Raw banana/ nendhram/ plantain chips
Happy new year world! I wanted my new year to start afresh. So, I slept at 10 PM the previous night and woke up mega fresh that day :D. However, there was a dullness lurking the whole day & I couldn’t really explain as to why. I felt lazy & lethargic; did not feel like doing anything. Whenever I feel that way, I let my feelings guide me & I respect the way I feel. I acknowledge that not always should I push that dull feeling aside but that sometimes you can embrace it and it might help you get over it faster. And that’s exactly what happened this time. Today morning I woke up feeling better. Truly, my new year has started today :). I feel chirpy enough to work on my blog, I feel happy about another week coming to an end and i’m truly looking forward to the weekend & the time I get to spend with my family. Through all this what surprises me the most is my idea of entering a new year. Years back all I wanted to do was to stay awake & party with friends. Now all I want to do is, party in bed with my family in our PJs and I am extremely contended with that. That’s what I want to do & I clearly don’t seem to have any FOMO.
Before the year ended, my mother-in-law decided to make these awesome banana chips just because her grandson aka Adya wanted to have these. He had been asking for it for quite a few days & somehow the way he kept asking, my mother-in-law felt he deserved the best & not just the store bought versions (not that the store bought versions aren’t good. It’s just the love that comes along with homemade stuff :)). Guess who was more excited than Adya about this decision of my mil’s :D. Exactly, me me me cos I get to blog blog blog :D. My mil is never excited about that bit for sure though she now recognises the importance of my blogging since our own family members look up our recipes & get to try them out. Anywho, we got these nendhrams/ raw banana from a nearby store & set out to peel them. I found it bizarre the way she was cracking the peels open & genuinely felt peeling them using a vegetable feel would be much more efficient & easy and I was totally wrong. I tried out the vegetable peeler way – it took way more time than doing it her way & it also took off a big of the raw banana flesh along with the peel. Her way was totally rocking & easy (if you have some nails, then perfect. I didn’t and so my pointer finger were a bit sore after cracking open some 10 raw bananas). Since this was a method I did not know of, I wanted to take a video of it for everyone’s benefit. Then I saw her salt the bananas, that’s again something I have never seen before. Hence, I decided to shoot a video of certain important steps that will help with the process. More on this in the last part of this post.
- 14 nos raw banana/ nendhram/ plantain
- 300 ml coconut oil
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Heat the coconut oil in a deep frying pan in low flame.
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In a small vessel, mix 3 tsp salt in 1/2 cup water. Set it aside.
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Meanwhile, peel the raw banana/ nendhram/ plantain skin using either a vegetable peeler or by making vertical slits across the banana & literally ripping the peel/ skin apart.
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Using a mandolin dicer, dice the banana into thin slices/ roundels.
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Once the oil is well heated, turn the flame to medium high & gently slide in the raw banana roundels/ slices.
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Gently toss the chips using a spatula every now and then. After about 5 minutes, the bubbling /buzzing should reduce.
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At this stage, sprinkle a bit of the salt water into the frying pan (be careful as to not to let the oil pop on to you) and toss the chips once again so as to incorporate the salt evenly.
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Once the salt water is added, once again there will be a lot more bubbling/ buzzing. Wait for it to subside (which should take a few minutes).
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Transfer the chips to a kitchen towel/ sieve. Allow the excess oil to drain/ absorb.
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Serve once the chips cool down or store it in an airtight container. Stays well upto 2-3 weeks. Enjoy the crunchy bites.
- Do not slice all the bananas all at once since they'll become black. As and when a batch is frying in the pan, slice up the next batch.
- Using coconut oil is ideal for this in order to get the right taste/ flavour.
- Salting any other way doesn't stick to the chips apparently.
- You can check if the oil is ready by just dropping 1 or 2 roundels/ chips & it should bubble and come up.
Stepwise pictures
This is a pic of the setup my mil did prior to starting with the chips activity. Since we sprinkle water in the oil (for salting), there will be a lot of oil spill overs in the stove area. So makes a lot of sense to cover it up.
Pour around 300-350 ml of coconut oil in a deep frying pan & heat it in the lowest possible flame.
A pic of the brand we used just for reference.
While the oil is getting heated, you can remove the peel from the raw banana. Option 1 – using a vegetable peel. Not a great option but certainly works.
Option 2 for removing the peel is to make vertical slits using a knife (after trimming the ends).
Then, crack the slits open. Refer to my video down below for a tutorial. Dark video but good enough for you to get the picture :).
Using a mandolin dicer, dice the raw banana nice and thin.
Make sure to go only one way while dicing so as to get nice thin pieces.
This is how the banana roundels will look like once diced/ grated.
Meanwhile, the oil should be ready for frying (you can check by dropping 1 or 2 chips & it should bubble up if the oil is hot & ready). Gently slide in the chip slices of 1 raw banana & gently toss using a spatula. Fry in medium-high heat.
Get the salt water ready on the side.
After around 5 minutes, you will notice less bubbles & the bubble/ buzzing sound will also reduce. Sprinkle salt water using your hand/ fingers. The oil will once again start bubbling/ buzzing. Wait for another few minutes for that to subside.
Transfer to a kitchen towel/ sieve. Allow it to cool down a bit.
Serve or store in an airtight container for upto 2-3 weeks. My son loved this :).
The video below is a compilation of multiple short totally impromptu videos taken on my phone. I had done no prior setup since I wasn’t even planning on doing a video. The video was mostly taken by my fil with Adyant in one hand. Most of the video is dark & definitely not a great looking video overall. But hey, who starts day 1 of something new with total perfection and no flaws? Just to remind myself and to be brave to post the video along with this post, I took a little detour to when my blog started. The below pic is of the fudgy chocolate cookies that was the first ever post on my blog. Compare that with any of the recent food blog pictures I have taken :). So I am hopeful my video taking & editing skills will also improve over time :D. Now after all this, give a shot looking at my video because it has some important tricks documented while making these chips.
