Plantains are the big Kerala Banana, different than the regular banana. “Exotic Plantain Boats” is a healthy and filling desert prepared by stuffing in fresh coconut and assorted nuts into the plantains and then saute them in ghee. This is a good way to incorporate fruits for snacks and desserts. And if you have an intense sweet tooth, then drizzle some honey or chocolate sauce on this simple humble ripe plantain and make it look even more Exotic.
I am a great fan of Plantains and few years back only I was amazed to learn from my dear friend and ex-colleague (Ms. Fais) that there are hundreds of Malabar snacks prepared from Plantains, while her mother served me "Unnakkaya", an another famous Malabar delicacy. The idea of my today's recipe originated from the Malabar cuisine, known as “Pazham Nirachathu”, an inevitable snack served at Iftar (Iftar is a meal that is consumed in the evening when Muslim’s break their fast during Ramzan / Ramadan period). Pazham Nirachathu in Malayalam means Stuffed Ripe Plantain. Though Pazham Nirachathu is common snack specifically in Northern Kerala - Malabar region (India), yet everyone has their own version for this recipe stuffing. My version name is “Exotic Plantain Boats”.
Ingredients:
- 3 nos Ripe Kerala banana (Plantain)
- 1/2 cup grated Coconut
- ¼ cup Cashew nuts (unsalted)
- ¼ cup Raisins
- ¼ cup Cherries
- ¼ teaspoon Cardamom powder
- 1 tablespoon Sugar
- 3 – 4 tablespoon Vegetable Ghee
- Garnish: Cherries
Procedure:
Chop the cashew nuts into smaller pieces.
In a non-stick pan, heat about 1 teaspoon of ghee and fry the chopped nuts. Fry the raisins too in the same ghee. When they have swollen, drain and keep aside. In the below picture, i chopped the nuts after frying it, which i don't recommend.
In the remaining ghee, on the lowest flame, roast the grated coconut along with brown sugar until the sugar is caramelized to light brown and coconut start releasing a nice nutty aroma. Remove from the pan and keep aside.
Combine all the three roasted items together along with half the quantity of cherries. Reserve the remaining cherries for the final garnish.
Now take the Plantains, one at a time and make long narrow incisions length-wise, but do not slit it full.
Spoon in 2 tbsp of roasted mixture into the incision, slowly pushing them inside with both your thumb, to allow more place for the mixture. Repeat, till you are done with all the bananas.
In the same non-stick pan, add more ghee/oil and shallow fry these bananas with the incision side down first. It is absolutely your choice to use either cow’s ghee or vegetable ghee. Since this is a fruit item, I prefer to use vegetable ghee and secondly my kids do not like the fragrance of cow’s ghee for certain recipes.
Do try this recipe and don’t forget to let me know if you like it through comments. Be kind to like my page and share with your friends using the buttons on the side, that would really encourage me. God Bless!
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