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Plantain Fritters (also known as Banana Bajjis)

Plantain Fritters is a famous evening time snack in Southern India. This is enjoyed for its mild flavour and crispy outer layer and inside smooth plantain slice. People would love to eat this dish served hot when it is raining outside with a cup of coffee or hot tea.

Plantain Fritters is popularly called as Balekai Bajji in Kannada, Vazhakkai Bajji in Tamil, Aratikai Bajji in Telugu and so on. In general the word "Bajji" is commonly referred to the way it is done like Fritters. Similar process can be followed to do Boiled Egg Fritters, Bread Fritters, Green Chilli Fritters, etc with mild variations in preparation of these other variants.

Ingredients:
2 - green fresh Plaintain
1 tsp - Baking Soda
2 pinch - Asafoetida
1 cup - Chickpea Flour
4 tbsp - Rice Flour
1-2 tbsp - Corn Flour (optional for extra crispy outer layer)
1 tbsp - Paprika (Red Chilli Powder)
1 tsp - Bishop weed seeds (Ajwain)
1/2 tsp - Turmeric
1/2 cup - Water (a bit more or less depending on the consistency of the batter)
Salt to taste (just around 1 tsp)
Oil to deep fry

Add all the ingredients (except water) as shown in the below picture to prepare batter.

Add slowly water and mix it up to form a batter as shown. Make sure you add water a little by little while mixing so that it wont form any lumps. This batter should have the same consistency as the way you make pan cakes.

Cut the ends of Plantain and slightly peel the outer skin of the Plantain as shown. Just remove the thin shiny other most skin so that the inner skin is intact as shown. While peeling it may tend to tarnish and may get darker which is perfectly normal since the plantain is rich in iron and other minerals it may tend to get oxidize when it is in contact with Oxygen(air). You can just apply water on it and continue peeling to prevent excess oxidization.

Grab a large bowl of water and add a teaspoon of salt. Cut the plantain into half and make thin slices as shown. You can use a vegetable slicer or you can slice with a sharp knife. As soon as you make slices make sure you put them into this bowl of water, this will prevent it getting tarnished.

Now remove the excess water with a paper towel or with a piece of cloth as shown.

Now you can dip the plantain slices one by one in the batter as shown in the below picture. Make sure you coat evenly the batter on all sides.
 
Now you can deep fry this as shown below.

Once it is cooked on one side you can gently flip them over and stir so that it is evenly fried.

Once it is reached a golden brown consistency now it is ready to be taken out.

Grab a large strainer (something like a juice or pasta strainer) and cover it with multiple layers of paper towel so that it looks like a bird's nest. You can now gently put the fried fritters on it so that it strains and absorbs excess oil as shown.

After a minute, you can serve them immediately hot Plantain Fritters with Ketchup or even with Mustard.

Hope you liked our recipe. Kindly do post your comments and suggestions.
cheers, Kiran & Bindu.

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