Banana Fritters or Ethakka Appam / Pazham pori is a very popular and traditional dish in Kerala. It is one of the easiest and yummiest snack to have in your evenings with a cup of tea.
Usually Pazham Pori is prepared from Maida and Banana. But in this recipe, I have replaced Maida with something more healthier.
INGREDIENTS
- Ripe Big Banana / Ethapazham / Nentham pazham / Ripe plaintain (the riper and blacker the skin, is better) . I used Frozen Goya Ripe Plantains slices – 12 nos
- Gram Flour (Kadala mavu - besan flour ) – 1 cup
- Rice flour – 2 Tbsp
- Turmeric powder – 1/8 tsp
- Baking powder – 1/2 tsp
- Salt - small pinch
- Sugar – 3 or 4 tbsp
- Cardamom powder – 1 pinch
- Water - About 3/4 cup (more or less)
- Oil (coconut oil ) for deep frying
PREPARATION METHOD:
- Peel 2 ripe bananas. Cut each one horizontally into two pieces. Now make 2 or 3 lengthwise cuts on each piece. Keep it aside.
- Take a wide bowl and add Gram flour and rice flour in it.
- Add sugar, salt and baking soda to the bowl and mix everything well.
- Add cardamom powder and mix everything well.
- Pour water to the ingredients little by little, to make a batter that's slightly watery than dosa batter. It shouldn't be too thin, otherwise, the Ethakka appams or banana fritters will be too oily.
- Now add in a pinch of turmeric powder and mix well. This is only meant for the color bit and doesn't change the taste or flavor in any way.
- Dip the banana slices in batter and evenly coat them.
- In a deep bottom frying pan heat about 1/2 cup oil, until its all bubbly. You have to use coconut oil for the authentic taste.
- When the oil is just short of smoking hot, place carefully the dipped banana pieces one by one into the oil and fry both sides of the coated banana pieces until golden brown (Turn over in between).
- Remove from oil and drain the excess oil with paper napkins / kitchen towel.
- Serve warm with hot tea.
Banana Fritters / Pazham pori using Frozen banana slices :
If you prefer to make pazham pori with Frozen banana slices, take banana slices from refrigerator and place them in room temperature for 20 minutes. Make batter. Dip the banana slices in batter and evenly coat them. Heat oil for deep frying and fry both sides of the coated banana pieces until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain the excess oil with paper napkins / kitchen towel. Serve warm with hot tea.
NOTES:
- Instead of gram flour , you can use All purpose flour or wheat flour.
- Addition of sugar depends on sweetness of banana.
- More sugar browns the fritters.
- Carefully mix the batter. Batter should be more or less thick.
- I used a s small kadai / pan for frying so that I need only very little oil and that reduces wastage.
- The ethakka appams/ Banana fritters get soggy and the coating gets chewy and soft once cold so this is best served warm.
- The street food sellers often use eggs in the batter, but your homemade Pazham Pori will certainly taste even better.
- No other variety of banana can be substituted for Nendran pazham or etha pazham to give the desired quality.
- When you use rice flour, the batter tends to come out little crispy.The proportion of Rice flour depends on how crispy you want. Without rice flour the fritters tend to become soggy. If you want it crispy, you can add a little more rice flour, but I think the snack tastes better when chewy.
