Ela Ada Recipe / Kerala Elayappam Recipe / Vazhayila Ada Recipe / Valsan / Ila Ada Recipe / Vazhanayila Appam / Vazhayila Ada Recipe / Rice Pancakes Wrapped in Banana Leaves / Ila Ada:
Brain Food for Breakfast!! Ela Ada or what we call back home as Elayappam, is a traditional Kerala delicacy and a very favourite dish among Malayalees. It is definitely one my favourite dishes. I always have nostalgic feelings to this recipe. It is usually served as an evening snack or as breakfast. Its dough is made of rice flour, with sweet fillings of grated Jaggery and coconut and steamed in banana leaves. My mom made this in weekends, as long as I can remember.
Banana leaves are available lavishly in Kerala. Here I get from my school. Seeing banana leaves in my hand, one of my colleagues even asked me ‘you are going to make curries (sabjis in Hindi) even with banana leaves”?!! I made her understand that “it’s for making an awesome dish, named as Ela Ada and these Elas or Banana leaves serve the purpose of a mould.
Main ingredients for making Ela Ada are Rice flour, Coconut and Jaggery. It’s Filling is made of Coconut and Jaggery, which is layered inside rice dough in banana leaves and steamed in a steamer. I am so crazy about this dish. My colleagues know it well. It’s similar to the Chinese Sweet Dumplings. Here is the fabulous recipe for Ela Ada or Elayappam..
Yield – 6 or 7
Calories – 80 / 0.33 cup rice flour.
Recipe cuisine: South Indian – Kerala.
Ingredients for Ela Ada:
Rice Flour (roasted) – 1 cup
Hot Water – as required (I used ¾ cup to 1 cup)
Ghee – 1 tsp.
Cardamom Powder – ¼ tsp.
Salt – as required
Plantain Leaves – 4
For Filling:
Coconut grated – 1 cup
Jaggery grated – ¾ cup
Cumin powder – ¼ tsp.
How to Make Elayappam:
Prepare the filling:
Melt Jaggery in a heavy bottom pan with three table spoons of water on low flame. Stir it constantly and make it thick syrup. Sieve it to another bowl to remove any impurities. Cool it to room temperature. Add grated coconut, cumin powder and mix it with a spoon and keep it aside.
Prepare the dough:
Take a large mixing bowl, add Rice powder, Salt, Ghee, Cardamom Powder. Pour hot water and mix it well with a wooden spatula. Allow this mix to cool slightly so that you can knead it well. Dough should be prepared in the form of Chappathi Dough without diluting much. Divide the dough in to big lemon size balls.
Take the plantain leaves. Take a one divided portion of the dough and place it on the centre of the banana leaf. Flatten it using your finger tips to form a thin even layer of dough. Place a table spoon of coconut jaggery mix on to one half of the flattened rice dough and spread it evenly. Fold the leaf in the middle and seal the edges gently by pressing it. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.
Steam this in a steamer or Idli cooker for 10 – 15 minutes. Switch off the flame and let it cool for few minutes.
My Recipe Notes on Ela Ada:
1. This is very much similar to the traditional Kozhukatta we make at home.
2. If you want to make it as breakfast, you can make this recipe night before, keep it in the fridge, steam it the next day to save time.
3. Cut Plantain leaves in to rectangles 6” squares roughly, without central strip.
4. The Banana leaves give nice flavour to the Ela Ada.
5. Spread one or two drops of oil on all over leaf with fingers (optional) before placing the dough on it.
6. If you don’t have banana leaves you can use parchment paper. Some people use Aluminium foil.
7. Adding hot water in the rice mixture make the dough smooth and softer.
8. If the dough sticks to your fingers, dip your finger tips in water and continue the process.
9. You can make this Ela Ada with Wheat flour also by following the same procedure.
10. You can make filling with jackfruit and coconut mixture called as Chakka Ada.
11. Let it cool slightly before serving.
12. The amount of water we use to make dough always varies depends on the rice flour you use.
13. You can use Sugar as a substitute for Jaggery.
Happy Cooking.. Cheers..
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Ela Ada / Kerala Elayappam.
Description
Ela Ada or Elayappam is a traditional breakfast dish of Kerala, a steamed rice pancake with Coconut, Jaggery filling kept inside a layer made out of rice flour and wrapped in plantain leaves.