“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”…

Love is in the air and most of the people are seen busy getting gifts for their loved ones. I’ve decided that this Valentine’s day I am going to express my love to my valentine through delicious food. When everything seems to fail, delicious food helps me to win over my husband’s heart. I am not going to wait till dusk to make a special dinner for him, but this time love showering is going to start from dawn itself, the moment he wakes up.

Who wouldn’t love to see breakfast ready on the dining table as soon as they jump out of the bed? My husband loves this and I terribly fail to do so almost everyday. So this valentine’s day I am going to surprise him by this special Valentine’s day breakfast. If you are someone just like me wanting to surprise your husband or wife right from the dawn of Feb:14 th, then do join me and here I share with you an easy, yet delicious and nutritious breakfast.

Valentine’s Day Breakfast

Heart shaped French Toast

Ingredients:

• Whole Grain bread- 4 or according to your needs
• Eggs- 3
• Sugar- 2 tbsp or according to your needs
• Cinnamon powder- 1/4 tsp
• Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp
• Butter or Ghee- 1 tsp per slice

Preparation:

• Whisk eggs, sugar, cinnamon powder, vanilla extract in a bowl and keep aside.

• For making heart shaped french toast, you need to get a heart shaped cookie cutter, available in almost all stores.
• Place a single slice of  bread on a cutting board and center the cookie cutter over the bread slice.

• Gently press the cutter into the bread.

• Remove the bread around the outside of the cookie cutter and save these for making bread crumbs or bread pudding.
• You will have heart shaped bread on the board.

• Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat, add the ghee or butter.
• Dip the heart shaped bread into the beaten egg one at a time and place on to the ghee or butter.

• When it turns golden brown, flip to the other side using a spatula and let it turn golden brown on that side as well.

• Transfer to a platter and serve warm with fruits and hot chocolate.

Tips:

• If you want you could pour maple syrup on the french toast while serving.
• Just increase the eggs, sugar, cinnamon powder and vanilla extract accordingly to make more french toasts.
• Don’t throw away the bread from the outside of cookie cutter, you could make french toast with them too or use for making bread pudding or bread crumbs.

If someone placed a hidden camera in my house, and watched me secretly, Ok, I know what you are thinking now, don’t think wild, you have no access to my bedroom and restroom, may be just in the living room. One activity you could see me doing is lying on the couch and day dreaming. You could even watch some of my insanities: talking to myself(mostly while cooking as if I am on a cooking show), laughing, even talking to an imaginary figure. Before you all make a statement about me, I would like to make it clear that all these insanities are confined within the walls of my house. Now, don’t even think of hiding a camera anywhere in my house:) Many times my hubby had asked me to whom are you talking to, I will be like ‘to myself ‘ and his reaction would be ‘whatever with his eyes rolling’. He is obviously too sweet to not to label me as mad.

Now you will be starting to think, isn’t this the blog for steamed plantain cake and why is she talking about all these craps. I can explain, I have a point here, since I have revealed some of my insanities, one of which is day dreaming. One daydream that keeps recurring to me is the clip of me strolling among the plantain crops that I would have in my backyard some day. Hailing from kerala, which is the land of plantain crops, could be the reason for my obsession with plantains. Almost all houses there have at least one plantain tree in their backyard. I can never forget the huge plantain crop at my grand parents. Whenever I visited them, one activity I always loved to do was to run/stroll among the plantain crops touching the leaves and looking for the bunch of plantains ready to be harvested. I even helped my grand father in harvesting the plantain, this was one memorable moments for me. I can still feel the joy I had after harvesting the plantain and eating one from the bunch. After the harvest, next thing I did was eagerly waiting for all the dishes my grandma would make out of the plantains. One dish, I wanted immediately was the plantain chips, my grandma would fall for my sugar coated request and she would start frying the chips first. It would start with the chips and followed by the variety of dishes made from the harvested plantain by my sweet grandma.

One such dish from my grandma’s edible palette is steamed plantain cake. This is an authentic South Indian dish, a Malabar dish to be precise.This recipe has been handed down for 3 generations in my family and now I pass it on to all the food lovers out there. A dish filled with lots of memories and love of my grandma.

Ingredients

• Plantain, ripe-2
• Eggs-4
• Sugar-3 tbsp, or as needed
• Cardamom powder-1/2 tsp
• Raisins- 1 handful
• Cashew nuts-2 handful
• Ghee/butter-2tsp
• Oil- required for frying

For Garnish:

• Raisins, roasted in little ghee/butter-1 handful
• Cashew nuts roasted in little ghee/butter-6

Preparation:

• Cut the plantains lengthwise and slice into small pieces.
• Fry the plantains in oil until golden brown and keep aside on a paper towel.
• In a large oven proof glass bowl, grease it with 2tsp ghee/butter and mix the eggs, sugar, cardamom powder, raisins, cashew nuts and to this add the fried plantains.
• Steam cook this mixture for 20-25 minutes

How to steam cook:

• If you don’t have a steamer, don’t worry, follow this method.
• In a large vessel, fill 1/4th of it with water. Cover the bottom of the glass bowl (with the mixture) with aluminum foil. Also, cover the top of the glass bowl tightly with aluminum foil.
• Place the glass bowl into the water in the vessel, cover the vessel with its lid. Now turn on the stove to medium flame and steam cook for 20-25 minutes, until the egg is cooked and gets fluffy.
• After it is cooked, remove from the water bath and let it cool down.
• Now run a knife along the side of the cake in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a plate and turn it upside down, the cake would nicely fall onto the plate.
• Garnish the cake with roasted raisins and cashew nuts.

Tips:

• Don’t forget to grease the bowl, otherwise the cake would stick to the bottom.
• This would make a healthy breakfast to jump start your day.
• Plantain: eggs should be in 1:2 ratio

Whenever I come across plantains, I make sure to buy it to make this dish. I love this dish as much as I love stuffed plantain fry (check for recipe). This is very easy to make and at the same time makes you want more. So when making this dish, make sure you make it generously, otherwise trust me you are going to make this again. This dish is very rich and nutritious, hence good for even kids.

Ingredients:

• Plantains(ripe)-2
• Egg-1
• Sugar-3tbsp
• Raisins-2tsp
• Cashew nuts-3 tsp
• Almonds-2 tsp
• Ghee-3tsp
• oil- for frying

Preparation:

• Cut the plantain vertically and slice it into small pieces.
• Fry the plantain in oil until golden brown and transfer into a paper towel to remove all the excess oil.
• Beat the egg with sugar and keep it aside.
• Roast the raisins, cashew nuts and almonds in 1tsp ghee and keep it  aside.
• In a bowl, mix the fried plantains, egg, roasted raisins and the nuts and mix well.
• In a skillet, add 2tsp ghee, add the mixture to this and saute until the egg gets cooked.
• Serve hot or cold, garnish with more nuts if you want.

Tips:

• You could make more by increasing the quantity of the ingredients. Plantain: Egg ratio is 2:1
• While feeding this to kids, you could mash this dish with wooden fork, hence it would be easy for them to eat and digest.

PS:  I submitted this recipe to LiveSTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow 2009

In Barbara’s (Winos & Foodies) words, “LiveSTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow is my way of supporting the  Lance Armstrong Foundation by raising awareness of cancer issues world wide. It is a way for all food and wine bloggers to share their stories. The happy and the sad, the struggles and the triumphs. If you are lucky and have not be touched by cancer you are still welcome to participate”.