DISH NAME : SARKARA VARATTY (BANANA CHIPS IN JAGGERY)

Preparation Time : 45 minutes

Cooking Time : 90 minutes

Description

"Sarkara" , the malayalam word means Jaggery & "varatty" means cooked to a dry form. Sarkara varaty is a must in Kerala sadyas ( festive lunch). The making of this dish is a laborious, time consuming process. But once made at home, you'll never go for the store bought one.

Note

1) Kerala raw bananas, known as nendra kaaya is used for this. Substituting with other bananas will not help.
2) I've used organic jaggery, so sweetness may vary slightly depending on the jaggery used.
3) The banana peel is not thrown away. It's cut into small pieces and cooked with dried cow pea to make a good side dish, van payar kaaya tholi mezhukkupuratty.
4) Use a nice yellowish or whitish jaggery or the chips will be unappealing.
5) Do not over fry bananas, do it on the lowest flame.
6) Do not over cook jaggery.
7) I've used 250 gms. approximately 2 cups ( 250 ml. Cup) of jaggery.
8) Adding ghee is entirely optional. Adding it will give a good fragrance.

Method

1) Powder cardamom with sugar and keep aside.
2) Cut off the tail & top of raw banana.
3) Make a slit on the banana , top to bottom, with a sharp knife. Do not cut deeply, only the peel need to be cut. Then by inserting the left thumb inside the slit, carefully slit open and remove the peel using your right hand. Immediately add the whole banana to water in which little turmeric has been added.
4) Cut the bananas vertically in half & cut each half into 1/2 cm. pieces. Should be cut evenly. The trick you use here is, using the index finger tip to get an approximate measure.
5) Heat oil very well. Add banana pieces, seperate them while adding to oil. Wait for a minute, reduce fire to the minimum & stir well.
6) Fry bananas at the lowest flame or the insides will not be cooked properly. This is a very time consuming process. Stir once in a while. Once it's fried you'll hear nice crispy sound. Do not burn. Remove from fire & keep aside. Fry the whole thing in batches like this. 8) Fry the fried bananas for a second time to make it crispy & crunchy.Let it cool.
7) Melt jaggery with 1/4 cup water. Strain for imprities.
9) Heat jaggery and cook till it attains 1 string consistency. Keep stirring continuously or it will burn.To check for 1 string, either lift the spatula used for stirring jaggery and the syrup should attain 1 string, or just take a little jaggery syrup in a teaspoon and dip your index finger in the syrup & touch the syrup on index finger with thumb & try to pull part, then 1 string should form. If not cook till one string is attained.
10) Immediately on attaining this consistency, put off fire, add cumin powder and dry ginger powder. Mix in well.
11) Add in fried banana and ghee to jaggery and stir well to mix, do it in great speed.
12) Then add sugar-cardamom powder little by little, stirring in between. This powder will help in seperating the banana pieces.
13) Cool & store in tins.

Serving Suggestions

Serve after it has cool down. Serve with sadya (Kerala festive lunch) or as a snack.