Crunchy Banana Chips

I have never in my life made banana chips at home but surely eaten a cartload or should I say truck load of them :)

Today I thought of making them at home. Had a plantain banana that I purchased from the grocery store a couple of days ago.

The chips came out pretty good and they were very easy to make. I had never made them at home with the fear of sprinkling water in hot oil. But today I overcame that fear !!

My son (who loves banana chips) tasted these chips(actually finished all the chips making many rounds in the kitchen and grabbing some chips on the way each time) and said they get 5 star(his grading goes from 1-5), and that next time I need to buy more bananas and make lots more chips :) so that he can take them for snack time in school. When my kiddo says that I should pack certain food next time for his school lunch or snack I know that it has met his approval. My 6 year old son is quite a foodie, guess he gets it from his mom ;)

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients

1 plantain banana(raw),

1/2 cup water,

1/4 tsp turmeric powder,

salt to taste,

oil for deep frying(preferably coconut oil).

Method.

• Peel the banana, wash and soak in water for about 1/2 hour.


• Mix water, salt, turmeric powder and keep aside.


• Heat oil. Drain the bananas and wipe dry with paper towel.


• Slice the bananas into thin slices (using a mandoline) directly in the hot oil. Or else you can use a knife and make thin slices on a chopping board and then slide them into the hot oil.


• When they are 3/4 cooked, sprinkle a tsp of the water solution on the bananas in the oil.


• Hold a splatter screen over the oil after you sprinkle a tsp of the water solution.


• BE VERY CAREFUL !!


• The oil splutters in all directions.


• Take off the screen and mix the chips.


• Drain the chips onto a paper towel to absorb the access oil.


• Proceed with the rest of the banana to make the chips.


• There you go yummy crunchy banana chips ready to munch on !!

Note

Season the chips with red chilly powder,crushed peppercorn or any other masala blend for a variation after draining from the oil. I preferred them plain with salt only.

Frying the chips in coconut oil gives it the authentic taste.

Next time I will soak the raw bananas in water mixed with turmeric powder to get a more darker shade of yellow colored chips.

Pancake Puffs

Ever since I bought the Appe/Appam pan from India, I have made full use of it by making pancake puffs, idli batter appe, savoury appe using pancake batter, etc in it.
In konkani(Goa) the appe/appam are called "Ellappe" will post the Goan Ellappe recipe soon.

These delicate golden brown spongy balls cooked in the Appe pan are a treat not only for kids but for grown ups too ;) My kids love any variety of appe but their favourite are these dainty pancake puffs.

Ingredients

Pancake batter

Method

• Heat the Appe pan on medium heat.


• Pour a spoon full of the pancake batter in the indents of the pan.


• Let cook for a couple of minutes then flip to the other side and let cook for a minute on the other side.


• Take out of the pan.


• Enjoy sprinkled with icing sugar or drenched in maple syrup.

Note

Sometimes I make savoury puffs using same pancake batter but add whatever seasoning I want like, chopped onion,grated carrots, minced green chilly, chopped coriander leaves , etc.

I have a nonstick Appe pan, so I do not use any oil to grease the indents of the pan.

Storing Curry Leaves/Kadipatta Leaves

Curry leaves or karpilachi pana as it is called in konkani has a special place in every Indian kitchen.
In Goa one does not have to scratch ones head to come up with ways n means to store these leaves for many days because the plant itself grows in the backyard.

The ladies of the house usually just pluck the fresh leaves before starting their cooking for the day.

But when you live abroad one has to make do with the store bought curry leaves and specially if you are like me living in a place that has winter for the major part of the year, you need to store those for a long time coz how many times can you make a trip to an Indian store that too when there is a winter storm in the forecast.

Once my mom had sun dried the leaves from her backyard and got them for me when she visited me in the USA.

The other day I opened one packet of leaves that I had bought from the store but in a hurry I left the packet open in the fridge, the poor leaves just dried in the cold air of the refrigerator and got crisp.

Well, that worked for me coz I thought why not freeze the leaves, and yes that worked very fine.

I separated the leaves from the stems, washed them, wiped them dry and spread them on the tray. Popped the tray in the freezer for a couple of hours and then voila they were all frozen, put the frozen leaves in a zip lock bag(any container) and stuffed it in the freezer again.

The color has mellowed down slightly (but it is not black ) and the leaves still smell fresh when u tear them. Frozen leaves do not get crispy, they remain soft.

Have been having these frozen leaves in the fridge for over a month now.

I prefer the freezer method of preserving the curry leaves.

Usually cooks just put the whole curry leaves in the dish and while eating the leaf is discarded.

The curry leaf has lot of health benefits so to get us to eat the leaf Ma used to snip the leaves with a knife or scissors and then add the shreds to the dals or other dishes that way we used to eat it along with the rest of the food.

I follow in my Ma's footsteps in this regards, and add shreds of kadipatta whenever I use it. This way I get my kids n hubby to eat the leaves too ;) and the food looks pretty too with the shreds of kadipatta leaves in it.

Avocado Bread Rolls / Avocado Laadi Pav.

I had a whole bagful of avocados laying on my kitchen counter. So came up with these delicious bread rolls and they turned out really good, crusty on the outside and soft and puffy on the inside, will be making it more often as I can sneak some healthy avocado in my kids food.

My kids gobbled the warm bread rolls slathered with butter :)

The bread rolls got a beautiful tinge of green from the avocado and yet the avocado taste was not overpowering at all.

A keeper recipe for sure !!

Ingredients.

