Plantain, banana stem (vaazhai thandu), banana flower and (sweet) banana are feature regularly in our diet. I am a total foodie, a health conscious one at that.... because my amma repeats the nutrition chart with every meal she serves...lol.
Health facts
Plantain, Banana and its stem are known to be effective in treating high blood pressure and Renal diseases (Kidney). There is a difference between the usual banana we eat as a fruit and the raw green plantain we cook. Although all of them are botanically the same, the difference is in the sugar levels in each variety.This is why plantain is considered better for people dealing with diabetes
Banana Stem - Vaazhai thandu
Image source: wiki
Banana flower - Vaazhai pooImage source: wiki
Banana varieties - (L-R) Plantain, red banana (nendram pazham), small banana (malai pazham), regular banana
image source: wiki
I love raw banana in any form, in avial, kootu, fry or as simple plantain chips! yum...The recipe featuerd in this post is is one of the most common plantain fries I make at home. Nothing fancy about the dish, just that we need to fold in a masala paste into the regular plantain fry. Plantain in mustard masala
What you need : serves 2
Raw plantain - 2
salt-to your taste
hing (asafoetida)-pinch
Turmeric powder-pinch
Khuzhambu powder - 1/2 tsp
curry leaves - 6-8
coriander leaves /cilantro - finely chopped for garnish
Water - 1/2cup
oil - 1tsp (I prefer coconut oil)
Masala
Mustard seeds - 2tbsp
Jeera/Cumin - 1tsp
Methi seeds - 1/2tsp
Green or red chillies -2
Ginger - 1/4 " piece
Process:
- Slice the plantains into any shape you prefer - cubes/rounds/ 1" long pieces
- Dry roast the masala ingredients and grind into a fine powder
- Par boil sliced plantain in 1/2 cup water with salt, hing and turmeric in a covered container (saves energy)
- Once the planatain seems to be al-dante (half done), add the paste and cook
- Add oil and curry leaves to the cooking plantains and gently mix everything in and cook until the paste looses its raw smell
- Garnish with cilantro/coriander leaves
Trivia
- Andhra cuisine has a dish called Ava pettina aratikaya koora (avalu means mustard in telugu, aratikaya - raw banana)
- Telugu and Bengali cuisines are known for their extensive use of mustard masala in their cooking.
- Raw banana based recipes are common in South and East Indian, Sri lankan, Thai, Indonesian, Singapore and Malay cuisines
this is not a thoran... just a fry..... for a thoran the masala is grinded coconut with green chilles and cumin. No thoran has cilantro in it too. The name is very misleading. But must say that as a koombu fry, this a a good receipe.... just the name "thoran" is not rite
ReplyDeletehi anonymous
ReplyDeletethank you for stopping by...i ll surely do the correction...and nice to know more about thorans.
take care
really sweet of u to make the correction. Btw , do try the thoran version of it ... i'm sure u'll enjoy it
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zonkerala.com/recipes/vegetarian-recipes/vazhappo-cherupayar-thoran.htm
this is very similar to what we do it home..... u can omit the cherupayar(green gram/ moong) it u want
Def...:)
ReplyDeleteHi Sudha --- me back her after a long time... nice recipe. BTW , I found my friend Sudha!
ReplyDelete