|
Ingredients
|
Quantity
|
|
unripe,
firm green bananas
|
4
|
|
Chickpea
/ besan flour
|
150gms
|
|
Rice flour
|
50gms
|
|
Red chilli
powder
|
½ tsp
|
|
Cooking oil
(grounded or sunflower)
|
¼ ltr
|
|
Marble –
sized tamarind
|
1 small
|
|
Salt
|
to taste
|
This is a
very tasty, crunchy yet soft, salty snack widely made popular by Udipi
restaurants. Unripe banana (BaaLe' Kaayi) is widely available the world over,
and this simple, quick, dish can be prepared in minutes.
Procedure: Take a bowl of water and soak the
tamarind. Lightly squeeze the tamarind to make a weak solution of tamarind
water. Take the green bananas, lightly peel the skin (optional, since many prefer
to retain the skin which is very high in fibber content), cut the end tips.
Make thin slices (about the thickness of a coin) lengthwise. Put the
rectangular cut pieces in the tamarind solution (this solution prevents pieces
from turning black).
Take 150gms
of kadale' hittu (besan flour, chickpea flour) and 50gms of rice flour (besan gives
the color while rice flour gives the crispness). Add 1/2 teaspoon of red chilli
powder. Add a few drops of oil (to give a crunchy outer crust), add salt to
taste and mix it with hand, adding water slowly. Stop adding water when it
becomes a thick paste that drops as you take hand out of the bowl, but does not
run-off the hand. Some people prefer to add paprika powder to get some
"extra-hot" color but this is purely optional.
Take oil
in a BaNale' (kadaayi, wok), heat it on medium-low fire. After the oil is hot
but not fuming (can also be tested by putting a drop of the mixed flour and
seeing that it comes up to surface bubbling, within 1-2 seconds). Take the cut
banana pieces from the tamarind solution, dip it in the pasty dough to cover it
fully and then slide them into the BaNale'. At this stage the dough's
consistency can be checked. If it is too thick, the pieces don't get covered
well and if too thin, dough runs off leaving the pieces exposed. At least 4 or
5 of them can be put in one round. Allow them to fry, turn around, till they
are deep brown in color. Take them out, serve them with coconut chutney.
The unique
taste of BaaLe kaayi (raw plantain/banana) has a sweetish hint. It is an
excellent vegetarian equivalent to the fish fingers, both in consistency and
taste. It is very popular in the rainy season.
Useful
hints: The same procedure can
be used to make bhaji from a variety of other vegetables. Some of the popular
vegetables for bhaji are - onion (cut in circular pieces), potato (again cut
circularly), DoNNa MeNasina Kaayi (green pepper), Heere' Kaayi (ripple gourd
available in Indian/Chinese stores), large green chiles (MeNasina kaayi bhaji)
which are very popular in rural areas, several American gourds. Even greens can
be used to make bajji, the most popular being sappaseege' soppu (Dill -
available in most supermarkets), and menthyada soppu (Methi leaves). The greens
must be washed, dried, cut and directly mixed in the batter.
