Sannas

I have had sannas from Mangalore during my studies and used to love it and recently had it from a mangalorean restaurant in Bangalore. The taste of sannas made me nostalgic and was searching for its recipe. I found lots of recipes and tried a couple of it. Finally I settled with the taste and recipe of sannas which is the following recipe. And the irony is that the batter which is used for appam can be used for vattayppam and as well for sannas. Basically the ingredients are the same and I use small katoris to make sannas. And also used unpolished rice to make it more healthier. So without beating around the bush, let me straight away get onto the recipe

Ingredients

Idly rice - 1 cup
Unpolished rice - 1 cup
Paper aval ( beaten rice) -1 cup ( soaked for sometime or microwaved for 1-2 mins)
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup ( optional)
Yeast - 1/2 tspn

Note : If you don't want to use yeast at all please use half cup of sugar, else you can eliminate sugar, either of it is necessary and if u add sugar additionally also its fine, it will just enhance the taste and gives a mild sweetness.

Method:
Wash and soak the rice for few hours.
Grind the soaked rice, aval, grated coconut and sugar to a very fine paste.
Mix yeast in few tbspns of water . Add the yeast mixture to the batter and mix well.
Let the batter ferment for few hours. Add salt and mix well and keep for some 10-15 mins before pouring the mixture into molds.
Steam it for 12-15 mins and remove from molds.
Serve hot with you choice of curry.
Enjoy!! :)

Jam with fresh figs using jaggery syrup

Been wanting to try some jam for a long time, but always hesitate for the reason of amount of sugar being used in the same.This time I tried jam with figs and substituted a portion of sugar with jaggery syrup. Nevertheless my family loved it , hence posting and saving this recipe for me and for you for future use.

Following is the recipe

Ingredients 
Figs - 500 gms ( washed thoroughly and halved)
Zest of one lemon and juice of half a lemon
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Jaggery syrup - half cup
Cinnamon stick - 1

Pick a thick bottom flat vessel and add all the ingredients together and mix well. Keep stiring it , once it is half cooked use a potato masher to mash the fruit or use a hand blender to blend it off, I used the latter although few lumps/skins of the fruit will be remaining. Never mind !!! And then put the  cinammon stick and cook further, keep stirring and cook the jam further till it passes the gel test

Do a gel test to check whether the jam is ready  :For a good gel, test a small amount on a very cold saucer: Put the saucer in the freezer for a few minutes, put a little of the fig mixture on it, then return to the freezer for 1 minute. When a good gel stage is reached, the surface of the fruit mixture will wrinkle slightly when pushed with a finger.

Meanwhile sterilize the jar to store jam and store the jam while it is still hot and your healthy home made fig jam is ready!!