BaaLekaayi (Raw plantain) kofta curry - A Father's day menu to celebrate one of the best dads!

Before I go off on my rants, let me wish all the wonderful men out there that are fathers or play the role of father for little kids by being their mentors, teachers, guides or just by being there when needed. Happy Father's day! You make this planet half beautiful (ofcourse the other half belongs to all the mammas :-)). Now for the teaser - here is my Father's day menu and thali this year, reach out and enjoy! or make them in your own kitchens and devour :-)

In a span of three weeks (or has it been 4 already? ok I am not counting and you shouldn't be too :-)), we celebrated a graduation party, a wedding and a graduation ceremony, not for the same person but the same generation. All went well and all the kids are smiling their happy smiles. I am still riding the high tidings with all the globe trotting I have been doing and currently feel as if I do not belong to any time zone. Adding to the woes is the especially busy work and general pace of life, so I sleep when sleep comes to me, I wake up when my eyes open themselves voluntarily. Somehow magically, I have managed to be productive and even active at work since I came back last Monday.

As for the wedding, it was the first big occasion in the family that all of us siblings and spouses made it and we were all brimming and gleaming with joy :-). Though mostly in buses, trains and other forms of transport for the 10 days we stayed there, family around us made it feel like a festival. Got to meet the extended clan and catch up on years of gap. Met my friends from college who made it to one of the events just to meet up, thanks JV & M, it was so good to see you. And then there was food, galores of it from the jowar bhakri (Oh, our new girl into the family is from the region and we got to eat the favorite jowar bhakri) and obbattu to the typical Mysore BBB (Bisi Bele BHath) and Jilebi (Jalebi). My heart is content and tummy satiated for a while now (also I need to go on diet :-))

I am still not into full fledged cooking at home, letting amma take care of the kitchen. But as we hit the weekend, the responsibility genie kicked in and I went grocery shopping as usual on Friday. Bought a bunch of veggies to replenish the anemic refrigerator. On saturday morning when I asked the BH what I should be making for lunch/brunch, the response was, "Oh don't get stuck in the kitchen, get some sleep. Just make some poori, chole, maagayi and we will be good :-)". He of the generous heart! My family jumps at the mention of pooris and since DD has been all relaxed since her graduation (infact, she is almost on the brink of boredom already having exhausted her sleep induced by jetlag and deprivation), I decided to make pooris for lunch. Instead of chole, I made saagu to give some veggie boost to the oily monster and we ate so heavily in the afternoon, nobody felt the need for dinner.

Before I knew, it was already Sunday and Father's day too! Currently with two fathers at home, both of them big time foodies, I wanted to make something they would enjoy for lunch. I looked at the vegetables and saw 4 nice raw plantains I had bought on Friday already starting to don on a tinge of yellow after sitting on the counter for 2 days. Ok, I can see some of you starting to get up, stretch and yawn already thinking, "Didn't she put a plantain recipe recently and also talk about how much she loves the vegetable?", so I will be a good citizen and spare you the details of my love story with the vegetable. If you are a patient reader and still here, I promise I won't disappoint you, here is a keeper recipe for a side dish especially if you are bored of the spuds in all koftas and looking for potato alternatives. This is not a creative recipe from my kitchen, koftas and kofta curries are the rich gravies from Northern India and raw plantain or Kache kele ki kofte is a popular dish in UP and Bihar. But I will certainly claim the stroke of brilliance I had today with addition of fresh mint to koftas and strongly urge you to try this recipe my way.

The fathers were both bowled over by this kofta curry, so did DD and amma. With a crisp outer covering and melt in the mouth insides dunked in a sweet & spicy sauce, its vibrant color, this dish is a sure party pleaser if you want to make them. I also went the high calorie version today just to celebrate father's day by deep frying the koftas which gave a special texture to the koftas and made them completely irresistable. The only trouble with this recipe is that you will have a tough time saving the koftas for the gravy as they come out of the hot oil. They taste so delicious just like that, the family had no control over the temptation. I am glad I used all 4 plantains, so I had just enough koftas for lunch. So plan well if your family is like mine :-)

What do you need to make BaaLekaayi kofta curry? 
For Koftas: (about 12 lime sized koftas)
2 large baaLekaayi (raw plantain)
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
2 green chilies - finely chopped
1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro
1/2 Tsp red chili powder
1 heaped Tbsp besan (gram flour)
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
For Gravy: 
5 cashews, 5 almonds
1 big onion chopped (about 1 cup)
2-3 big tomatoes chopped (about 2-2.5 cups)
1 inch fresh ginger - chopped
2 Tbsp milk (I used 2%)
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp red chili powder (adjust to suit your spice tolerance)
1/4 Tsp amchoor powder (dry mango powder)
1/2 Tsp garam masala powder
1 Tsp kasoori methi (dry fenugreek)
2 Tbsp oil
Others: 
Oil to deep fry koftas (see low calorie version in notes)

