Pazhampori is the Indian or to be precise, Keralite version of banana fritters.
It is another super easy evening snack usually taken with steaming hot tea. As you go to Wayanad, a beautiful place in Kerala, there are numerous vendors who put up a stove on the roadside and serve steaming hot snacks. It is from one of those wayside vendor, I had the tastiest pazhampori, perfectly crunchy on the outside with a soft and melting center. I had been trying to reproduce the same ever since and finally here I am, sharing the recipe with you.
Ingredients
- Really ripe plantain bananas - 2 or 3
- Coconut oil
For the batter
- Wheat flour(Atta) or All purpose flour(Maida) - 1/2 cup
- Rice flour(Aripodi) - 1 heaped tbsp. (This makes the batter crispy)
- Sugar - 1 or 2 tbsp (Not much sugar is required, as the bananas are very ripe)
- Salt - 2 pinch
- Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
- Water - 3/4 cup
Procedure
- Mix wheat flour/all purpose flour (I personally prefer wheat flour as it is healthier. Also, fritters made with both tastes more or less the same), rice flour, sugar, salt, turmeric powder and water. Pour water little by little and mix to attain the desired consistency - neither too watery nor too thick, just right to coat the bananas. Make sure there are no lumps.
- Make thin long slices or circles out of the bananas. For long slices, I cut a banana horizontally into 2 and then cut each half into 3 or 4 long, thin slices.
- Heat oil in a wok (or any vessel in which you could deep fry). Oil should not be smoking hot.
- Coat the banana slices in the batter and drop them slowly into the wok. Make sure the bananas are fully immersed in simmering oil.
- Fry till they are golden brown.
- Serve with hot tea.
Tips
- Only plaintain bananas are used to make Pazhampori in Kerala, if you would like to do it the authentic way
- The bananas should be really ripe, such that its outer skin is almost completely black, which is the contributing factor to the sweet melting center of a pazhampori.
Image source
Try this recipe of my land and let me know the results :)