Banana Bread

Ingredients:
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Ripe Banana - 2
Melted Butter - 2 tbsp
Egg - 1 large
Sugar  - 5 tbsp
Dates - 10 Chopped into tiny pieces
Walnuts / Almond flakes - 2 tbsp
Cinnamon powder - 1tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Wheat flour, Pitted Dates, Almond flakes, Banana, egg and Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place oven rack to middle position. Line the pan with baking sheet and set aside. Alternatively you can butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, dates and nuts. Set aside. 

In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla.

With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky. (The important thing is not to over mix the batter. You do not want it smooth.)

Scrape batter into prepared pan.

Bake until bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan.

Serve warm or at room temperature with a cup of tea.

Panchamrutham

Banana, Curd, Milk, Honey and Ghee

Pancha means five and amrutham means nectar. It is a sweet concoction prepared using five ingredients and is made especially for abhishekams. Abhishekam is the process of bathing the deity. According to Siva Agamas (pooja rules) abhishekam is considered as one part of the shodashopachara pooja. Conducting abhishekam (Ritual bathing) with panchamrutham is believed to bring wealth and prosperity.

We do panchamrutham when we perform Sathya Narayana Swamy vratham especially the newly married couple and also during Gruha pravesham (House Warming). When I was a child, I love the divine taste of this panchamrutham. I will never miss the invitations for Sathya Narayana Vratham. Though, not having enough patience to sit for such long hours with folded legs and listen to all the chants and the stories, I force my self to sit and wait for the arutha gadiya which is eating time for Panchamrutham.

There are lots of variations. Few people do mix sugar, grapes, dates, Thulsi along with the below ingredients. But we follow the below procedure.

Ingredients:

1 Cup – Milk
1 Cup – Yogurt
½ Cup – Honey
1 Ripe banana
1 tbsp - Ghee

Roughly mash the banana with hands and mix all the other ingredients one after the other.

                                                                Panchamrutham

Note: Measures of ingredients for Panchamrutham are never exact