2 cups all purpose flour,

2 tbsp potato flour(optional),

2 tbsp oats flour(optional),

1 tsp yeast,

2 tbsp sugar,

1 tsp salt,

1 avocado, mashed,

1/2 to 3/4 cup warm water or milk to make dough.

Method.

• In a bowl mix the flours, salt, sugar, yeast and mashed avocado well.
• Add warm water or milk and make soft dough.
• Cover and keep aside for a couple of hours till it doubles in size.
• Punch the dough and make round balls, I made 9 small balls.
• Lay them 1 inch apart on a baking sheet.
• Cover and keep aside for 30 minutes till they rise.
• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Uncover and place the tray in the oven and bake for 25 -30 minutes till the rolls are golden brown in color and they sound hollow when tapped.
• Take out of the oven and brush with 1 tbsp oil(optional) and enjoy warm bread rolls.

Note.

I sprinkled sesame seeds, black poppy seeds and kalonji seeds(nigella seeds) on 3 rolls for a variation.

Can add chopped herbs to get herbed rolls. Or add chopped pista, flax seeds or some spices to get a savoury bread.

Place this dough in a loaf pan to get a bread loaf.

Next time will substitute part of all purpose flour with whole wheat flour.

When I made a second batch I added flax seed powder too.

Tandlachi Bhakar / Goan Rice Flour Flatbread.

Today is my Pappa's Birthday.

Tandlachi bhakar is my Pappa's favourite dish and every year my Ma would make tandlachi bhakar for breakfast for my Pappa's B'day and their Wedding Anniversay.

As Ma is not here with us to make this I just wish that today I could be in Goa and I could prepare this tandlachi bhakar for my Pappa for breakfast(sigh).

When one stays overseas,on the other side of the world, this is the major disadvantage, one cannot go and be with one's parents in joy or sorrow as and when we feel like :(

Like my Pappa I too like this bhakar very much so I tend to make it sometimes, I could munch on these all day long :)

I used to make it a lot specially when my daughter was allergic to wheat and could not eat chappati. My daughter was allergic to wheat, eggs and soy so, I used to make everything gluten free and egg free from breads to cakes to pancakes to....u name it and I used to make it, well that's another story to dwell upon some other time.

Back to tandlachi bhakar which is nothing but humble rice flour flat bread made the Goan way !!

Ma made different kinds of bhakars,like rava,wheat,nachni,etc but this one was a regular fare at my parents place.

Ma had many banana trees in her backyard and so she used fresh banana leaves for a lot of things from roasting fish(bangda) in charcoal to lining the bhakar's while roasting them on the griddle. Oh ...those bananas leaves impart an out of this world aroma to the humble bhakar.

There are 2 ways of making the bhakar either

1)add warm water in the flour and mix or

2)boil the water and then add the flour to the boiling water.

The latter produces more softer bhakar.

And there are 4 ways of flattening out the balls of dough,

1) dip fingers in water and place the dough on the hot tava and quickly spread it out using your wet fingers,

2) take the washed banana leaf and lay it flat on the counter and then flatten the dough ball using fingers dipped in water and then gently lift the banana leaf along with the flattened bhakar and keep it on the griddle along with the leaf,

3) roll the ball sandwiched between thick plastic bags(like Ziploc) or foil.

4) dip a cheesecloth in water and rinse and lay on counter, then spread the ball of dough using fingers dipped in water, then flip the bhakar on to the hot tava and take/peel off the wet cheesecloth,

I like the banana leaves method but as I do not get fresh banana leaves here in Canada and I do not like the frozen ones, I prefer the third method.

Pappa, A Very Happy B'day To You & this bhakar is for you all the way from Canada !!

Ingredients

1 cup rice flour,

1 cup water,

salt to taste,

pinch of sugar or jaggery,

1-2 green chilly , chopped fine,

1/4 onion , chopped fine,

4 tbsp grated coconut,

1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves(optional).

Method.

• Heat water in a pan. When boiling add salt,and the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
• Take off the heat and let rest for few minutes till cool enough to handle. Knead the dough for a few minutes to make it smooth.
• Meanwhile heat a tava or griddle on medium heat.
• Make 2 balls of the dough.
• Take a piece of foil and put the ball on it and put another piece of foil over it and then roll using rolling pin to make 3/4 cm in thickness(thick like a paratha).
• Lift the foil along with the bhakar and then flip the bhakar on the hot tava, foil side up, take off the foil and reuse to roll the next bhakar.
• Cover with a lid and let the bhakar cook for few minutes on one side, then using a spatula flip it on the other side and let cook till few brown spots appear and it puffs up like a roti.
• Take off the heat and apply a little oil or ghee and enjoy with dry khobra(coconut) chutney as in the picture.
• I prefer mine plain or dunked in hot tea !!!!!!! And so do my kids :)

Note

Sometimes Ma used to add dill leaves(shepo leaves) or grated cucumber to the dough.

I add chopped spinach leaves or grated butternut squash or zucchini to the dough for a change and extra nutrition for my kids.

1 cup yields 2 bhakars, you can double or triple the quantity as required.

Ma usually served it with green chutney or the Goan (khobarya chi chutney)dry coconut chutney as I have shown in the picture.

Update.

When my Dad read this post he reminded me that my mom also made this bhakar by soaking rice for few hours, then grinding it to a thick paste and then cooking it on a slow flame till it comes together into a ball. Add the rest of the ingredients (seasoning ) and then make the bhakars.

But that is a lengthy process so I think I will stick to the rice flour for now.