This dish is an old favourite in Calicut and can be had in homes and corner cafes and wayside stores. It is a an affordable snack and much loved with a hot cup of tea. I myself am a philistine coffee drinker, an oddity in my Calicut family. I have been trying to devise the perfect recipe for this classic. Googling revealed the usage of ingredients like baking powder, chick pea flour and turmeric (!), all alien to the dish prepared in my childhood home. I'm always searching for the version my Umma made. But memory is a fickle thing and I don't recall what ingredients she used. So I turned to Ummi Abdulla's cook book, and after consultations with my sister Zeenath, who lives back home in Calicut, and my niece Athy in CT, this recipe came to fruition. In my opinion, these pazham mukki poris are the best I ever made.
Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
3 level tbsp rice flour
1 level tbsp sugar
1 egg
A pinch of salt (Umma always said a pinch of salt brings out the best in sweet dishes)
Cardamom pods - 8 to be powdered (or 1 level tsp of cardamom powder)
1 1/4 cup of water
Bananas - 3 (The best are nendra pazhams from Kerala. I used plantains from Guatemala for this recipe. The plantains from a Caribbean store work just as well.)
Oil - for frying
Split the cardamom pods and powder only the seeds in a mortar and pestle. You may use store bought cardamom powder but making your own is best.
Peel the bananas and divide it into three sections. Cut into thin long slices. It is customary to halve the banana and then slice the halves. My wok is small and I divide the banana into three to accommodate my small wok.
Mix the all purpose flour, rice flour, sugar, cardamom powder, salt and water in a bowl. Whisk to make a smooth batter without any lumps. Toss all the bananas into the batter.
Heat the oil. I made this recipe on a ceramic topped stove. Heat on high. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to test for heat. When the handle of the spoon is plunged into the centre of the wok, and you hear a sizzle and see bubbles forming around the handle, you know that the oil is hot enough for frying.
Turn the heat down to medium. Pick out banana slices, making sure that each is fully coated with batter and drop into the hot oil, one by one.
Fry for three minutes. Use a slotted spoon to toss them in the oil, making sure that each piece is separate from the other and that all sides get evenly fried.
Remove with a slotted spoon and drain off all the excess oil.
At this time, turn the heat back up to high, repeat the wooden spoon handle test, turn heat down to medium and fry the next batch.
Transfer the first batch of fried bananas to a bowl. If the bananas are not sweet enough as my Guatemalan bananas were, dust lightly with sugar or icing sugar.
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