Vazhakkai Varuval / Green Plantain Fry

Vazhakkai Varuval/Green Plantain Roast

Vazhakkai is such a time friendly vegetable. It cooks in no time. It is the best choice for the morning time cooking and festival menu. This green plantain is such a humble vegetable which never makes fuss to be cooked when we do not have enough time. Most of time, when I am running out of ideas of what side dish to pack with rice for the next day lunch.. vazhakkai is my saviour! Vazhakkai varuval.. another simple dish with basic ingredients... when joins with rices.. completes the meal. The recipe for vazhakkai varuval follows.

For more poriyal recipes click here - Poriyal

Vazhakkai Varuval / Green Plantain Fry

Ingredients:

• Vazhakkai (green plantain) - 1
• onion - 1 small
• tomato - 1 small
• garlic - 3 cloves
• chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
• coriander powder - 1 teaspoon
• turmeric powder 1/2 teaspoon
• Pepper powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• salt - as required
• oil - 1 tablespoon

Tempering:

• mustard - 1/2 teaspoon
• broken urad dhal - 1/2 teaspoon
• curry leaves
• asafoetida - 1 pinch

Procedure:

• Cut the onion and tomato and keep it ready. Peal the vazhakkai and cut into desired size and keep immersed in water. Crush the garlic and keep along with the onion and tomato.
• Heat some oil in an iron skillet or kadai. 
• Add the tempering ingredients to the hot oil. Let it splutter and the aroma will stimulate every ones hunger.
• Add the onion, tomato and the crushed garlic. Believe me.. this garlic will take this dish to the next level.
• Saute for few minutes. 
• Take out the green plantain pieces from the water and add to the hot skillet with onion and tomato. Stir.
• Add the chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and salt. Stir well.
• Sprinkle one fist full of water and cover it. Let it cook for 5 to 7 minutes.
• Open the lid after 5-7 mins, and stir again. By now the vazhakkai is well roasted to red at the bottom. Stir well and deep with the spatula so that the well-roasted part is scraped  up. 
• Leave it again undisturbed for another 4 mins. Again with the spatula, stir well so that the crispy roasted base comes up. Repeat this roasting for couple of more times so that the whole of the vazhakkai varuval become nice brown and crispy.  
• End it with a sprinkle of pepper powder and give a final stir. After sprinkling pepper, the dish should not sit on the fire anymore. Bring it down and serve it hot with sambar rice or rasam rice or curd rice.

Vazhakkai varuval in iron skillet

Since I use the iron skillet to make vazhakkai varuval.. the whole dish looks little darker in colour. A well seasoned iron skillet is as good as or in fact better than a non stick pan. I bet you...  try iron skillet once.. you will never come back. When we use the iron skillet, we need not worry about the coating-coming-out problem. Cooking in iron utensils boosts your iron intake.

Happy cooking !!