Pazham appam/Steamed rice cake with ripe banana

Ingredients

Rice flour/Appam podi - 3 cups

Thin extract of coconut milk - 5 1/2 cups.

Thick extract of coconut milk - 1/2 cup (Thick coconut milk is used to pour over the batter to give a creamy texture)

Sugar -3 tbsp

Banana/Nendrapazham/Ethappazham - 2 or 3

Cardamom powder

Method

Mix 2 cups of thick coconut milk and 2 1/2 cups of water to make 51/2 cups of thin extract of coconut milk.

Mix rice flour, 5 1/2 cups of thin extract of coconut milk, salt, sugar, and cardamom powder to make a watery batter.

Grease a steel plate with oil, pour this batter and sprinkle some chopped banana, and thick coconut milk of about 2 tbsp. Steam this for 15 minutes. Remove appams from steamer, cut into bite size pieces and enjoy.

Continue steaming the remaining batter in batches, sprinkling chopped banana, and pouring 2 tbsp of thick coconut milk.

You can use idli molds to make mini appams the same way shown below.

Peechinga Chemeen Ularthu/Ridge gourd with prawns and tomato

Ingredients

Peechinga/Ridge gourd - 2 small

Tomato - 1 medium

Onion - 1 medium

Prawns cooked - 1/2 cup

Garlic - 1 tsp

Ginger - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves

Kashmiri Chilli powder - 1 tbsp

turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

salt

oil

Method

Cut ridge gourd into pieces.

Heat oil in a pan, add garlic, ginger, and curry leaves followed by onion. Saute the onions until light brown in color. Add kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric powder and stir. Add tomato. When tomato is mushy, add ridge gourd and salt. Close the lid. When the ridge gourd is half cooked, add cooked prawns. Close the lid again. Open the lid to see if the ridge gourd is cooked. When done, switch off the stove.