Malabar Kai Pola
Good evening lovelies.. I have been MIA for a couple of days now. It's just that it is Ramadan and I am not getting time to post much here.! But I have lots to share with you guys.
Anyways, let get back to business! Today I am sharing my Kai pola recipe which is the easiest sweet snack you can make for iftar. Since this year's Ramadan started I have been cooking mostly traditional dishes for iftar.. Which is good in a way. I didn't want to make new dishes that I have in my mind, because Ramadan memories for all of us is about our traditional mom cooked dishes that we mostly devour during iftar.
Kai pola is one of the most authentic and popular dishes of the Malabar cuisine. Makes the perfect sweet treat for iftar!
Well this is one such recipe, many of us might already know how to prepare Kayi Pola (Plantain Kums/Cake), but off late I have been receiving a lot of requests for preparing Kayi pola perfectly!
I am one person who loves the kayi to be caramelized well before it goes into the pola mixture to be cooked on low. In my beginning days of cooking I always burnt the down part of the kayi pola and always went mad thinking why this happened and started decreasing the sugar amount. Even thought the pola comes out great, but the sweetness would be off side. So I was on a search to perfect my Kai pola without decreasing the sugar content, (as having more sugar content helps the pola to turn brown. Or burn more quickly without the insides being cooked properly).
So one fine day my bhabhi comes up with the idea of how her mother does this part. After you pour the pola mixture to the pan greased with ghee, keep the pan closed for 5 minutes on medium low heat and whilst that cooks, keep a flat pan/tawa on the lowest heat setting. Right after the 5 minutes move the lid, add the roasted cashews and close the lid and place the pan with pola on the flat tawa for 20-25 minutes, check if it cooked by inserting a toothpick.
Also what I have noticed is that many YouTube videos and other recipes shows that the egg and sugar is blended in a mixer jar before pouring into the ghee greased pan. This is a big no no, the mixing of eggs and sugar accumulates bubbles in the mixture which might look like you would get a fluffy Kai pola. But once the kayi pola is cooked it comes out all shrinked.
These tips might be nothing new to many of you but there are a few newbies struggling to perfect a kayi pola without burning the base and sides of the pola. Hope this helps!
Let's move on the ingredients, which are minimal and let's get started to prepare the easiest kayi pola.
Ingredients :
- For 2 ripe Platains
- 4 Eggs
- 10 leveled tsp Sugar/according to taste
- Pinch of Salt
- 1/4 Cardamom powder
- 8-10 Cashews and Raisins
- Ghee 3 tbsp
Instructions :
- Chop the ripe plantains into cubes and fry them in the ghee until dark brown.
- In the same ghee brown the cashews and Raisins, be careful not to burn
- In a bowl Crack 4 eggs and add the sugar, cardamom and pinch of salt to balance the sweetness. And mix using a fork until incorporated.
- Next in a non stick small pan/vessel pour the ghee used and smear on all sides and pour in the egg mixture and sprinkle the fried plantains and finally garnish with cashew cut into halves. Now keep the pan on med low flame for 5 minutes while heating a flat pan.
- After 5 minutes place the vessel with kayi pola on the flat pan and let it get done for another 20-25 minutes on low heat.
- Insert a toothpick in the middle and check if it's done.
Easy Kayi Pola ready! Enjoy! 😋
Notes - for all tips and tricks please read the blog post ❤️
