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Showing posts with label Banana/Plantain flower. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Banana/Plantain flower. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Kadali Bhanda Bara (Plantain Flower Fritters with Oats)

'Ek muthi ka poshan' says my culinary God. And it sticks in my head. Jut like every other day, I go around like clockwork making breakfast and lunch for the family even as his words ricochet inside my skull. Without missing a beat, I pick up that packet of oats even as I take out the lentil jar from the cupboard. A small wok is put on the burner while I chop the vegetables. Two fistful of oats get slow roasted for 3 minutes as I carry on with my cooking. The vegetables are now being cooked and I am getting ready to knead the flour for making rotis. The roasted oats have cooled down and I give it a quick buzz to make a fine powder out of it.Three fourths of it go into my 'atta' while the rest is kept aside for lack of inspiration.

The lunch is almost ready and as I gather the ingredients for the final dish, a bulb suddenly lights up in my head. A teaspoon and half of the powdered oats make their way into the mix for my plantain flower fritters. I continue to make them the usual way, that is pan-fried with very less oil. And as every time they turn out to be delicious. Lesson learnt. Moral of the story is that it does not need to be path breaking all the time. As long as it gets the job done, it is perfectly fine.

So, here is the recipe inspired by Vikas Khanna and Quaker's #OatoberFest, a week long celebration of health and nutrition -

















Preparation Time - 10 mins

Ingredients - 

  • 2 cups cleaned and chopped plantain flowers
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon Oats
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon besan
  • 1 tsp cornflour
  • 1/4 tsp red chili powder
  • a pinch of garam masala
  • salt to taste
  • 2 tsp oil for pan frying

Preparation - Add the chopped plantain flowers to a saucepan of boiling water for 5 mins. Drain and wash under running water to remove all bitterness.

Squeeze out all water before transferring to a mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients along with very little water to get everything together.

Cooking - Drizzle a few drops of oil on a ceramic pan. Once it is hot, add small portions of the mixture to the pan and pat gently to spread into a layer which is about 2-3 mm thick.

Cook till done on one side. then flip it over and add some more oil.

Once cooked on both sides, remove from the pan.

Serve hot.



Sunday, July 6, 2014

Mochar Chaap ( Banana flower /Plantain flower cutlets )

A very famous street food from Kolkata, I keep reading about in many of the blogs. Crunchy on the outside and filled with a slightly chewy mix of banana flower and potato in the inside, it almost mimics the texture of a mutton cutlet. I have used a very fragrant 'roasted masala' in my version that I had read about in a blog sometime back. Sadly I did not remember the exact proportions of the masala nor the blog name so that I could go back for a second look. But as the masala was somewhat similar to what my MIL sometimes uses in the 'Ghanta' or 'Chencheda', I went ahead and made it.

One would say cleaning and dressing the banana flowers is a hard task but one bite of this sinful treat and all that is easily forgotten. I have shallow fried the cutlets (now don't I do that every time) instead of deep frying them as is the standard norm. Read on for the recipe -


















Preparation Time - 1 hour

Ingredients -

  • 1 banana flower
  • 2 medum sized potatoes
  • 1 medium onion + 1 small onion
  • 1 tsp GG paste
  • 1/2 tsp red chili powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1/3 tsp coriander powder
  • 2-3 green chillis
  • a handful of peanuts
  • salt to taste
  • 3 tsp oil + more oil for shallow frying
  • 1 tbsp besan
  • 1 tbsp cornflour
  • 1 tbsp rice flour
  • 2/3 cup breadcrumbs 

For the roasted masala -

  • 2 tsp cumin powder
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3-4 cloves
  • 2 inch cinnamon stick
  • 2-3 green cardamom
  • 1 dry red chili

Preparation - Clean and chop the banana flowers into small pieces. Soak them in water along with 1 tsp turmeric and 1/2 tsp salt for 3-4 hours. 

Crush them slightly with your hands and drain the water. Wash again under running water.

Chop the onions and green chilic into small pieces.

Dry roast all the ingredients mentioned under 'for the roasted masala' till they give off a fragrance. Grind into a fine powder and keep aside.

Cooking - Take the banana flowers in a pressure cooker with 1 cup water and a little salt. Cook for 10-12 mins or 1-2 whistles. Keep aside to cool down.

Once the steam escapes, open lid and drain the water. Use your hands to squeeze out as much water as you can (very important else your cutlets will break).

Meanwhile cook the potatoes for 2-3 whistles. Keep aside to cool.

Heat 3 tsp oil in a wok. Add the chopped green chili and peanuts. Allow peanut to crackle before adding the chopped onion. Fry till translucent.

Add the GG paste and fry till raw smell goes away.

Add the boiled banana flowers along with turmeric, chili powder, coriander powder and 1 tsp of the roasted masala. Adjust salt. Fry on medium high flame till all the water evaporates.

Add the peeled and mashed potatoes at this point. Mix everything and cook for 3-4 minutes more.

Remove from wok and keep aside. Allow to cool down.

Meanwhile take the besan, rice flour and corn flour in a mixing bowl with salt, chili powder, a pinch of turmeric and just enough water to get a paste of medium consistency.

Heat a frying pan and add sufficient oil for shallow frying the tikkis.

Pinch some of the banana flower and potato mix and shape into tikkis or flattened dics (or you can give any fancy shape you want). Dip into the paste and then roll over the breadcrumbs.

Place the tikkis on the hot frying pan and fry on both side till brown and crisp. Remove and keep aside on a paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Repeat for the remaining mixture.

Serve hot as starters/snacks with some ketchup or even as a dry side dish.



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