In this article I am giving you some robusta snacks for your 4 o' clock tea. In Kerala, different types of bananas are available like monthan, robusta, nendran, karpooravalli, Co.1, rasa kadali, palayan thodan, poovan, kappa or red banana, morees etc, of which robusta can be named as 'King of bananas' since among all its varieties, this one is the best in nutritious factors and widely used for preparing many types of sweets and snacks. In this article I am sharing with you some of the traditional banana snacks. If you want to go through my previous article of banana snacks, check the link Banana Snacks
Mohanam
Ingredients:
Robusta - 2
Ghee - 1 tspn
Jaggery - 1 tablespoon or as needed for sweetness
Scrapped coconut - 1/4 cup
Water - a little
Method of preparation:
Remove banana skin and cut it into small square pieces.
Take a non-stick pan. Add banana, jaggery, scrapped coconut and ghee along with a half cup water. Stir it well.
Close the lid and cook it in slow flame for 7-10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Your mohanam is ready to serve. It is an easy recipe and very much adored by kids. You can even substitute jaggery with sugar for sweetness.
Banana cutlet
Ingredients:
Robusta - 3
Coconut scrapped - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Bread crumbs - 2 cup
Ghee - 1/4 cup
Method of preparation:
Steam cook the bananas and remove its water content completely. Then crush it thoroughly before it cools.
Add cardamom powder and coconut to it and make 12 balls. Dip it in bread crumbs and make the shape of cutlets.
Heat a tawa and pour a little ghee on it. Place each cutlet on it and shallow fry them. When one side is fried, flip it once to cook the other side too.
Both sides should be golden brown in colour.
Vaazhakkappam or Pazhampori
Ingredients:
Well ripened robusta - 1
Sugar - 2-3 tsp
Maida - 1/2 cup
Rice flour - A handful
Yellow food colour - A pinch
Baking soda - A pinch
Cardamom crushed - 3 (optional)
Oil - For frying
Method of preparation:
Remove banana skin and slice them lengthy. You can also break them into two.
Mix sugar, maida, rice flour, cardamom, baking soda and yellow food colour by adding a little water. Place it for 15 minutes.
Heat oil in a pan. Dip each sliced banana in the prepared batter and fry its both sides in hot oil.
Place it in a tissue paper. Continue till all banana pieces are completed.
Unnakai
Ingredients:
Robusta - 2
Sugar - 3-4 table spoon
Ghee - For frying
Scrapped coconut - 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Cashew nut and raisins - A handful (optional)
Method of preparation:
Steam cook bananas. Take the blackish thread out and smash it well.
Heat 2 tsp ghee in a pan and add 1 cup coconut and sugar. Add cardamom powder too. Fry it till it turns light brown and sugar melts completely. This is used for filling.
Apply a little ghee on your palm and spread banana on it. Place a little coconut mixture on it and cover it completely. The shape of unnakai is as shown in figure.
You can either deep fry in oil or shallow fry by applying a little ghee in a pan. Both sides should be golden brown in colour.
Note: Never use well-ripened bananas. If so, you can't make a good shape out of it. Cashew nuts and raisins are just optional and if you want, you can add them while frying scrapped coconut and used as filling.
Banana Sukhiyan
Ingredients:
Robusta - 4
Coconut scrapped - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 tsp
Rice flour - 1/2 cup
Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Salt - As needed
Soda powder - A pinch
Ghee - For frying
Method of preparation:
Steam cook bananas. Remove the skin and cut them into small pieces.
Take banana pieces in a pan. Add 1/4 cup coconut, 2 tea spoons sugar and 1 tea spoon ghee to it.
Saute it gently for a few minutes. Put the flame off.
When it cools, crush the banana pieces well with a spoon and make small balls out of them.
Mix wheat flower and rice flour well. Then add remaining coconut, 1 tsp sugar, salt , water and a pinch of soda powder to it. Make a good batter.
Heat ghee in a pan. Take each banana ball, dip it in batter and fry it in ghee till it becomes golden brown.
Serve hot.
Robusta Pazhampori
Ingredients:
Robusta - 3
Butter - 2 big spoons
Coconut scrapped - 3 big spoons
Sugar - 1 big spoon
Method of preparation:
Remove banana skin and cut it into small square pieces.
Blend coconut and sugar well using a mixer.
Add butter to a non-stick pan and fry banana pieces till golden brown.
Spread them on a tissue paper.
When cooled, add the blended mixture on the top and serve.
In this article, I have given you some simple banana snacks, prepared in Kerala traditional way. Hoping you will try them at least once.