Ripe Banana Sweet Balls| Undan Pori

This year was my first Ramadan where I had to make deep-fried goodies almost every day. So much that at one point I was lost for ideas and another time I just used to feel satiated looking at the fried pile! But nothing seemed to stop Mr F from wanting more and I shamelessly gobbled away knowing very well that its catastrophic for my body. The pleasures of eating deep-fried food are worth a few pounds! 😛 But I would not advocate that because now I have gained 6 pounds! :-O

It is etched in stone - Weight loss and I are always together and inseparable.

Today's recipe of Undan Pori is an outcome of my effort to make more Kerala tea-time snacks. I never went further than onion pakoras and ripe plantain fritters so it was high time I add new items to our menu. So when I was skimming through Pinterest for inspiration and “knowledge”, my eyes fell on these beauties. Though I have never heard of or had this before, the recipe seemed very familiar. I still don't know if it is called by any other name. Back home, mom makes something with similar ingredients but her mixture would be in batter form like that of liqamat. But here for Undan Pori, the mixture becomes a dough and is shaped into balls and deep-fried.

From what I read, Undan Pori is a sweet tea-time snack served in tea stalls in Kerala. I made it once before Ramadan without coconut chunks and then again tweaked it a bit for iftar. The second time around I tried with raw sugar and desiccated coconut.

Updated Image 20th October 2017

Made a batch with brown sugar. The dough was too sticky. So wet your fingers, take a good pinch and make balls before dropping in hot oil. We had these with a dash of Nutella 🙂

This recipe is perfect for two and best with tea!

Adapted from reciperoll

Ripe Banana Sweet Balls| Undan Pori

INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoon jaggery powder or brown sugar, melted in ¼ cup boiling water
1 tablespoon ghee
1 to 2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut or freshly grated coconut
1 big banana or 2 small bananas, mashed

Dry Ingredients:
½ cup and 2 tablespoon wheat flour
3 tablespoon rice flour
a pinch of baking soda
¼ teaspoons cardamom powder
salt to taste

Oil to deep fry

Note: If you are using jaggery blocks, then break them and melthemit in boiling water. If you don't get this, I read that the best substitute would be Muscovado or demerara sugar.

METHOD:

Heat ghee in a pan and roast the coconut till golden brown.
Add the mashed banana to the cooled jaggery or brown sugar syrup
Take another bowl and add all the dry ingredients along with the banana mixture and fried coconut
Mix and make a sticky dough
Heat enough oil to deep fry the undan poris.
Keep a bowl of water ready to wet your fingers each time to make the desired size of balls
Drop enough balls in the hot oil carefully and fry until golden brown on medium flame
Serve hot with hot tea!

Have some ripe bananas? get to making Undan Pori today! and workout tomorrow! 😛