Plantain & Suji (semolina) Kebabs!

Plantain is Raw banana and Suji is semolina made with rice.

Plantain is such a versatile ingredient. In so many coastal cuisines, plantain chips are quite common. Cuba and Mexico have their own variety. Where as in Indonesia and Southern India, they are made with raw bananas. Raw banana and plantain are different varieties. They are not used only to make chips, but to make koftas and kebabs, as well.

I remember, my mum made koftas sometimes when we were younger, for the parties. She always said that kebabs taste fantastic but I don’t remember that she made the kebabs ever.

In India, we get raw banana variety and not plantains. I found the plantains much drier, even after boiling but they are very flavorful. I have shallow fried these. But feel free to deep fry these beauties. I will not recommend the oven baking since they will become very dry. To make them gluten free, use chickpea flour or corn flour.

Plantains are good source of energy, rich in dietary fiber, Vitamin A, C, B-6, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium and potassium.

Holi is coming up! So this is my first in the series for HOLI, a festival filled with fun, food and frolic :). Welcome Spring with both arms open with good food and higher spirits!

Here is how you make these.

Serves – 4 to 5

Kitchen Equipments Required – a broad heavy bottom pan (hard anodized recommended), a flipping flat spatula, a big bowl, 2 plates, chopping board and knife. Pan or pressure cooker to boil plantain/raw banana.

Ingredients

Oil – 2 tbsp
Plantain – 2 cups, boiled & grated
Semolina – 1/4 cup
Onions – 1/4 cup
Ginger – 1 tsp freshly grated
Garlic – 1 tsp freshly grated
Red chili powder – 1/2 tsp
Amchur / Dry Mango Powder – 1/2 tsp. You may use 1/2 tbsp lemon juice instead.
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Garam Masala – 1 tsp. You may use curry masala instead
Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp chopped fine
Salt to taste

Method

1. Grate the boiled plantain in a bowl. Add all the ingredients besides oil to the mixture. Bring it in a dough. Plantain is dry in nature. So the mixture will be dry. Use 1 tsp of water at a time to bring it together in soft dough.

2. Pinch small portions and shape them either in small sausage/cylinder shape or flat rounds. Keep them small since we are not deep frying these. We are shallow frying them. You may choose to deep fry these too.

3. Heat oil in the heavy bottom pan. Add all the sausages together to the hot oil. Reduce the flame. And roll the small cylinders in oil immediately. Let them cook on medium low flame for 8-10 minutes, while flipping them side to side so that they are cooked from all the sides. Lower flame will cook them from inside and give them nice red color and crisp them nicely.

Note – To cook from the sides, check out the picture below. This is how I seal my shallow fried goodies when shallow frying.