• Mix all the ingredients together without lumps. The batter should be of medium thick consistency (little lighter than dosa batter) and without any lumps.

For the filling:

• 1 cup Grated coconut
• 1 cup Ripe Plantain diced (Kerala Banana)
• ¼ tbsp. Cardamom powder
• 1 tbsp sugar  

Mix the ingredients for the filling and set aside.

Procedure:

In a bowl take grated coconut, chopped plantains, cardamom powder and sugar (optional).

Heat a pan and pour a small ladle of the batter. Spread it using the backside of the ladle and make as thin as possible creep/pancake. Drop little ghee (optional). After few seconds when one side is cooked, flip over to the other side. Cook for a few more seconds and remove to another plate to cool down.

Once it is cool down, place a spoon of plantain coconut mixture length wise on one side of the crepe and roll it out folding the sides. 

To add another twist. Heat a pan with a spoon of Butter / Ghee.  Beat an egg and dip in the stuffed creeps, then place the stuffed creeps/pancake on the hot Ghee and keep turning until its golden brown from all the sides.

For health conscious people the last twist of shallow fry in ghee is absolutely avoidable.

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