Rawbanana Stir Fry / Vazhakkai Podimas

Plantain stir fry / Vazhakkai Podimas is a healthy and delicious dish. As it does not require much ingredients, it is easy to prepare. This is a mild spiced sidedish so I usually make this for tamarind based spicy gravies.

Ingredients:

Raw banana – 2 medium sized

Onion – 1

Redchilli – 2 nos

Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp

Uradh dhal – 1/2 tsp

Groundnut Oil – 1 tsp

Salt – to taste

Water – 4 cups approx ( to boil raw bananas )

Method:

1. In a wide and deep bottomed pan, heat the water.
2. Add the Rawbanana to the boiling water and allow it to cook for 5 to 8 mins. You can see the skin of raw banana getting darker.
3. The Rawbanana should be half cooked and once you take it out of boiling water, you should be able to peel its skin easily.
4. The banana should be soft but not mushy.
5. Grate the skin peeled raw banana and keep it aside. ( Use grater with big holes)
6. In a kadai or nonstick pan (nonstick works well ), heat oil and let the mustard seeds splutter
7. Add the uradh dhal, let it turn golden brown and add curry leaves.
8. Add in the red chillies and chopped onion in the kadai. Saute well.
9. Mix in the grated, boiled rawbanana and fry in a low flame. Add salt to taste.
10. Fry till the grated raw banana cooks well. It may take around 3 to 4 mins.
11. Rawbanana stirfry is ready to be served as sidedish with sambar rice or with any spicy gravy.

Note:

• I have used groundnut oil here in this recipe. You can use any oil of you choice
• I prefer using groundnut oil or sesame oil than refined oil in most of my recipes.