How do you make BaaLekaayi kofta curry? 
Kofta Preparation: 

• Wash the raw plantain, chop and remove the ends and cut each plantain into 2 or 3 pieces. 
• Take a sauce pan with water and a pinch of salt, immerse all the plantain pieces and bring it to boil. 
• Lower heat and cook for 6-8 minutes until the pieces are soft (make sure they are not breaking apart but just soft). 
• Switch off, drain the water through a sieve and let the pieces cool down slightly. 
• Heat a pan and dry roast the besan (gram flour) for 4-5 minutes, continuously stirring so it doesn't get burnt. 

• When the besan starts to give out a nice nutty aroma, switch off and keep aside. 
• Once the plantain pieces are cool to touch, peel them (it easily peels off and you won't need to fight :-)) and grate them with a grater, use the big holes side. 

• Mix all the remaining ingredients for kofta with grated plantain in a bowl and using your fingers, bring them together into a mass. 
• Taste and adjust spices or salt as needed. 
• Make lime sized balls out of the mixture and keep ready. 

• If you are deep frying the koftas, heat oil to deep fry. Test the readiness by putting a small piece of the kofta mixture, if it sizzles up to the surface immediately, you are ready to go. 
• Drop the prepared balls one by one into the oil, do not pile them on top of each other, do it in batches. 
• Reduce heat to medium high and let the koftas cook for a minutes before turning them over to the other side. 

• Cook them until they are uniformly golden brown all over. 
• Take them out of oil onto a paper towel. Repeat for all remaining koftas. 

Gravy Preparation: 

• Heat a big pan with 1 Tbsp oil, add the cashew and almonds. 

• Roast them for a minute and add chopped onions. 
• Add salt and saute for a couple of minutes before adding chopped tomatoes and ginger. 

• Cover and let cook for 4-6 minutes until onion and tomatoes soften. 
• Switch off and let cool. 
• Once cool, grind the mixture into a very smooth paste.

• Heat the pan, add the ground mixture and 1/2 cup water. 
• Let it cook and boil for about 10 minutes, the raw smell goes away and the sauce thickens slightly. 
• Add red chili powder and amchoor powder at this stage and mix. 

• Add milk and let it come to a boil. 
• Finally add garam masala powder and crushed kasoori methi, mix and switch off. 

Serving: 

• Heat the gravy separately if it has cooled down, pour it over the koftas a couple minutes before serving. 

Notes: 

• It is important to not cook the plantain too much, it becomes a mush and takes more besan to hold shape which will change the taste. 
• Let the cooked plantain cool and drain water completely before grating it. 
• I roasted the besan as I like the enhanced nutty aroma, you can use it directly if you like. 
• Adding mint really adds to the flavor of this dish, I would recommend not skipping it. 

• You can make modifications to the gravy per your choice but I like this delicate, creamy sauce where the focus is just onions & tomatoes. 

Low calorie changes: 

• Use aibleskiever(appe) pan to roast the koftas instead of deep frying them. This takes much less oil. You won't get the same crisp finish on the koftas as deep fried ones but when dunked in the sauce they anyway soften up. 

Baalekayi Palya - smokey & spicy green banana dish, turning a leaf (page) from a favorite book

Another season of Dasara/Navaratri is over and we are already looking towards the fast approaching Deepavali and then the Holiday season starting with Thanksgiving. Where did 2014 go already? Summer cooled down into Autumn and I have started to see leaves change colors around me, I am already an old timer at my new job (honeymoon period over, start delivering :-)) and DD is busy with her senior year of school. Yes, my baby is getting ready to fly the nest come next September :-(. Ah, well I can either whine about next year or enjoy the togetherness until then and I choose the second one.

After all the sweets and other delicacies I made at home and also had to eat at friend's places in the name of Dasara, we are trying to get back to something simple and appetizing this week. I actually wanted to stay away from lentils and oil for a couple of days as we had our filling of both these heavy ingredients with all the usali and sabudana vada among other things :-). I made a lip smacking ginger chutney and steamed some oats masala idlis which seemed to help the lost taste on the tongue majorly. Back to eating vegetables with a side of some spicy chutney helps get back to normalcy.

