Traditional Goan Banana Cake

Steamed Banana Cake without Maida

Let me show you how I make a Goan traditional banana cake. It’s packed with flavour, yet it’s made without maida, butter, eggs or sugar. Imagine that. That enough should make you eager to make it. This dish is also called banana dhonas or mandos, I guess these are names for rural kind of cakes. Now this is a steamed cake and is not dry and spongy like a regular cake, but has the texture of a pudding.

Interested in some more tasty Goan desserts? Then you might be interested in my Eggless Banana Bread, Goan cucumber cake, Goan atol or goddxem, a multigrain pudding, Goan sweet fov / sweet poha, and Goan sheero / Classic sheera.

Ingredients

1 cup parboiled rice / Goan rice /Or regular rice

3 perfectly ripe bananas

3 tbsp water approximately

1 cup grated fresh coconut

1 tbsp ghee

¼ cup (50g) grated cane jaggery

½ cup (100g) grated palm jaggery

1 tsp ground cardamon

½ tsp grated nutmeg

2 pinches salt

¼ cup chopped cashew nuts

A few cashewnuts for garnishing

Pour into 6″ round cake pan, greased and lined with banana leaf

Place lightly greased banana leaf on top of the batter too

(Banana Leaf is optional, could use parchment paper at the bottom instead.)

Procedure

1. Wash and soak the rice overnight or for at least 5 hours.
2. Grind the drained rice and chopped bananas with just 1 ½ tbsp water in a mixer grinder till the rice is ground. Don’t grind the rice to a paste. It should be only slightly grainy. Add the grated coconut and grind the mixture for 30 seconds.
3. Add the ghee to a pan and add in the grated jaggery. Heat for a couple of minutes till all the jaggery just melts. Turn off the heat. Wait till the jaggery is warm.
4. Pour the rice mixture into the melted jaggery. Add in the ground cardamom, grated nutmeg, salt, and the chopped cashew nuts. (You could cook this mixture on a medium flame for around 5 minutes to reduce the steaming time if you want.)
5. Line the base of a greased 6″cake pan with banana leaf and grease it lightly on top. Pour the batter over it. Tap it to remove any gas bubbles. If you don’t have banana leaf, line the pan with parchment paper
6. Add a topping of cashew nut halves (optional). Cover it with lightly greased banana leaf (optional).
7. Cover the pan with a lid or aluminium foil. Place it in the steamer. Cover the steamer and steam the banana cake on medium heat for around 1 to 1 ¼ hour or until a skewer inserted into it comes out clean. A long time, but worth it. Replenish the water in the steamer in between if needed. Alternatively, you could bake the cake in a kadai or in the oven at 160C for around 50 minutes or till a skewer inserted into it comes out clean.
8. Let the cake cool completely and then unmould it.

Enjoy!