Raw Banana Cutlets

Today afternoon I made good use of the two raw bananas risking to go stale in my freezer. For some odd reason,the only way my family consumes raw bananas are by thickly slicing them in roundels and frying them, sometimes sprinkled with poppy seeds, served as a side dish with a meal of rice and dal. It is not the same as the ubiquitous Kerala style chips however.They are thinner and crisper and traditionally fried in coconut oil. While they both are quite tasty and easy to make,they also involve a lot of deep frying which apart from the unwanted calories,also ruins most of the nutrition found in the vegetable. There is also a classic bengali entree' where raw bananas are made into fried dumplings and cooked in a rich gravy,called Kanchkolar Kofta (Kanchkola:the Bengali word for raw bananas, Kofta: a fried dumpling common to many Indian cuisines). But that's again a time-consuming affair to be made only for party menus and special occassions. The bottomline is that for a long time I was on the lookout for a raw banana side dish which would be fast,easy to prepare,would not involve deep-frying and most importantly,taste great. Me and my father aren't great fans of the raw banana to be honest,but it is a rich source of iron and my mother makes sure that it's a staple part of the grocery shopping.


I chanced upon this recipe at Mandira's blog sometime back. She calls them cutlets but I made a smaller,flatter version of it which I will prefer to term tikias, the commonly used term for shallow-fried patted down roundels from the seasoned and spiced vegetable dough. It looked tempting,seemed easy to make and called for basic pantry staples.What was unusual about it that apart from the normal spices and flavourings used in most similar dishes,this one calls for sambar powder to be added to the mashed vegetable to make the tikia roundels.That seemed unusual to my bengali sensibilities who although loves her sambar and rasam, had never used the spice mix to make any fried stuff of any kind. I tried the recipe almost word for word,hence the ingredients and measurement are exactly the same as in her recipe but I re-wrote the method in my own word, making only one slight modification.The recipe uses poppy seeds to coat the tikias before frying, whilst I substituted with breadcrumbs which according to the blogger,could be used instead.

KANCHKOLAR TIKIA
(a spicy raw banana patty)
makes 6 medium sized tikias.



Ingredients:
2 Raw Bananas
1 medium onion
1 green chilli
2 teaspoon sambar powder
1 teaspoon lime juice
4 tbsp breadcrumbs
a sprig of cilantro
pinch of turmeric
2-3 teaspoon white oil
salt to taste

Method:
Peel the bananas,chop into 4-5 pieces each and boil them.
4 whistles in a pressure cooker did it for me.
While the banana is being cooked, finely chop the onions, green chilli and cilantro.
Mash the boiled bananas with the sambar powder,salt and turmeric powder.
Add the onion, green chilli & cilantro.
Add the lime juice immediately before making the tikias.
Divide the dough into small balls, put them in the bread crumbs,flatten them and coat both sides well with the breadcrumbs.
If the dough is a bit soggy add some of the crumbs and mix well to dry it up.
Heat a non stick flat pan with oil.
Shallow fry the tikias on medium heat till they are golden brown on both sides.

Serve them hot with tomato ketchup or your choice of chutney/sauce as an appetizer.Or,serve hot as a side dish with a simple meal of daal and rice.We had them topped with ketchup and sandwiched between two slices of bread with tomato slices.It made a rather unusual but delicious cross between a burger and a vada-pav.

Mandira,thanks for the recipe.It is easy-breezy to make,extremely tasty and yes,I love the addition of the sambar powder and how beautifully all the tastes amalgamate to give the final product.Now I will be on the look out for other creative ways to use up my sambar powder,a spice mix I love and always have in my pantry,but sadly do not get to use much.