I finally got to try a recipe from “Cooking at Home with Pedatha” that I had won in a giveaway ages back. I love the book and the pictures and have a lot of recipes bookmarked. Since my cooking for the blog revolves around what is in my fridge, I was looking for a different way to cook the raw plantains I had bought from the Indian store. I liked how those plantains tasted a lot closer to the ones we get back home.
I have used mustard seed powder in pickles, but not in any dry curry. I was a bit skeptical wondering whether there will be any bitter taste, but there was no bitterness and the paste added a lot of flavor to the vegetable. I am sure this paste can be used with other vegetables too. If you want a simpler way to cook vazhakai that involves no grinding, try out the podimas recipe I had posted earlier. Recipe from Cooking at Home with Pedatha.
Raw Banana(Vazhakai) Fry with Mustard
Mustard seeds and coconut add a wonderful flavor to this dry side dish.
Ingredients:
- For Paste
- mustard seeds - 1.5 tsp (kadugu)
- rice - 1 tbsp - raw rice
- ginger - 1 inch piece
- cilantro - 1/4 cup (coriander leaves)
- coconut - 1 tbsp - I used dry coconut
- For Fry
- plantain - 2 (raw banana/vazhaikai)
- turmeric - pinch
- salt - to taste
- oil - 1 tbsp
- mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp (kadugu)
- urad dal - 1/2 tsp (ulutham paruppu)
- green chilly - 3 - slit lengthwise
- asafoetida - pinch
- curry leaves - few
Instructions:
Soak the mustard seeds and rice for half and hour and grind with ginger, coconut and cilantro.
Boil the raw plantain pieces with turmeric and salt and keep aside. Heat oil and season with mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida, green chillies and curry leaves.
Add the cooked plantain and the paste. Add salt if needed. Simmer for 7 - 10 minutes and turn the stove off.
Pictorial
1. Soak rice and mustard seeds in water for half an hour.
2. Drain the mustard seeds and rice. To the soaked mustard seeds and rice, add cilantro, coconut and ginger. Take in a blender.
3. Blend to a paste.
4. Boil the raw banana pieces along with turmeric and salt until cooked.
5. Cooked vazhaikai.
6. Heat oil and splutter mustard seeds. Add urad dal, green chillies, asafoetida and curry leaves. Saute until the dal turns golden brown.
7. Add the cooked banana pieces.
8. Add the paste.
9. Mix well and simmer for 7 - 10 minutes. Add salt if needed.
10. Curry ready.
We had the yummy side dish with rice.
Enjoy!Linking to New U – 2013 and Food on Friday – Mustard.
 Fry with Mustard on http://cooksjoy.com/blog "Pin It")
Just love the step by step, and the bucket. Thanks for liking the recipe and the book
Vardhini,
thank you for linking this in to Food on Friday. We are now getting a great collection of dishes using mustard together. I hope you have stopped by some of the other links to check them out!
Ps I have just signed up to follow your blog. A follow back to Carole’s Chatter would be wonderful – or have you already followed? Cheers
Ps If you would like email reminders of future Food on Fridays, just pop by and comment and include your email – I won’t publish it – and the reminder will be by bcc so it will remain private
Hi there. Food on Friday: Mustard on Carole’s Chatter is now open for entries. This looks like a good recipe using mustard! I do hope you link it in. This is the link . Please do pop back to check out some of the other links. Have a great week.
Flavourful fry….love it!
bookmarking this.
Yumm!! I got the book this time during my holidays and am so looking forward to trying some recipes!!
What a close up picture semma shot. I love to eat it from here with a spoon.
very interesting and yummy fry, totally new to me…thanks for this great recipe..will try it sometime soon…lovely presentation!
Sounds delicious, will give a try soon.
Vardhini i know that book! amazing recipes in that treasure trove of a book. My favorites are the tomato pappu, the yogurt stew and this curry.. a totally different perspective to vazhakai
Love this greeny banana fry, neat presentation!!!