GIANT LEAVES IN MY BACKYARD

I could'nt beleive the size of these leaves in my compost heap!!Yes..I do have my own compost heap in my backyard(it helps me to be more environment friendly)(and my garden is benefitting from all natural compost) from which all sorts of fascinating plants are growing..Giant plants!!
There's a mango tree, two jackfruit trees, a few beans climbing out...and these huge leaves! N, my husband assures me that they have a tuberous root, which is very good and nutricious when cooked. We still haven't pulled the root because we wanted to see how big it will grow..
Anyway, we had a little bit of rain yesterday, and I had this great idea of using these leaves as umbrellas!! The kids were all for it and we had a grand time, traipsing around in the rain with our natural umbrellas...the only problem was, once the rain had subsided, and I had taken a few pics for the blog, the kids refused to come inside...they were having too much fun!!

Finally, I had to resort to some devious methods to tempt them inside...yes!you guessed right!
I offered them a bribe of that age old treat..Unniyappams!




UNNIYYAPPAM
Ingredients:

Roasted Rice powder 1 & 1/2cup
(can use puttupodi or idiyappam podi available in market )
Maida 1/2cup
Jaggery 1/2 kg
Grated coconut 1/2
small coconut pieces 4 tbsp
Ellu /sesame seeds 4 tbsp
Cumin seeds a pich
Cardamom seeds 5-6
Salt one pinch
Cooking soda a pinch (opt)
Oil-for frying


Method:

1. Heat a tbsp of dalda or ghee in a pan, then saute coconut bits in this till golden. Powder cumin and coriander seeds.

2. Grind coconut in a blender till soft with 1 tbsp water.

3. Heat jaggery with some water (enough to barely cover the crushed jaggery) to boiling point. When jaggery has fully melted in the water, drain, then keep to boil again in a deep vessel.( this is to prevent it from boiling over onto the cooktop.)Boil till it becomes a thick syrup.

4. Mix all ingredients together , and keep aside for at least half an hour.

5. Heat either dalda or oil in the unniyappa chatti, then pour 1 tbsp each of the batter into each depression.

6. Fry the unniyappams uncovered, till the bottom turns golden in color.

7. With the help of a fork turn the unniyappam to cook on the other side to a golden color. Take out of the oil and drain on a paper towel.

8. Serve hot or at room tempreture.


Tips:

1. Normally, the minute I buy jaggery here, I do step no.3, and keep the cooled jaggery syrup in my refrigerator. It will be fine for at least a year like that. The good thing about this is that you always have a supply of jaggery syrupready and you won't find it too cumbersome to make traditional recipes like Soogiyan,
Cherupayar paayasam
Ada pradhaman
Sharkkara ada
Kozhukkatta..etc.
It cuts your preparation time and effort drastically!!

2. You can also add over ripe mashed bananas for an added taste. Just substitute it for the maida . Use only 1/2 cup of banana plus 1 cup maida.