Valakkai Varuval (Raw Banana chips)

It is raining bananas this month in JFI and this is my drop of the rain! This recipe is from a treasure filled recipe book that I procured on a road side for 15Rs nearly a decade before. The purchase of the book was one of my many spontaneous reactions in the brief period that I was engaged to be married. This is an unusual recipe that calls for deep frying and pan frying and tastes excellent. With minimum effort and few ingredients that can easily be found in the store cupboard it is a winner.

Raw Banana – 3

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Chilli powder – 1 Tbsp

Garlic 4 cloves

Salt – as required

Cut the banana into half. Peel the skin and cut it into ½ inch pieces. Mix turmeric powder and salt to the banana and let it rest for 5 minutes. Peel and crush the garlic. Heat oil in a pan and deep or shallow fry the banana till half done. Drain the chips on a paper towel. Coat the chips with chilli powder. Heat the pan with a spoon of oil and return the chips to the pan and fry them. Two minutes later add in the crushed garlic and fry till the chips are cooked. The crushed garlic gives it a unique flavour and goes well with Sambhar rice or yogurt rice. Or this can be a good replacement for potato chips (French fries).