Soni's Food

Indian Inspiration!

Rice Flour Pua-Indian style pancakes with Banana and Fennel #Glutenfree

08 | 03 | 2012
By Soni Sinha

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Today is the festival of Holi the festival of colors,celebrated all over India.Apart from the mythological story behind Holi of the triumph of good over evil, it is also celebrated to bid farewell to the winter and to welcome the beginning of the new season, spring.Its one of the most exhilarating holidays, that is full of fun, mischief and can get really really wild.If you’re in India during this time it will be hard to recognize anybody because all you’ll see is the colored faces of people everywhere 🙂

pua

And with all the fun, excitement of a holiday comes good food :)I remember gorging on multifarious varieties of food during Holi and they included many sweet and savory items like Pua,Mutton Curry,Puris,Dahi Wada, Kachoris etc etc..and its a long long list!

Of course, I cannot create the entire menu by myself here, but there is one thing I definitely look forward to making on Holi and that’s this Pua, a kind of Indian Pancake made with Bananas and Fennel.Pua can be of two types

  • Pua with All Purpose Flour,milk, sugar, bananas,fennel and cashews mixed into a batter and deep fried
  • Malpua that is made with the similar ingredients except the Banana and Fennel, but is then immersed in a sugar syrup after its deep fried~Best served with Rabri!

pua4

My mom always makes the first kind,the kind I try to make every Holi. But this time, I totally forgot to add All Purpose flour (originally required for this recipe) to my grocery list and had to look for options instead.I looked in my pantry and the only flour I could see was Rice Flour.What a Bummer!I could not go out to get it because I was expecting somebody to come fix something in my house, lets not even get into that (sigh!).I was determined to make my Pua, and due to the lack of options, I used Rice Flour instead.For some reason I could not deep fry since it was sticking to the bottom, so I tried pan-frying in a non-stick pan instead. They came out delicious!These are so good, that you could eat them for breakfast, snack or dessert.The flavors of banana with the fennel seed is pure magic and the cashews add that extra deliciousness.

Rice Flour Pua-Indian style pancakes with Banana and Fennel #Gluten free#Veg

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • Rice Flour or All Purpose Flour-1 cup makes about 8-9 Pua's
  • Milk-2 cups for rice flour or 1 cup for AP Flour enough to make a semi-thick droppable consistency
  • Banana-1 mashed
  • Fennel seeds-1 tbsp
  • Sugar-1/2 cup
  • Cashew chopped-1/2 cup
  • Oil- to panfry

Instructions
 

If using Rice Flour

  • Mix all the ingredients to form a smooth batter.
  • You can add a little more milk if the batter is too thick.
  • Heat oil in a non-stick pan.Take a small ladle and spoon the batter onto the pan, in batches.
  • Flip the Pua's once you notice air bubbles on one side.Cook the other side until done.

If using AP Flour

  • Heat some oil in a deep pan.
  • Drop a ladle of the AP batter into it.
  • Once its fluffs up, flip it over until the other side is light golden in color.
  • Drain out excess oil and continue in batches.Enjoy!!

 

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Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    Awesome recipe for Passover week in our home! I used nutmeg instead of cumin and it was a hit!

  4. mjskit says

    Don’t you just love it when the substitution yields a better outcome than the original recipe! Love the idea to pan fry rather than deep fry and the combo of banana with fennel – I’ve never had it but I can now imagine that it would be great! this recipe has been bookmarked!

  6. Soni says

    Thank you all for your lovely comments on my post.I will be posting the original Pua sometime in the future :)Nupur I will have to try the whole wheat/rice flour combo also.I’m sure its delicious!

  7. Nupur says

    Hey Soni, I cook them mixing Whole wheat flour with rice flour.. never tried completely with rice flour

    First time on your blog, its lovely !!

    Following you dear 🙂

    Cheers
    UK Rasoi

  8. Junia says

    i am totally bookmarking this! i love gluten free recipes :). and fennel and banana are awesome flavors.

  10. Kitchen Belleicious says

    the idea of fennel and banana is so intriguing and sounds so delicious! I love the thin indian style pancakes. Since they are so thin I might have to help myself to a couple of them- or well ALL of them! 🙂 Love this post

  13. Suchi says

    What a coincidence, I made mal pua for holi too 🙂 Yours look yummy…I could not get the shape right…mine were a sad bunch of misshaped mal puas…on my defence can say this was my first attempt…so next time I am in India, will pay more attention when my mom makes them…:-) Hope you had a lovely holi!

  14. Soni says

    Thanks Richa!This Pus is usually made in Esatern UP, Bihar and Bengal.The Banana and Fennel sure add a nice flavor!
    Thanks Poonam and Sonali for your lovely comments!

  17. Richa says

    i havent actually heard of pua.. the only pua i know was maal pua:).. these look so much healthier and i love the banana and fennel together in it.. a nice balanced snack with the cashews in there too.

  23. Only Fish Recipes says

    dear….I loved this recipe absolutely…it has all the ingredients of mal pua…but not deep fried….I like this version better …bookmarked !

  24. Balvinder Ubi says

    I am glad that you forgot all purpose flour and made these with rice flour. They are delicious, I know for sure. You just have to adapt that taste.

  25. Carmen Anderson says

    What a great idea Soni! I would love to try this recipe! I love pancake with banana, but i have never tried banana pancake! I bet they are delicious!!!!Have a great weekend! P.S Are they crispy or are they doughy like breakfast pancake ?

    • Soni says

      Thanls so much Julie, Anna and Carmen!!Carmen,the original version is very soft.The rice flour version is not as soft, almost chewy but definitely not crispy!