Elai adai

Elai adai is a kerela delicacy. Its steamed rice pudding with jaggery jackfruits filling. The specialty is, it is steamed in banana leaf.

Elai adai is my childhood favourite. My grandma used to make it during jack fruit season. After marriage, I tasted this I ordered this in kumarakom a kerala restaurant. Before it arrived, I was giving so much hype to my husband..  but it was not upto my expectations.. the white portion was too thick..  so I made up my mind to try it at home. But I totally forgot that. Quick promises.. are like that..

Recently I went to Palakkad to my sis in law house.. I tasted elai adai there.. it was so good. Got the recipe for her mom in law.

Very easy to make.. and yummy.

Ingredients for filling:

·         Jack fruit– 3 pieces (finely chopped)

·         Jaggery – 1 cup

·         Water – ½ cup.

·         Grated coconut – 1 cup

·         Ghee – 1 tsp.

·         Cardamom powder  - ¼ tsp

Ingredients for outer layer:

·         Rice flour – 1 cup (from raw rice)

·         Salt – a pinch

·         Water – as much as required.

Filling preparation:

Heat a thick bottom kadai, add jaggery and water. Let it melt completely. Switch off and filter the impurities.

Again transfer the jaggery syrup to the kadai. Once it starts boiling, add the coconut gratings and ghee.

Cook it for about 5 mins, with stirring, till leaves the sides.

Add the chopped jackfruit pieces and cook it for about 3 mins.

Add the cardamom powder, mix well and switch off the stove. Let the mixture cool completely.  

Batter preparation:

Take a cup of rice flour in a bowl. Add water little by little, till it is like dosa batter. Mix well without any lumps. Batter is now ready.

Folding Method:

Now, we need to make the banana leaves ready. Remove the stem part of the leaf. Cut them into squares as shown below. (15 cm *  15 cm approx) We may need 10 pieces.

Heat the leaf in the flame so that it turns soft. It prevents from breaking while we fold. Don’t burn it. Be careful with your fingers too.  Keep the leaves aside.

Fill water in the idli pan. Keep the idli plates and switch it on. If you have a steamer with plates, that is also fine.

Take a leaf, turn it back side. This is because we don’t want lines to be seen.

Take a small ladle full of batter and pour in centre of the leaf and spread it into a circle. Not very thick or thin.

Now put one tsp of filling scattered in one side of the circle.

Fold the leaf into half with filling in one side. 

Give 2 small folds in all open sides so that the batter will not come outside while cooking.

Place it upside down in the idli plates, so that the folds will be pressed down and will not open.

Keep up to 5 pieces and close the lid and steam it for about 7 minutes.

Repeat the process for the rest of the batches.

A small graphics for the folding..

Serve it with tea.