Ragi Ela Ada | Panjipullu Ada| Steamed Finger Millet Parcel

Hope everyone had a great Diwali with family and friends.And finally the wait for Diwali is over, and the drooling pics of sweets, savouries all over the blogosphere was overwhelming.Looking forward to drooling over 'Thanksgiving' recipes followed by 'Christmas' collections which marks the end of 2015.How fast does time fly??Whenever I look at my kids, I realize that time is really running;they were babies sometime back and now are school going.Anyway, can't stop the time, and we got to move on to keep pace with it.The traditional recipes of Kerala were very healthy and nutritious.All thanks to our great-grandparents who whipped these yummy recipes and were passed on to the next generations that did follow.But with time, many things changed, and those recipes have now been classified as the main source of carbohydrate mainly rice or tapioca (kappa) recipes and present day, people are asked to cut down carbohydrates as the increasing number of diabetics in Kerala takes its toll.What went wrong to all the healthy and nutritious foods?? Well…there are many factors to support these higher incidences.The sedentary lifestyle of people along with no exercise regimes has contributed to a large extent to this condition.Then, comes the pesticides, hormones injected in the plant right from the seedling to the fruit and animal products have added on to the situation.And the list goes on, where the main culprit to be blamed is the 'food'.Everything in moderation was the key principle what our grandparents followed as there wasn't much to waste, and they exercised well in the paddy fields, agricultural land and cultivated good organic foods too.Today the rice of what we eat is polished so neatly to attract buyers, whereas the rice of old times had the bran that made a whole nutritious food.I think these foods can still be enjoyed if we can actively bring about some changes in our lifestyle.

Moving on to today's post is a low carbohydrate steamed healthy snack that can be enjoyed by all age groups provided you moderate the amount of jaggery as per needs.Ragi is packed with iron and calcium.This is one of my favorite snack with ragi and make it often.Kids are not into the savory version of ragi, but ragi peechappam and ragi ela ada are their favorite.I have used frozen banana leaves but try to use fresh banana leaves to get the real flavors from the steamed banana leaves.The frozen leaves have very less aroma compared to that of the fresh leaves.The ragi flour is store brought and this can be prepared in very less time.These prepared adas can also be roasted in a mann chatti(clay pot) or kadai instead of steaming to give the ottada feel.I have tried both ottada version and ela ada version of this ragi snack and I feel in the ottada version, the filling becomes drier compared to the juicy steamed ones and I like the steamed ones better.Also, If you plan to dilute the jaggery (when added after straining the impurites) then coconut filling becomes dry.And so, I have used grated jaggery instead of purified jaggery, as there are no many impurities in the jaggery available here.This really adds that juicy feel when once cooked.If you are preparing this healthy snack for a diabetic or a person on low carbohydrate diet, then you may not add the amount of jaggery listed, but always reduce as required.Try these and enjoy making at home!!

Preparation time~15 minutes
Cooking time~15 minutes
Serves ~ 5 adas
Ingredients
for cover
ragi flour 1 cup

rice flour 1/4 cup
salt  a good pinch
water 1/2 cup

for filling
grated coconut 3/4cup
*jaggery grated 1.5cups
cardamom powder 1/2tsp
cumin powder 1/2 tsp

to wrap
banana leaves 5 or 6 pieces

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Method

• Sift the flours in a bowl and add a pinch of salt.Add boiled water and work to a chapathi like dough but a bit looser than chapathi as that gives soft adas(It's OK to have a sticky dough). Keep it covered for 10 minutes.
• In another plate, mix the grated coconut, grated jaggery, cumin powder and cardamom powder.Thoroughly mix and leave for five minutes for the jaggery to blend in.

• If using frozen leaves, thaw the leaves before use.Wash under running water.Cut out the banana leaves in rectangular shapes or any other desired shapes.
• Divide the dough in five equal portions and place one portion on the cleaned banana leaf.Using the fingers, spread the dough on the leaf evenly (keep a bowl of water ready at hand to dip your fingers in it, and then try spreading the dough.Eases the work).
• Now, place 2tbsp of the coconut-jaggery mixture on half of the spread dough, leaving a centimetre space at the edges.Fold the other half on top of the filling to cover it up and press down on the leaf to seal properly.
• Repeat the same step to make more ragi ela ada and keep ready.
• Heat water in a steamer and place the prepared ela ada in it (Please don't over fill the steamer with adas, leave space so that it gets cooked faster and also add sufficient water to cook otherwise the water in the steamer may dry up soon)
• Cook covered on medium heat for 10–12 minutes, or till the leaves starts to pull out from the adas or the ragi changes to dark colour.
• Remove from steamer and wait to cool lightly.Serve immediately just like that.

NOTES

* Adding rice flour is optional to ragi flour, you can make with ragi alone too, but I feel adding a little rice flour givesa nice texture to adas.
* You can use sugar instead of jaggery, too.But I feel jaggery is more healthy.
* I have used jaggery (1.5 cups) for kids, but for us just added a mild sweet flavour(1/2 cup).
* If you feel the jaggery has impurities, then it's better to dilute the jaggery in 1/4 cup water and strain the impurities.
* You can even add broken nuts and raisins to add taste to the filling.
* You can even try the ethakka filling in the ela ada that I tried earlier in this ragi ela ada, check out here.
* Cumin adds a nice flavor, omit if you don't like the flavors.

RELATED POSTS
* Ela Ada
* Ottada