Vazhaikkai (Raw banana) Curry

Vazhaikkai (Raw banana curry) is really a comforting dish for me. It reminds me of my mom, my hometown and my carefree childhood days. It is a kind of tradition to use raw banana on new moon day in most of our south Indian homes. 

Apart from potatoes, I think this is the next best vegetable liked by most of the kids. My daughter simply loves this curry. This curry tastes yum especially with hot rasam rice, yogurt rice, morkozhambu rice.

Ingredients
Raw bananas - 2 nos
Chilli powder - 2 teaspoons
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon
Hing - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Oil - 4-5 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Split urid dal - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - few

Method
Peel the outer green layer, cut the vegetable into small cubes. Soak them in a mixture of water & buttermilk to retain the color (Raw banana tends to discolor when exposed to air). Keep it aside.

Add oil to a heavy bottomed pan/kadai. After the oil gets heated, toss in the cut raw bananas. Leave it in the pan for about 5 - 10 mins (saute occasionally, else banana tends to get mushy) before adding turmeric powder, chilli powder, hing, coriander powder and salt.

Cook until bananas are tender & soft and remove from heat. Splutter mustard seeds & fry split urid dals in little oil with curry leaves and add it to the curry.

Serve as a side with rasam/sambar rice.

Tips

• There are different kinds of raw bananas in the market and some of them could be really hard to cook. For such bananas, boil them in 2-3 cups of water for few minutes until they are half-cooked yet firm enough and then proceed to make curry as given above.
• You can also make vazhakkai roast by adding more oil after bananas are cooked through with spices/salt and saute until crispy.