It so happens that my mom is not particularly fond of me in the kitchen. For, letting me into her kitchen to cook means me sniffing through her multitude varieties of “podis” and special blends. She is right. In the end, I mess up where all the bottles are kept and sometimes interchange the lids which according to her changes the smell of the powders she makes.
Nevertheless, this time around during my visit I decided to dig my way into her sacred space this time to discover her secret to the magical plantain (ethhaka/kaya) banana chips she often makes. These crispy golden coins, ate adored by my entire family. Perhaps the one which my dad finally agreed no one can beat her to the crunch and the perfect crispness.
With time at my stride I caught up with an entire learning session to this treasure with her. Yes!!! the nod of agreement came, after much begging and totally under her watchful hawk eye.
Under the watchful eye
The plantain chips / banana chips is an absolute must on the sadhya leaf perching right next to the crispy papadam. It is even more delicious with the saltiness riding through a gulp of warm sweet milk tea. This is served in Kerala as a ” Naalumani palaharam”, snacks served with the evening tea.
The reason I stopped buying this off the shelf is because of the additive towards color. Unfortunately many a times this is not mentioned in the pack too which makes it difficult to identify. Now no need to worry as I have the ultimate way of making it…a few trials more pending to get the right crispiness, but I know I am on the right track.
Scroll down right to the bottom before you buy the plantains as I have added pearls of wisdom from my mothers experience to the notes below. This helps me a lot in selecting these plantains. Hope it is useful to you too.
Kerala style plantain banan chips
Sharing this lovely gluten free recipe with you today with step by step pictures. Enjoy your snack time, enjoy the delicious crunch. No more store bought crisps. lets do a little extra for our kids, A bit towards their health.
Check out more easy snack recipes in the links below
banana chips
Ingredients
- 10 plantain bananas raw, hard, green
To combine and set aside
- 2 tbsp Rock salt
- 1/2 cup drinking water
To deep fry
- 1 litre cooking oil for deep fry
Instructions
- Set a heavy wok ready to go.
- Mix the salt and water to make a saturated solution. Set it aside
- Keep the mandolin ready to slice the raw plantain banana
- Wash and Clean the plantain banana . Pat dry.
- Peel the thick skin of the plantain banana
- Add oil to the wok and set on medium heat. Make sure you only half fill the wok so that the oil will not overflow and you need not worry about recycled oil.
- As the oil heats up, slice the plantain a little at a time. About half the plantain banana at a time
- Check the oil and drop in the sliced plantain banana to fry.
- As the sizzle up in the hot oil , spinkle a bit of the salt solution
- Let the salt coat the chip and fry futher.
- As the bubbles reduce and the chips appear crunchy in the oil, remove and drain on adsorbent paper.
- Cool the chips to hand warmth and then store in air tight boxes.
Notes
The chips when fried properly and stored in air tight boxes stay for 2 weeks very well. The slicing of all the chips uniformly assures that none of the chips go soggy and thereby make the whole lot go soft. there are more flavours added to the banana chip. If adding Pepper powder or chilli powder Sprinkle them as soon as the chips are lifted off from the oil. This assures they coat the chips well and stick to the chips well. Tips on choosing the plantain
- Look for a firm bunch of plantain. If soft then the plantain have started ripening. This will make sweet chips but will burn easily.
- The Peel will be dark green for a raw banana. and will not be easy to take off. This assures the freshness
- Buy the bunch as single banana may have crushed pulp which will not fry well.
Nutrition
Calories: 25kcalCarbohydrates: 7gProtein: 0.3gSodium: 2958mgFiber: 1g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Homemade plantain chips is next on my to do list Seema. Bookmarked the recipe. Thanks for the pearls of wisdom 😍
Will share my feedback with you once I give them a try.