Raw banana cutlets

Just wanted to try out something interesting with unripened bananas and wanted to find out how different they tasted from potatoes. And although green/unripened banana mash resembles mashed potato the taste is far from similar and the two have a distinctly separate texture.

So I tried cutlets trying to keep the ingredients mostly green or rather avoiding the use of anything like red chilli and garam masala powder.

3 unripened bananas (gave just under 1 cup of mash)
1 large green pepper
2 tsp green chilli paste
2 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp powder of roasted fennel seeds
1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
4 tsp lemon juice (or adjust to taste)
Salt to taste

For coating:

Rice flour or all purpose white flour or egg whites if you prefer
Fine suji or bread crumbs.

Cook bananas along with the peel until soft. I cooked them in a pressure cooker with water only at the bottom of the cooker but none added to the bananas.

Peel, cut and mash bananas once cool. Finely chop green pepper. Mix in the pepper and flavoring ingredients (pastes and powders), lemon juice and salt with the mash.

Make a runny paste with the flour. It should be a consistency like egg white. Spread suji or bread crumbs in a thin layer onto a plate.

Shape the banana mash into flattened cutlets. Give each one a quick dip in the flour paste and then a roll over the suji or crumbs.

If the paste appears to thicken add some water or milk to maintain consistency. The cutlets should not be too wet or the covering will not be crispy enough.

Heat a pan and coat with oil. A nice non-stick pan will mean hardly any more oil will be needed. Arrange the cutlets on the pan and reduce heat to just over sim. Flip over after a few minutes, repeating again once for even roasting. The cutlets should be done in just over 15 minutes.

Green banana is said to have cooling and astringent qualities which calm the pitta dosha but encourage the vaata dosha. It is rich in carbohydrates and minerals. Cutlets were quite filling in any case. And were a welcome change of taste.

Baked vegetable cutlets with basil pesto

1 small beetroot

1 small carrot

1/2 sweet potato

1 small green pepper (capsicum)

1 tbsp basil pesto

4 tbsp rice floor

Cooking oil

Salt to taste

(Makes about 10 cutlets)

Pre-heat oven at 180 C for 10 minutes.

Peel, cube and blanche the carrot, beetroot and sweet potato and blend through a mixer/blender. Finely chop green pepper.

The basil pesto was made at home with basil leaves, black pepper corns, garlic and almonds ground together with some olive oil.

Mix pesto and salt with the vegetables. Blend in the flour gradually as needed. The mixture is high on moisture because the vegetables have been blanched _and_ blended through a mixer - mashing them would be a better idea but blending is quicker and veggies do not need to be cooked soft.

Shape the mixture into cutlets and arrange on a grill. Put this in the oven and bake at 180 C for 25 minutes and then at 200 C for just about 7 minutes - or just enough so they are more firm around the outer layer but do not burn.

The pesto gives the cutlets all the flavour, so it is really the magic ingredient of the dish. None of the root vegetables used have a sharp taste and blend well with the pesto. Rice flour is one of the most subtle flours I've known and it almost softens the sharp taste that the baking brings out of basil pesto.

Just before they went into the oven: