Sweet Plantain Bites

Ingredients:
Ripe and sweet plantains-2
Butter-2 tsp

Sugar-2 tsp
Milk-1/4 cup
Condensed milk-3 tsp
Grated coconut-3 tsp
Cardamon-1, ground
Vanilla essence-1 tsp

Method:
1. Slice ripe plantains into small rounds. Melt butter in a wide pan and shallow fry plantains until both sides are slightly brown.

2. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Randomly poke the plantain pieces using a fork or wooden skewer (the purpose of poking is to make the next soaking step easy) and pour the mixture over the plantains.

3.Cook covered for 5 minutes in low flame until all the pieces are soaked in the coconut-milk mixture.
Serve hot.

Banana Preserves/Banana Jam/ Pazham Varattiyathu/പഴം വരട്ടിയത്

Ingredients:
Ripe bananas- 6
Jaggery-3-4 medium sized pieces (you can substitute with 1 cup of regular sugar or brown sugar)
Lemon juice- 1 tsp
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Cardamom-2, crushed
Clarified butter/ghee- 2 tsp

This is one of the methods to use overly ripe bananas. You can use this preserves  as a spread on toasts, pancakes or to make banana bread or eat as the way it is.

1. Mash up the bananas. You can use a blender to mash them up into a fine paste (or it is also perfectly fine to leave a few chunks, for the texture of the preserves). Do not add any water during mashing.

2. Melt jaggery with 1/2 cup of water.

3. Select a wide and deep non stick sauce pan and a long stemmed wooden spoon. Combine the mashed banana with melted jaggery (If you are using regular sugar, simply mix the sugar with mashed bananas).

4. Continuously stir the banana mixture in medium heat. You will see the consistency of the mixture changes while you stir. When the volume of the mixture has been reduced to half, add the rest of the ingredients (lemon juice, vanilla essence, crushed cardamom and ghee).  

5. Keep stirring until the volume is almost 1/3 of that you have started with. Let it cool and then transfer into a clean jar with air tight/screw- cap lid. Leave the jar in refrigerator.

The taste of the preserves is very similar to chakka varattiyathu.

Caution: While preparing the banana mixture, it is very important to stir it continuously. Otherwise, it is going to bubble and splutter vigorously. Adjust the flame to minimize spluttering. Also, make sure you choose the right sized sauce pan and spoon.

How to Preserve Curry Leaves

The best method to preserve curry leaves is by freezing them along with water. This helps to preserve the color and flavor of the leaves for many months.

You just need:
1.curry leaves
2.ice cube tray
3. water
4. zip-lock bags (to store in freezer)

Collect the leaves into individual cubes in an ice tray. Add enough water to cover the leaves. Leave the tray in freezer for a few hours. Once it is frozen, remove the cubes from the tray and store in a zip-lock bag in the freezer.

 If you like to add the leaves into a curry, simply toss a couple of cubes into the curry/gravy. If you like to use the curry leaves for seasoning, there are two methods, 1) simply put a couple of cubes in water for 5 min.  Once the ice has melted, wipe the leaves with a towel and add into the oil, or 2) use butter instead of water for freezing. (I find freezing in butter is messy so I would recommend the first method)

Tips:
You can do the same methods to preserve cilantro or any fresh herbs in kitchen
You can also use butter instead of water