Raw Banana Chettinad style / Valakkai Varuval

Last week TH brought back about 3 dozens of raw bananas from his factory !! Well, they manufacture industrial products, but the gardeners have utilised the garden area well by having a lot of vegetables growing there...There are days when he brings back 8-10 bunches of baby spinach, bags of tender okra and cluster beans, and now raw bananas...



I kept a dozen and distributed the rest among my friends...I decided on a Chettinad style of making this. TH's maternal grandfather is from Chettinad and so my mother-in-law makes quite a few dishes the Chettinad way. This is a recipe I learnt from her

Chettinad food is spicy and full of flavours. Fennel, peppercorn, cinnamon and red chillies are some of the most commonly used spices. The fennel and garlic in this dish really gives it a very different flavour from the regular poriyals...
Enjoy this with some hot rice and rasam

What you need -

3 regular size raw bananas (I used 8 small ones)
1 medium onion chopped
1 tomato chopped
1 tbsp fennel seeds
3-4 cloves of garlic
a few curry leaves
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

What you do with it -

Cut the skin off the raw bananas and then slice in half lengthwise and then cut into slices
Soak in water with turmeric till you need to use it
Crush the garlic pods with the flat side of a knife, instead of cutting it, makes it more flavourful that way
In a pan, heat the oil and then add garlic and fennel seeds. Once the garlic changes colour, add the curry leaves and onions
Saute for 2 mins, add the chilli powder and tomatoes and fry for 2-3 mins
Then add the banana pieces and salt. Sprinkle some water over it and cover
Cook on a low flame till the banana is cooked. This wont't take too long, just another 4-5 mins
Serve hot with rice and rasam

Puli Kulambu

Chettinad cuisine is more famous for their non vegetarian food, but they do have a nice vegetarian spread too, which is rather spicy and tangy.
Tamarind and a whole lot of spices are some of the more important ingredients in this type of cooking.

S's maternal grandfather is from Chettinad. There is this really palatial ancestral house in Karaikudi, (which is considered as the capital of Chettinad) that he (the grandfather) was from, but had to leave because he chose to marry someone from another community.
A few years back, we were down in Karikudi for a wedding and it was a very different experience. All the women from the bride's side of the family were in green coloured heavy silk sarees and the ones from the groom's side were in red. This was the first time i has seen something like this at an Indian wedding, which otherwise has no colour code!

Chettiars were originally into money-lending, trading and even famous as diamond merchants down south. The diamond merchant bit was quite obvious at this wedding we attended. The women were decked with rows of diamond necklaces !!
The food was simply fantastic. The day after the wedding they have this whole non-vegetarian spread and they dont stop at just mutton, chicken and fish. Their cuisine includes a lot of other meat, the details of which I will skip for the sake of all the vegetarians reading this..

One of the really tangy vegetarian dishes is the Puli Kulambu (tamarind gravy)
This recipe is from Mallika Badrinath's "Classic Lunch Recipes"




Sending this entry to RCI: Chettinadu Vegetarian Cuisine hosted this month by Srimathi of Few Minute Wonders

What you need -

1/2 cup small onions peeled (1 regular onion would also do)
10 cloves of garlic
2-3 tsps of sambar powder
2 tomatoes chopped fine
tamarind the size of a medium lemon (or more if you like it really tangy)
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
10-12 onion vadams (i used the readymade vadams for this)
10-12 curry leaves

What you do with it -

Soak tamarind in water for about 1/2 hour and extract juice
Heat oil in a broad frying pan and add fennel and fenugreek, chopped garlic, onions and curry leaves
Fry till onions are translucent and add chopped tomatoes
Stir till the tomatoes get pulpy
Add sambar powder, fry for a minute and then pour tamarind extract with 1 cup water
Add salt and boil till thick. Add more water if needed
Deep fry the vadams in oil till golden brown
Add to gravy and wait for one boil
Serve with hot rice and appalams