Description:
Vazhakkai Podimas or Plantain pirattal is a simple south Indian style stir-fry prepared with raw bananas. This dish is slightly different from the usual vazhakkai curry or varuval, its more like banana hash, we at home call this dish vazhakkai puttu/podimas which goes well with sambar, rasam and yogurt rice.
Vazhakkai Puttu / Vazhaikai Podimas / Vazhakkai Poriyal / Vazhakkai Pirattal / Raw Banana Puttu / Raw Banana Stir-fry / Plantain Fry
Ingredients | |
---|---|
Raw Banana | 2 count |
Onion | 1 |
Garlic cloves | 5 |
Green Chili | 2 slit-open |
Turmeric powder | 1/4 tsp |
Red Chili powder | 1/2 tsp |
Asafoetida powder | 1/4 tsp |
Fresh grated coconut | 2 Tbsp |
Mustard seeds | 1/2 tsp |
Split black gram | 1/2 tsp |
Fennel seeds | 1/2 tsp |
Curry leaves | 6 count |
Salt | 1 and 1/2 tsp |
Oil | 4 tsp |
Instruction:
Chop the top and bottom portion of the raw banana and pressure cook it with skin on upto 2 whistles or until soft but firm.
Usually 2 whistles should be good enough for this, if you have problem with pressure cooking then you may cook it over stove-top by boiling them in a pot filled with water.
This could take about 10 -12 minutes or more to get this firm texture.
Once done, make a small slit on the skin and it will peel right-off.
You may either grate, chop or mash at this stage. I prefer to use a fork to mash it slightly.
Add turmeric, red chili powder and salt to this hash and mix. Keep this aside.
Now heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard, split black gram and fennel seeds. Throw in a few curry leaves and let them also sizzle along.
Sprinkle asafoetida, add chopped onions, green chili and garlic cloves. Fry them for few minutes or until the onions turn translucent.
Add the cooked raw banana to this mixture and bring the flame to low setting. Cover and cook for about 4-5 minutes.
Once done, sprinkle fresh grated coconut and give a quick stir and switch off. Serve with rice and rasam.
Notes:
Cooking raw banana in pressure cooker may be tricky, cooking too long will make them mushy. So try one whistle first and boil for another 5 minutes to get the right texture.
Asafoetida and fennel seeds are added for digestion.
You may also choose to add sambar powder in the place of red chili powder
Yield: 2-3 adult servings.