Vazhakka or plantain is one of my favourite vegetables. There are at least three favourite ways I make this in true Tambrahm style. One is a roast, where it is sliced thinly and slow roasted until it turns crispy. The other way to make it is to cube it, cook it and saute it with whole red chillies, udad dal, mustard seeds and curry leaves with a garnish of coconut. The third one is a vazhakka podimaas. All three taste yummy with rasam-rice or mor kozhambu and rice .
Since there are three yummy ways to make this vegetable, I rarely end up making anything else. This time I picked up the plantains with the sole idea of making kababs so they don’t end up in one of my favourite curries. I did a quick google search for plantain kababs and the one that appealed most was from Vah Chef Sanjay Thumma. Mine is an adaptation of that recipe.
Kababs are best served with roomali rotis, which are not that difficult to make at home provided you have a tough aluminium/ cast iron kadai that you can turn upside down on the flame and cook the roti on the upturned kadai. Please don’t try this with your expensive teflon coated non-stick kadai .
Also, there is no need to indulge in the dramatics of the chef in the Punjabi restaurants of the 80s and 90s where they would throw a roomali roti in the air in open buffet counters to grab the interest of the diners.
Roomali Roti
For the dough, I use a mix of 3 parts atta and 1 part maida, salt and water, rest it for 30 minutes and then roll them out into big sized rotis as thin as i possibly can. I cook this on the upturned kadai kept over a big flame for a few seconds until golden spots appear and repeat on the other side. Fold into quarters and keep in airtight casserole until ready to eat.
Carrot-Radish-Rocket Salad
You can serve this with sliced onions soaked in vinegar for some 30 minutes. I shredded a radish, carrot and sliced a small bunch of rocket leaves-dressed it with lemon juice, salt, pepper and tiny pinch of sugar. It tastes better if you cover this bowl and leave it in the fridge for sometime.
Dinner is served
Recipe for Raw Banana Kababs
Makes 16-20 1″ kababs
Raw banana (plantain) kababs
Ingredients
Method
- Halve the raw bananas. Place 1 L water to boil and put the halved bananas. Boil for around 10 minutes, until bananas are tender. Remove from water. Cool, peel and grate.
- Pressure cook potato, peel and grate.
- Peel carrot and grate.
- Add the grated raw banana, potato, carrot along with all the other ingredients included freshly ground spice powder and 1-1.5 tsp salt to the mix and knead until all ingredients are well mixed to make a smooth dough.
- Roll into small lemon sized balls and flatted on palm to make 1" sized patties. Place on hot greased tava and cook on medium flame until golden brown. Flip and cook on other sized for 5-7 minutes until golden, adding some oil around the sides, if required.
- Serve with roomali roti, salad and chutneys.
kalakals i say!! am definitely going to try this kebab.. Gramma was saying they used to make Vazhakai kofta earlier :)Tried Rocket leaves in Tuscana restaurant, it has quite a distinct taste..And RHOMBA RHOMBA PORUMAI you have 🙂
Love the idea of making kababs out of plantain. Must have tasted yum.The dinner looks inviting.
I tried kebabs wid plantaisn once n liked it,almost a simialr texture like potato ones..
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ooooh I just came back from dinner..your rumalis and kababs are making me go hungry again!! slurp!nice pics o’course!cheers!
Do you get rocket leaves in all Indian supermarkets? Will try this. And the combo looks inviting.
Yum Yum Yum !!!!! will probably try em out !
This is a unique recipe..kebabs with raw plantain sounds yum!
I love that salad
Yummy looking kebab.Inviting you to participate in Cook Eat Delicious Desserts Event- Wholesome Desserts with no refined sugar or flours
Hi! I tried this last weekend. I have just started trying to cook and I enjoyed making this dish. My family loved it too. I think the part I enjoyed the most was mixing all the ingredients together to mkae the smooth dough. And they looked so lovely. My aunt thought it had great texture. I think the next time I make it I won’t add cloves (because I am not a big fan of cloves). but otherwise it was perfect. Adding the recipe to my new book of recipes. Thank you so much :). Hoping to make another one of your recipes this weekend.
Glad you liked it. Cloves can be a strong taste, i think mine are slightly old so they were milder.