Ripe Banana Cutlets – Kera Na Cutlace

At the very onset let me say, try this recipe only if you love sweet, ripe bananas. If you like ripe bananas you will love this recipe. If not, please give it miss. You will be missing out on some delicious cutlets but… it is what it is!

This is an ancient recipe. Our grandmas would cook this to avoid wastage of produce at home. Over-ripe bananas were used for such recipes. This dish came to my notice somewhere around 2012 when I first got to know Zarina. This recipe belongs to her or her mum or her grand mum. As I said, it’s ancient.

For those of you wondering about the word ‘cutlace’. This is how we Bawas (Parsi) pronounce cutlets in Parsi-Gujarati language. 😄

Ingredients:

3 over-ripe bananas, peeled and chopped into pieces

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 green chili, slit it, cut each slit-half into long strips, and then chop very finely

2 cloves garlic, cut into thin strips and then chop very finely

½ teaspoon cumin powder

½ teaspoon chili powder

½ teaspoon Parsi Sambhar masala

2 teaspoons corn flour

A few sprigs coriander leaves, wash and chop fine

Salt

3-5 tablespoons oil, for cooking

Oil for frying

1 egg

 ½ cup fine (barik) semolina

Method:

1.    Heat oil in a non-stick pan, add onions.

2.    Fry the onions until golden brown.

3.    Remove the onions onto a kitchen paper towel and spread them out to absorb the excess oil and to cool down.

4.    When cool, crush the onions as fine as possible, with your fingers. Keep aside. (Do the best you can with your fingers, you do not need a mixer-grinder for this)

5.    In the oil that remains in the pan, add the bananas, sauté them. As the bananas heat, they will begin to turn mushy. Use a spoon and keep mashing the bananas as you sauté them.

6.    Once the bananas are all mushy, flatten the banana mix and allow it to cook for a minute or two. The bananas will begin to caramelize from the bottom. Scrape the caramelized bananas from the bottom of the pan, flatten out the mixture all over again and allow some more banana mixture to caramelize. Continue this cooking-scraping process until 35-40% of the bananas are caramelized.

7.    Add the crushed onions, green chilies, garlic, cumin powder, chili powder, Parsi Sambhar masala, coriander leaves, corn flour and give the mix a good mix.

8.    Add a wee bit of salt, mix well, check, and adjust if required.

9.    Once it all comes together well, remove the banana mixture onto a plate, allow it to cool for ten minutes and then put it in the fridge (NOT freezer) for an hour.

10. Take semolina on a plate.

11. Remove the bananas from the fridge. Divide into 4 large portions or 6 small ones.

12. Shape each portion into a cutlet and lay each cutlet on that bed of semolina and gently coat each cutlet, all over, with semolina.

13. Heat oil in non-stick pan.

14. Whip an egg, season with a very tiny pinch of salt.

15. Carefully dip each cutlet in the egg-wash and lower into the hot oil to fry.

16. Once golden, flip and fry the other side.

17. Drain on kitchen towels, or don’t.😝 Serve!

Chef Notes:

1.    If you do not wish to cut the chilies and garlic fine, feel free to grind them. I wanted to avoid the hassle of using a grinder hence went chop-chop.

2.    If you do not have Parsi Sambhar masala, give it a miss.

3.    As for the green chili and chili powder, this is the quantity which allows you to taste the sweet bananas and yet give your palate an ‘after-hit’ of spice. If you prefer a spicier blend, do increase the quantity of green chilies and chili powder to suit your palate.

4.    When sautéing the bananas, if you feel the bananas need a wee bit of extra oil, do add some to it.

5.    Usually we oil our hands a bit before shaping cutlets, but the oil from the onions and the sautéed bananas is quite enough to assist you shape the cutlets.

6.    I did not have access to fine semolina (rava) hence had to opt for the one I had in my pantry. Ideally, I would advise you to opt for the fine variety.

7.    Do not coat the cutlets with a very thick layer of semolina. A light coat is quite enough to keep the cutlet in shape when frying. Dust off the excess semolina before you dip it in the egg-wash.

8.    This quantity makes 6 small or 4 medium sized cutlets. Ideally, I suggest you go with making 4 cutlets from this portion.

9.    These cutlets are not deep-fried so use just enough oil in the pan to ensure the egg coating gets a gorgeous golden brown.

10. Heartfelt thanks to Zarina Cama Clowsley for always sharing all her recipes so generously. ❤️

11. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.

Some more photographs: