Ada

A rice-flour parcel steamed inside a banana leaf, which is the mould.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 300 g raw rice flour
• 450 ml water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 250 g fresh coconut, grated
• 200 g jaggery, grated
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 12 pieces of banana leaf, about 20 cm square

Method

1. A RICE-FLOUR PARCEL IS STEAMED INSIDE A BANANA LEAF, WHICH IS THE MOULD. Its article gives that as the definition: ada CONSISTS OF RICE PARCELS ENCASED IN A DOUGH MADE OF RICE FLOUR, WITH SWEET FILLINGS, STEAMED IN A BANANA LEAF, and it IS MADE OF RAW RICE FLOUR, SUGAR OR JAGGERY, AND GRATED COCONUT. The leaf is not packaging. It holds the shape, it scents the dough, and it is why this is a flat parcel where kozhukkatta is a free-shaped ball and modak is pleated.
2. SO THE THREE SWEETS ARE THE SAME TWO INGREDIENTS AND THREE DIFFERENT MOULDS. Rice flour round coconut and jaggery, shaped by hand, pleated by hand, or spread in a leaf. Kozhukkatta and modak are each on their own page.
3. COOK THE FILLING FIRST AND LET IT GO COLD. Coconut and jaggery together over a low heat, eight or ten minutes until it holds in a mass, then cardamom off the heat.
4. MAKE THE DOUGH WITH BOILING WATER. Salted water to the boil, rice flour in, stirred to a mass with a spoon handle, then kneaded smooth while warm. Rice flour worked cold stays gritty.
5. SOFTEN EACH LEAF OVER A FLAME FOR A FEW SECONDS. From stiff and matt to glossy and foldable. A dry leaf splits along the fold.
6. SPREAD THE DOUGH THIN ON HALF THE LEAF, WITH WET FINGERS. Two or three millimetres, over about half the square. Thicker and the middle is still raw when the outside is done.
7. FILLING ON THE DOUGH, THEN FOLD THE LEAF OVER AND PRESS THE EDGES. The leaf closes it; there is no sealing of dough to dough.
8. STEAM THEM FIFTEEN MINUTES AND SERVE THEM IN THE LEAF. Opened at the table, because the scent is half of it. Its article notes ada is usually prepared on Onam, and describes POOVADA, made IN THE TIP END OF THE PLANTAIN LEAF with a sprinkling of THUMBAPOO, the white flower Leucas aspera.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes