Pazham pori recipe
Pazham pori or ethakka appam, a crispy coated fried banana snack from Kerala. Mildly sweet and a perfect quick and easy snack recipe to accompany hot tea in the evenings
Ingredients
- 1 Ethapazham / Nenthram pazham / Ripe plaintain
- 1 cup all purpose flour maida
- 1 tbsp rice flour for extra crispiness, optional but recommended
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- A pinch salt
- A pinch turmeric powder for colour
- 1/2 cup water more or less
- 3 cups Coconut oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Place the all purpose flour in a wide bowl.
- Add sugar, salt and baking soda. I use raw sugar which explains the colour.
- Add about 1/2 cup water and adjust as you go, to make a batter that's thick enough to easily coat the banana slices (more notes below)
- Add in a pinch of turmeric powder. This is only meant for colour and doesn't change the taste or flavour in any way.
- Cut the plaintain into half and then slice each half midway vertically. Further slice each of the quarters into 2-3 thin pieces. Dunk these into the batter.
- Heat the coconut oil until its nearly smoking
- When the oil is coat each banana slice in the batter on both sides and gently slide into the oil
- Fry until golden brown and drain on paper napkins
- Serve Pazham Pori hot with tea.
Notes
- Use ripe Nendran bananas for the best taste and texture. They should be yellow with a few black spots. Overripe bananas will turn mushy and if they are not ripe enough, they will hard when bitten into inside the pazham pori
- Add rice flour to the batter for extra crispiness. This also means more oil will be absorbed but it's worth it for the texture. When you add rice flour, the pazham pori is delicious when eaten hot.
- Upon cooling down, the fritters turn chewy which is still delicious. Refrigerating or reheating is not recommended so enjoy them hot or just store them in a container at room temperature to eat later.
- As with any deep fried snack, take care not to overcrowd the pan. Depending on the size of your pan, add only a few fritters at a time.
- Some people add a few cumin seeds or cardamom powder to the batter. I don't like either variation, preferring to keep the flavour primarily to that of the bananas
- Adding sugar to the batter is not only to give it some sweetness but to also add crispness. Don't omit that step!