Banana Halwas: Choclate Banana Halwa

Choclate Banana Halwa

So when you have a bunch of bananas going ripe at the same time,  what do you do? Make Halwa!

Have utilized the leftover stock of one ounce of good baking choclate chunk, leftover from the holidays in this recipe. The halwa easily achieves its 'caramelized' brown colour from the addition of this ingredient. I have garnished the banana halwa with almond slivers as in the previous recipe but this will offer the decadant flavours of choclate, smooth banana with a hint of orange, in a single, satisfying teaspoon serving! This goes to We Should Cocoa, January Challenge.

Ingredients

 3 ripe Chiquita bananas

2 tbps clarified butter/ghee

2 tbps sugar [ or less according to taste]

1/4  tsp Vanilla extract

1/4 tsp grated orange zest

1 oz of good  bittersweet/ dark cooking choclate bar

[ One can also substitute bittersweet choclate chips.

Sweeter? Feel free to go ahead and use semi-sweet choclate chips!]

Method

Finely chop the choclate bar and keep aside.

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat 2 tbps of Ghee on medium high flame

Slice the bananas thin and add to the pan

After 5-6 minutes, start mashing the bananas with the back of the ladle and scraping the paste together.

At this stage one cannot leave the dish alone or else it will burn easily.

Add 2 tbps of sugar and the vanilla extract, mix well

Add 2 tbsps of heavy cream  and mix well

Add the finely chopped ounce of choclate at this stage and mix all the ingredients well.

After a couple of minutes add the orange zest

Keep stirring, until the banana-mash comes together in an even textured brown paste.

Cook for another 3-4 minutes and take off the heat.

Serves: 1 tsp each for 5- 6

Optional: Garnish with Almond Slivers

Banana Halwas: Coconut Banana Halwa

Coconut Banana Halwa

A bunch of baby bananas going into the over-ripe stage prompted this recipe! Banana's were not childhood favourites, neither was the preserve/jam/ varatti but the honey sweet baby varieties, which could be eaten in two bites,  with creamy yellow skin  intact, never failed to tempt.

This is an easy recipe, tweaked even more easily with different flavours.  This time it was coconut! This uses only 5 ingredients: bananas, coconut milk, sugar, cardamom and clarified butter. this goes to Ayeesha's  Anyone Can Cook event.

Ingredients

3 Cups Honey sweet small bananas, finely chopped

3 tsps clarified butter/ghee

2 pods of cardamom, powdered

3 tbps of thick coconut milk

or

2 tbsps of very fine coconut powder [ dried coconut powder, not the dessicated one]

2 tbsps of sugar

Optional: 4-5 slivers of almonds for garnish/ fresh fried coconut slivers

Method

Heat a heavy bottom pan,

Add the ghee

Add chopped bananas

Let it cook  on medium high for 4 minutes,

Stir, mash and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes

Add sugar and continue cooking on medium high heat.

Add the cardamom powder and mix well

Do not leave the halwa at this stage, since it will burn.

Keep an eye on the heat and reduce a little from medium high.

Add the coconut milk/ powder and mix well

Contiue cooking in the same method for another 10-12 minutes

or

Cook until the Halwa achieves the desired  caramelized color.

If you continue cooking without adding more ghee/ coconut milk/ cream, the halwa will tend to harden and take a more 'toffee-like' texture.

Banana Cardamom Halwa: Pazham Varatti

Cracked Textures....

This recipe will go to the Cooking With Seeds- Cardamom Seeds event hosted by Priya of  Priya's Easy and Tasty Recipes.

Serves 6: 1 Tablespoon each!

Ingredients

4 ripe Chiquita bananas

2 tbps clarified butter/ghee

4 tbps  sugar

4 cardamom pod seeds powdered, 

plus 2 more pods according to flavour

Method

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat 2 tbps of Ghee on medium high flame

Slice the bananas  and put in the  pan

Let it cook for about 10-12 minutes

The moisture would have almost evaporated and the bananas would have started turning colour.

Add powdered cardamom and mix well.

Start mashing the bananas with the back of the ladle and scraping the paste together.

At this stage one cannot leave the dish alone or else it will burn easily.

Fry until the bananas until they come together in an even textured brown paste.

The ghee would start separating from the paste

Add 4 tbps of sugar and mix well, frying on medium or medium low heat to prevent burning.

Add more powdered cardamom, if needed  and mix well.

Fry for another 3-4 minutes and take off the heat.

This will yield about 1/3 cup of banana halwa:

Have served it plain. One can garnish it with cashew or almond slivers.

Other versions of Banana Halwa posted in this blog.

Sweet Treats...

Banana Halwa, Organic Peanut Butter with Orange-
Choclate coating... came to the  rescue  for a quick sweet treat craving when the light was fading &  energy levels were low...

Ingredients

3 ripe/over-ripe bananas/ 2 Cups sliced bananas

3 tsp clarified butter/ghee

3 heaping tsps sugar

2 small pods green cardamoms

1/2 tsp grated orange zest

1/4 cup semi-sweet choclate chips for coating

3 tsps organic peanut butter/any smooth peanut butter paste

Method

Heat the Ghee/Clarified butter  on medium heat and add the bananas to  it,

 Let cook for about 5- 8 minutes

Then stay near the dish and keep stirring every now and then, or it will start burning,

Add 3 heaping teaspoons of sugar to the mix and keeping stirring every now and then,

Add the powdered cardamoms to the mix.

The mixture will start to come together in a ball at this point.

Keep turning and stirring the mass until a light choclate brown color.

If you prefer a more carmalized texture, turn the heat a little bit more higher and cook for a few more minutes, without leaving the mixture alone/stirring constantly.

Let cool.

Peanut Butter Paste: heat a pan until it is warm and reasonably touchable! :-)

Take it off the stove and warm the peanut butter paste to make it malleable

Spread it out to  a thin layer if you are not a great fan of peanut butter!

Chill in the refrigerator on a  plastic plate or foil/clingwrap backing for about 5 minutes

Take it out and wrap it around a tiny nugget of the halwa

Orange-Choclate: Start a double boiler and melt the choclate chips and stir in  1/2 tsp of grated zest.

Take a small spoon and decorate the Halwa nuggets.

One can decorate it with slivers of almonds  too. I have cut the sugar level in this dish. One can increase the sugar in the halwa and use bitter-sweet choclate chips for the coating. Not a great fan of peanut-butter hence kept the salty layer thin. The flavour progression was: orange-choclate, slightly salty peanut butter and carmalized banana with the finish of orange zest!

Guess?....