Over the years, I have acquired a bunch of cookery books, not counting the ones I borrow from time to time from the public library. Some of these books are bought based on extensive research and recommendation while some are purchased as an impulse buy. Some of these books have many dog ears as I go back to them again & again while some of them sit in their pristine, new form as I don't touch them often enough until some day I get rid of donate them as part of a clean up :-). One of the books I love flipping through is Dakshin by Chandra Padmanabhan, I haven't tried a whole lot of recipes (not yet) from this book but I like it for the rich photos it has. One of the recipes that caught my attention on a random flipping is this green banana crumble as she calls it.

It is a simple enough recipe, I have made it a few times enhancing the spice powder to suit our palate and here is the 'modified from original' version of the green banana crumble or palya as I call it :-). If you have a charcoal grill, it is time to bring it out. Bananas roasted directly over flame have that wonderfully smokey flavor in this recipe. If you really don't care for it or are not inclined to spoil your gas stove by directly roasting them on the flame (I do understand this, I totally do), then go for the boil or steam method described below. The dry powder enhances the taste and makes the bland vegetable come alive with the spices. The best part about this dish is it can be eaten just like that and enjoyed as a snack too :-)

Baalekayi or plantain (green banana) is a commonly used vegetable in India. They stand cooking very well since they are firm and have an absolutely delicious taste albeit a little bland. The variety used as vegetable is never eaten ripe as a fruit. We grew bananas at home in Mysore and they were the small, yellow bananas which we ate when ripe but used to get the green variety for cooking. Nammamma's favorite recipe was the kootu or gojju with this vegetable. Amma makes crispy, dry fry(vepudu in Telugu) or an onion flavored soft cooked side dish. I love all of them, here is another side dish (or a main dish depending on how you eat it) made with green bananas that is a perfectly homely accompaniment to a rice-centric meal.

What do you need to make baalekayi palya? 

2 firm green bananas (I use the non-Kerala variety)

1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)

1 Tbsp shredded coconut

Spice powder: 

2 Tbsp chana dal

1 Tbsp urad dal

1 Tsp coriander seeds

1/2 Tsp cumin

1/8 Tsp fenugreek seeds

4-6 dry red chilies

pinch of asafoetida

Seasoning: 

1 Tbsp oil

1 Tsp mustard

1 Tsp chana dal

1/2 Tsp urad dal

1 dry red chili broken

1 green chili (optional)

few curry leaves

How do you make baalekayi palya? 

• Wash, pat dry the skin of green bananas and remove the ends on both sides. 
• Make a few slits using a knife (don't cut the bananas into pieces though) and smear a drop of oil all over the skin. 

• Roast on a flame turning the vegetable all around until the skin turns black and becomes charred. Keep the flame on medium so the banana cooks to become soft but not mushy. 

• In the meantime, dry roast all the ingredients listed under 'spice powder' except for asafoetida until the lentils turn pink in color. 
• Cool and make it into a powder along with asafoetida, keep aside until ready to use. 
• Once the bananas are cool, peel the skin off. hold the skin from a knife marking and it will peel off easily.

 

• Remove any charred particles by washing it in water. 
• Grate the cooked bananas (use the largest possible gratings, smaller ones tend to make the dish mushy and pulpy). 
• Heat oil in a wide pan, add mustard and the dals listed under seasoning, let mustard pop and dals turn pink before adding the chilies and curry leaves. 

• Add the grated banana, salt, coconut and the spice powder and give it a gently mix. 

• Cover and lower the heat and let cook for about 2 minutes until the flavors come together. 
• Switch off and serve warm with rice, roti and just by itself. We ate with a yummy spinach pachadi and rice. 

Notes: 

• If you do not want to roast the bananas, alternatively, you can boil them in a pot of water until they turn soft, about 15 minutes or cut them into halves and steam them in a cooker. Take care not to let them become mushy.
• Increase or decrease the chilies depending on your heat tolerance
• Garnish with chopped cilantro and a dash of lemon juice if you like. 
• Once roasted, dunk the bananas in a pot of cold water for 10 minutes and the skin peels off easily. 

Raw banana dry curry - an aromatic experience

Raw bananas also called plantains or green bananas are used extensively in Indian cooking. While all varieties that are suited to be eaten ripe are not good for eating when raw, there are some varieties grown with the purpose of consuming when green. Given the bland taste, mellow flavor and texture, green bananas make a good replacement for potatoes in many dishes including cutlets. While I love this vegetable, I bring them not so frequently and only when I know I can use them up immediately as they tend to go brown and mushy on me if I leave them longer than a day. All that transport and travel would have made the green bananas spend their better youth in some long distance trucks and they are just barely holding up their color and shape for some unsuspecting customer like me to bring them home before they lose all that artificial vitality and slump. 

