DAL KANCHAKOLAR TIKKI

This was again one evening I wished to feed my family a vegetarian meal. That was an evening three months back. The plan to prepare something different with raw bananas was there for quite sometime. I usually use raw bananas for some Bengali vegetarian curries or in curries with fish and in kofta. I definitely have seen raw banana tikki / kebab around; the truth is there is not much difference in the making of this vegetarian kebab & kofta. In this Indian vegetarian snack dish with raw banana and Bengal Gram Lentil / Dal DAL KANCHAKOLAR TIKKI; I did not use onion and garlic. You do not require. I really did not expect it to taste so good doing it with minimal ingredients.

I have an invitation today over tea and I am always excited about what comes with the tea. I do not much take part in the chitchat; I mean I just cannot take part in it. I keep eating as long as I can; in fact overeat and then ask for leave. The hosts ask me to sit more but I get unable to. With an extremely unfit body; I crave to come back to my temple called home; undress, take a good shower, change over to my usual torn, cotton night wears and dive into the sofa. Oh! God! I so love my home, my cosy corner of peace.

Had I been a smart, diligent, enterprising woman; I could have done so much from home. Everything was okay but this useless nature of mine is truly uncalled for. The husband has no interest in my hobby called cooking; else I had all the ability to home deliver this vegetarian snack delight with raw banana, Bengal Gram Dal / Lentil DAL KANCHAKOLAR TIKKI islandwide. Although, it is a snack item, we had it for dinner; so I needed a main dish to serve it with. I saw somewhere in a Bengali Blogger's space in Instagram that Black Gram Lentil / Kali Urad Dal & Rice Khichdi / Khichuri / Hotchpotch, did it. Although the taste was very different from our usual khichuri, overall we had a good meal. Let us proceed to finishing off with the post, I am just not keeping well this week!

INGREDIENTS :

RAW BANANA : 2 STANDARD SIZED
BENGAL GRAM DAL : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 1 TBSP
CHOPPED CORIANDER : A HANDFUL
ROASTED & GROUND CUMIN SEED : 1 TSP
ROASTED & CROUND CORIANDER SEED : 1 TSP
ROASTED & GROUND RED CHILLI : 3
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP
DRY MANGO POWDER : 1/2 TSP
CUMIN SEED : 1/2 TSP
CORN FLOUR : 2 TBSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
SUGAR : 1/2 TSP
OIL : 2 TBSP + 50-100 ML TO DEEP FRY

PROCEDURE :

I peeled, washed, cut and boiled the raw banana pieces to tender adding a little of the turmeric powder and salt to the water.

I dry roasted the amount of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, red chillies required for the ground spices to be added and ground them together to a coarse powder.

I had heated 2tbsp oil in a wok and tempered it with cumin seeds & chopped green chillies.

I had added the washed Bengal Gram Lentil and stir cooked at low heat for 2-3 minutes.

I had added the boiled & mashed raw bananas and folded in well. Then I added the chopped coriander, roasted & ground spice mix, the dry mango powder, little of salt, the sugar and kept stir cooking for 7-8 minutes.

I had transferred the mixture to a plate and had let it cool a bit. I then added the cornflour to it and mixed very well.

I prepared small round tikki / kebabs from it and stored it in a covered bowl.

I had refrigerated the container with the kebabs for few hours, then took it out.

I had fried them in batches. I fried a few, the help did the maximum.

We had them with a black gram dal & rice hotchpotch / khichuri. This khichuri variety is very unusual in my family; saw it in a blogger's space in Instagram.