Is this a dessert or a snack? or a starter? It is sweet in taste, crispy outside & soft inside. Haha!! So for foodies, it is just super delicious food. If you consume it just before your main course food then it may be considered as a starter but if you consume it after the main course then it is a dessert. I love to eat those pakodas as a light meal in the evening so for me, it is a snack. I used to say this banana based taler bora (Sweet palm fritters) because it is almost similar to taler bora in taste.
To be very honest I love this ripe banana pakoda because it is similar to taler bora. Actually I used to have taler every year on the occasion of Janmashtami since my childhood. But sweet palm is not available throughout the year because it is a seasonal fruit and that too available in the market for a very short period. But I like it so much and that is why it was often prepared with ripe banana instead of sweet palm fruit in our home. My mother prepares this awesome fritter same way and also add fennel seeds. That is why its taste is almost the same as sweet palm fritter. You should try both if you like any of those fritters.
Though this time, I have not planned to make this, rather I was forced to make this. Actually, one of my banana tree which was bearing matured fruits collapsed due to super cyclone Aamphan on 20th May 2020. It was also raining heavily. So when cyclone stopped for a few minutes and I go to my yard garden and cut & pick those fruits. Though those were still green but matured. I knew if I store those bananas in a cotton bag for 2-3 days then those bananas would ripen. But unfortunately, within 2-3 days all fruits were ripened what was not expected. I thought those would ripen gradually.
But things did not happen as per my expectation. We distributed a few bananas to neighbors. But still, those were more than us. So I decided to prepare some ripe banana based dishes (banana-based pakodas, raita, pudding, ice cream, pancakes prepared with chocolate chip, cinnamon etc.
Ripe banana fritters recipe
- 4 ripe banana (kathali kela preferable)
- 120 gm rice flour
- 30 gm suji/semolina
- ½ cup sugar
- 1.5 teaspoon fennel/saunf
- 2 whole cardamoms, (only seeds)
- Pinches of salt
- Water as needed
- 2.5 tablespoons refined vegetable oil
- Mash (use a blender) ripe banana, add rice flour, suji, salt, roughly crushed fennel & cardamom seeds, sugar powder and mix all
- Now add water and make a perfect batter (not so thin and not so thick for making pakoda)
- Then heat oil in a kadai (Indian cooking pot) and pour small piece of batter directly into the hot oil
- Cook each pakoda properly till it turn into golden brown over a medium flame

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