I did get some good ones this week and made this dry curry, green bananas are sauteed with an aromatic spice powder and coconut and seasoned. You can make this a little bit soft if you like by adding some water and letting the banana cook a little longer but we like to eat this as a side dish with anna-saaru (Rice & rasam). I have noted a couple of variations at the end if you are interested. 

I met an acquaintance the other day and we were generally talking about stuff while book reading came up in the conversations. I think in this super electronic times we are living in, book reading (I mean holding a real paper book, feeling the pages and smelling a new book) is becoming a thing of the past. I am kind of old fashioned in that respect, no audio or electronic books for me, I keep my paper books on my night stand always. Though the reading has come down dramatically for both self and BH from the old times, we still love to cuddle up with a book whenever possible. I found a few good ones recently and thoroughly enjoyed them. One of them was 'The Reading Promise' by Alice Ozma. The book itself was a reminder that no matter what other media takes over, there is no replacement to holding, touching and feeling a paper book.

This is a heartwarming journey of a daughter and her single parenting father through the books they read as part of a promise. It is a story of a promise that gets kept through the years, a commitment that is fulfilled under many adversities of life. Told by the daughter as a memoir the book paints a wonderful, touching father-daughter relationship and their shared love for literature and reading.  It is a funny, witty read with enormous insights into the life of a dedicated father who inculcates the love of reading in his child while imparting beautiful life lessons.

The book begins with slightly contradicting memories of father and daughter about how they started ‘The Streak‘ and takes you through funny anecdotes about their secret boy hating club of America which meets strangely in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, losing a pet, becoming a motherless family, helping Dad make the biggest sales in his school book fair,  understanding adult grief and helping her dad to feel better about his own father’s death, getting her first C grade on her favorite subject but realizing her countless blessings. What shines through all the chapters is the father’s unwavering commitment to being the best parent he can. It is about being curious and always striving to learn something new.

I was reminded of my own little girl at various points in the book for her love of devouring any book she lays her eyes on, it is changing slowly with the electronics she is surrounded by but I am happy to see reading is still her first love.

After a good read, here I am, back to a lazy day luncheon with some anna-saaru and raw banana (Baalekaayi) palya.

What do you need to make raw banana dry curry? 
3 raw firm green bananas
3-4 dry red chilies (adjust to taste)
1.5 Tsp salt (adjust to tatse)
1 Tsp crushed jaggery
1/8 Tsp turmeric powder
1 Tsp chopped cilantro - for garnish
To roast and powder:
2 Tblsp grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
2 Tblsp coriander seeds
1 Tblsp cumin
small piece of tamarind or 1 Tsp lemon juice
Seasoning: 
1 Tblsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp cumin
2-3 curry leaves

How do you make raw banana dry curry? 

• Wash and peel the bananas, cut in half vertically and chop into thin slices. Put them in a vessel containing cold water until you are ready to use them.

• Heat a pan on medium heat, add coriander seeds, cumin and pieces of dry red chilies and dry roast them for 3-4 minutes until you get a nice aroma from the roasted spices. Add the tamarind piece and roast for a minute. Keep aside to cool. 
• Heat oil in a  wide pan on medium heat, add mustard, cumin and curry leaves. Let mustard crackle. 
• Add the chopped banana slices in, mix it well and let it cook for a minute. 
• Add salt, turmeric and cover the pan and let the pieces cook for 5-6 minutes or until the pieces are tender but hold shape well. 
• Powder the roasted spices into a fine powder, add them to the cooked banana pieces along with grated coconut and jaggery. Give it all a good mix and continue to cook for a couple of minutes and switch off. 

• If you are using lemon juice instead of tamarind, add it at this stage to the curry just before switching it off. 
• Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve warm as a side dish.

Notes: 

• I make thin slices for this dish since it cooks fast and also has the right bite while eating. 
• Smear a couple of drops of oil on your hands and the knife before cutting the raw banana to avoid and easily remove the sticky stuff.
• You may add finely chopped onion (about 2 Tblsp) while seasoning for flavor. 

• You can grind the roasted spices along with coconut and 2 spoons of water to make it slightly wet curry.
• Roasting tamarind removes any moisture content and helps in dry grinding into a powder. If your tamarind is soft/wet make sure you roast it a little longer to make it feel dry. 
• If you want to use tamarind concentrate, add it directly into the pan when you start to cook the banana slices.