Kelewele---A Spiced Plantain Snack from Ghana( Semi-Baked)

These days I have been seeing lots of posts on African cooking from my fellow bloggers and wanted to try a recipe myself.I was googling for vegetarian recipes from Africa and came across this wonderful snack---"Kelewele".I was amazed at all the wonderful recipes that are very similar to Indian cooking.I learned that there are many spices and vegetables that are commonly used by Indians and Africans.Going through these recipes I also  understood that there are similarities in the cooking methods of both the authentic cuisines.

Coming to the recipe I am making now ,it is a very famous street food in Ghana.It is called Kelewele ----meaning "spiced plantains".I  made this recipe from the information that I gathered from here and here and here .Kelewele is described as a delicacy prepared from ripe plantain well seasoned with ginger,chilli,onion, cloves,cinnamon and lemon juice and fried in hot oil to give it a mouth-watering flavour.

Main Ingredients :

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Plantain.........................1(small)

Lemon juice..................4 tsp

Salt................................to taste

Palm Oil......................... for frying( I used 2tbsp of Canola Oil)

Ingredients For Grinding  :

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Yellow Onion................1/2( make a paste)

Ginger...........................2inch (paste)

Cayenne Pepper............2tsp (I used Paprika)

Cloves...........................4 (powdered)

Cinnamon......................small piece(powdered)

Preparation :

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Take a  plantain .Wash it and peel it.Slice the plantain into 1/4 inch thick rounds .I used the bigger half for making these chips.(Don't throw the peel you can make chutney with it).

Make a paste of the onion and ginger.

Place onion-ginger paste, paprika, cloves-cinnamon powder and salt in a plate and mix them all together with lemon juice.

Once the masala is ready place the plantain pieces in the plate and coat them with the masala.

Meantime place the skillet on med-high pour the oil and heat it and once the oil is hot start frying them.

As I placed the plantain pieces in the pan of hot oil they soaked all the oil and there was no oil in the pan.I cooked it that way in the pan for 5minutes but did not feel good about it.(Original recipe calls for deep frying but I wanted to use less oil).

It needs more oil. I did not want to pour more oil in the pan so I transferred the chips into the baking tray and baked them in the toaster oven at 450F for 10 minutes.

Kelewle(plantain chips) tasted so good inspite of all my experimenting and they had a unique flavor.Sure were a hit.

Note :

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1) I am surely going to make these again as we all loved it , friends who were visiting loved them too.Next time it will be a completely baked snack .

2) Plantain should not be very firm nor ripe.

3) I had a very big plantain with me,so I used half of it to make this recipe.

4) I always have cloves-cinnamon powder ready for some dishes so I used that powder in the masla paste.

I am sending this to Bake Off Event hosted by Champa .

Baked French Fries(Healthy & Fatfree)

This is a very simple and easy to make recipe of healthy baked fries.My kids were asking for french fries and hence this quick home-made recipe. Let us get into the preparation of this yummy recipe-----------

Main Ingredients :

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Potato...........................1 large

Seasoning Ingredients :

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Chat Masala...................2tsp

Curry Leaves..................few

Oil.................................to spread on the tray

Preparation :

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Rinse the potato under water, peel the skin and cut into long sticks.Meanwhile preheat the toaster oven at 425 F.

Place the potato sticks in a bowl add chaat masala ,finely shredded curry leaves and mix well.

Now take a baking tray and line it up with foil and spread very little oil on the foil so that the fries do not stick to it.Spread the fries on the tray without overlapping and put the tray in the oven.Let it bake for 10 minutes.

 
After 10 minutes take the tray out and flip the fries to the other side and put it back in the oven and bake for 10 more minutes.Once done take the tray out.You can see the well baked fries.

Yummy and healthy french fries are ready to be served.

Note :

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1) I used very little oil(maybe 1.5tsp) to spread on the foil so that fries do not stick to the foil.

2) I did not add any salt to the fries as there is salt in the chaat masala.

3) I added only chaat masala and curry leaves for flavoring . You can add other herbs and spices too.

I am sending this to Bake Off Event hosted by Champa .

Vegetable and Papaya Pizza(Healthy and Lowfat)

This is one more kid-friendly pizza recipe with Indian flavors. Very simple and easy to make and ready in 5 minutes. In this pizza I added different vegetables and fruits too. Again the base for the pizza is an onion naan . My kids had fun adding toppings to the pizza and loved eating it too.

Let's get started with the pizza-----------------------------

Main Ingredients :

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Onion Naans........................................2

Pineapple Salsa....................................2tbsp

Green Pepper......................................small(diced)

Red Onion...........................................small(diced)

Tomato...............................................small(diced)

Lowfat Mozarella Cheese Stick............1(diced)

Papaya Fruit........................................1cup(diced)

Seasoning Ingredients :

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Chat Masala...............................for sprinkling on the pizza

Preparation :

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First wash the vegetables and cut them into small pieces and keep aside.Cut the cheese stick into small pieces too.Now preheat the toaster oven at 450 F.

Place the naan on a plate and spread one tablespoon of pineapple salsa on the naan.

Now place the cheese pieces on the naan.

Now top the naan-pizza with  diced red onion  and green pepper.

Later top it with diced tomato pieces and sprinkle chaat-masala .

Now place the naan-pizza in the toaster oven and cook  for 3 min.Now turn the knob to broil and let the cheese and veggies broil for 1 or 2 minutes.

Voila! Yummy Veggie Pizza is ready.

