Masala Keli (Spiced Bananas)

When I was out grocery shopping last week, I found this 'Kerala Store' that stocked a lot of white pumpkins(the veggie vendors here never have this), small red pumpkins and the famous 'nendra pazham'/kerala bananas. I had never seen these bananas or even the elaichi bananas that you get in Bangalore, in a real long time. I was so thrilled to see all this, that I bought a cute little red pumpkin and 4 of the nendra pazhams.

I made the mathanga erissery from Nags' blog with the red pumpkin and Ma made this masala keli with the nendra pazhams. The masala keli / spiced bananas is traditionally made with a chutney stuffed in the bananas, but this is Ma's easy version, and I totally love it




You could try making this with any variety of bananas I guess, but the nendra bananas have a very different flavour and it suits this the best

What you need -

4 nendra pazhams / ripe bananas
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
2 red chillies
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
3 tbsp grated jaggery
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ghee

What you do with it -

Peel the bananas and make thick slices
In a bowl, add the bananas, coconut, jaggery, coriander leaves and salt
Toss and keep aside for about 10 mins
For the seasoning, heat the ghee add mustard seeds and the broken red chillies
Add the seasoning to the bananas

If you try this with any other variety of bananas, do let me know how it turns out

Will try the authentic version of stuffing the bananas with the chutney and post it soon