Unnakaya

Unnakaya is a popular sweet in the Malabar region of Kerala. A sweet filling is wrapped in banana dough, and the parcel is deep-fried. Each one is shaped into a spindle that tapers at both ends and fried until golden.

Unnakaya and a cross-section showing the filling. 2015, Renupradhul / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Reduced-size version from the source; no content changes after retrieval.

Wrapping a Sweet Filling in Banana Dough

In one example from Kerala Tourism, the bananas are steamed and peeled, and the flesh is mashed into a dough. In a separate pan, cashew nuts and raisins are fried in ghee, and eggs are scrambled. Coconut, cardamom, sugar and a little water are then added to make a moist filling. The banana dough is spread out on the palm, wrapped around the filling, and tapered at both ends before frying.

Steamed banana does not need flour. Once mashed and pressed together, it becomes a dough that can hold a filling. The ripeness and moisture of the bananas affect how easily the dough can be handled. The aroma of the fried exterior combines with the sweet egg and coconut filling and the texture of the nuts.

In an example from the home cook Athira Sooraj, the bananas are ripe but not overly soft, and the filling contains ingredients such as coconut, cashew nuts, raisins and flattened rice. This method uses no egg, but the filling is still wrapped in steamed, mashed banana, and the ends are closed before frying.

Teatime and Wedding Mornings

In Malabar, unnakaya is eaten with tea or coffee. It is also served at weddings and at iftar, the meal eaten after sunset during Ramadan. The cook Ummi Abdulla described weddings in Thalassery. After the groom had been welcomed at the bride’s house, sweets such as unnakaya were set out at breakfast alongside pathiri and porridge. The food each household could provide varied, and the way celebration guests are served has changed over time.

The same region also makes pazham nirachathu. For this dish, the banana is slit open instead of mashed, stuffed with a filling such as coconut, and coated in batter. For unnakaya, the banana flesh is mashed first and used as the outer casing, so it can be shaped into a spindle around the filling. Fillings vary, and some methods do not use coconut.

Glossary