  Veg-Papaya Pizza

For this veg-papaya  pizza prep the naan just like above with the rest of the pineapple salsa and veggie toppings.Finally top the pizza with diced papaya pieces and sprinkle chaat masala.

Now place it in the toaster oven at 450 F and cook for 3 minutes and now turn to broil and cook for a minute or 2 and yummy Veg-Papaya pizza is ready.

We have pineapple(salsa)  and papaya in this pizza for a sweet touch.We all enjoyed this new fruit topping in our naan-pizza .Hope you too try it and enjoy it.

I am sending this to Bake Off Event hosted by Champa .

Apple-Banana-Chocolate----Honey------Walnut-Yogurt-Cake(Eggless)

I have been planning to do this cake for a long time and finally I did it.This is the recipe I came up with....What is this?The name looks like the representation of an alphabet chart. Right ?Well ,A for Apple and B for Banana are really fruits of health and the first fruits kids enjoy from the time they start to eat.So I thought I should start my dessert section with kids in mind even the youngest ones.Also when we think of cake it sounds like a pile of carbs.We can try to reduce that and make it better and healthy.The thought of cake makes us think that it must be made of egg.You are wrong.This is an eggless cake. 

Enough talking , let's get into baking this lovely,kid friendly and health friendly cake.This is how it goes

"A B C-----------Z--this is the cake I would like to eat , mommy won't you make it for me"(sing it like an alphabet song).

Dry Ingredients :

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Baking Soda....................2tsp

Baking Powder................2tsp
Sugar..............................1/2cup
Wheat Flour....................2cups

Wet Ingredients :

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Apple Sauce....................1 (4oz cinnamon flavor)

Banana Mashed...............1(very ripe)

Canola Oil.......................1cup

Honey.............................1/3cup

Milk................................1/3cup

Vanilla Essence...............2tsp(pure)

Yogurt............................2cups

I call the following ingredients as Enrichment Ingredients because these both ingredients enrich the flavor of the cake---- as chocolate chips are for the sweet tooth as well as for good health and the walnuts are for the healthy brain and heart(everything in moderation is healthy). 

Enrichment Ingredients :

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Chocolate Chips..............1/3cup

Walnuts...........................1/3cup

Preparation :

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First , Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

While the oven is preheating, take a large bowl and sift 2cups of wheat flour , baking soda and baking powder together.

In an other bowl take all the wet ingredients and whisk them all together with a hand-mixer.Now add the sugar and whisk it well till they all blend well.

Now add the whisked wet ingredients to the sifted dry ingredients and mix it well with the hand-mixer and make a nice batter.Now add the chocolate chips and walnuts to the cake batter and fold them in nicely.

While you are you can take help of your kids in getting the baking pan ready.I used muffin pan and a loaf pan to bake.So my 3yr old helped me by lining up the muffin tin with paper cupcake liners and my 6yr old helped by lining the loaf pan with a parchment sheet .

Once my cake batter was ready I filled all the compartments of the muffin pan and poured the remaining batter in a loaf pan.

My oven is preheated ,in goes the muffin tray and the loaf pan.I set the oven timer for 30minutes.The baking has started.After 15 minutes I opened the oven door to check how the process is going on. If you open the oven door during baking process make sure that you increase the oven temperature by 5degrees F(i.e. 355degrees F) for the rest of the 15 minutes.

                                   

Once the timer sarted(30 minutes completed) to beep, I checked if the cake in the muffin tray and loaf pan is done or not by priciking it with a tooth pick and the tootht pick came out clean.So I switched off the oven and took the muffin tray and loaf pan out of the oven and let it cool.The cake has puffed up well and looks very yummy and attractive.Once they cool down the muffins and the loaf of cake come out very easily without disturbing the shape.

Finally, the yummy Apple-Banana-Chocolate-----Honey------Walnut-Yogurt-Cake is ready.

Notes :

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1)Kids & Adults can equally enjoy this cake.

2)Just FYI , I wrote all the ingredients in an alphabetical order.

3)This cake is not too sweet, it is just right.(If you want it to taste more sweet like  the cakes from the  bakeries you can add more sugar.)

4)Nothing in this world is 100% perfect.Same way I feel that a Dessert(as it is a sweet dish it sure has high calories)can't be 100% Healthy---but we can substitute healthy ingredients while making the dessert and make it  right.

 For example in this recipe, I used healthy ingredients like

1)Wheat Flour(instead of All Purpose Flour)

2)Canola Oil(instead of Butter)

3)Yogurt(instead of Eggs)

4)Honey(to lessen the usage of sugar)

5)Walnuts( for good heart & brain health )

6)Banana( rich in phosphorous)

7)Apple Sauce(not only a comfort food but also protects against breast cancer)

8)Chocolate Chips(are very rich in copper,magnesium,calcium and minerals---only if taken in moderation)

So all in all we have made ourselves a healthy cake.We can eat a piece for morning breakfast too.(You can serve this with ice-cream or with caramel sauce.Use your imagination there are many possible ways)You know we are trying to keep it healthy.So enjoy it just by itself.

Wish you all Happy Baking.

I am sending this recipe to Sunday Snacks-Healthy Snacks Event being guest hosted by Divya, which was initially started by Hima and later taken over by Pallavi.

I am sending this recipe to  Kids Delight Wholesome Breakfast Event hosted by Srivalli.

I am sending this to CFK-WWF Event hosted by Priya Mitharwal and started by Sharmi .