Elai adai:

Elai adai is kerala special dish. It has wonderful aroma cooked in banana leaves, this is steam cooked variety. Healthy, soft and delicious sweet liked by all. This sweet is specially made during vinayagar chathurthi as prasadham to lord Ganesha.Fillings can be sweet or spicy according to your preference.

Banana leaves are also excellent for cook, as it allows the steam to penetrate the food inside or on top of it. You can use banana leaf to line a steamer, or to wrap your food and then steam it.

Banana leaves have a waxy coating that has a subtle but distinct flavour. When hot food is placed on the leaves, the wax melts and lends its flavour to the food, making it taste better. We cut a small square piece of banana leaf and place it near the frying pan. We simply wipe it with water and then take a required amount of batter and place it over the leaf, make small rounds and then deep fry or steam cook. Banana leaves are also used all over the world for cooking various things from fish, chicken, idlies and even certain dessert use banana leaves. Try to use tender leaves, so it does not tare easily. The dishes cooked by wrapping it banana leaves have an unique flavor. If you have not tried cooking with banana leaves, I strongly suggest you try few recipes with it.

Ingredients:

Banana leaf-1 long

Rice flour-1 cup

Coconut grated-3/4 cup

Elaichi powder-1/4 tsp

Salt- pinch of it

Cooking oil or coconut oil-1 tsp

Jaggery-3/4 cup

Nuts and dates-1 1/2 tbsp (optional)

Ghee-1 tsp

Method to prepare filling:

Heat a tsp of oil in a kadai add  dates and nuts fry for a while, add grated coconut and then add jaggery it melts and mixes with coconut, stir well and switch off.

Method to prepare Adai dough:

1.Boil water with one tsp of oil and 1 pinch of salt to it.

2.Take a wide bowl put the rice flour and add boiled water to it, gradually mix it with a spatula, when the rice flour gets thicken stop adding water and mix it to a thick dough as we kneed for chapathi batter.

Procedure to prepare elai adai:

1. Cut banana leaves to lengthwise pieces, apply oil to it, take a lime sized dough and spread it thin on the banana leaf, place the filling in the middle.

2. Fold it carefully such that the batter does not comes out of the leaf.

3. Boil water in idly pan or steamer, close and cook it for 10 minutes in medium flame.

Now elai adai is ready to serve.