Sarkara Varatti or a sweetened plantain chips is part of any Sadhya (feast) in Kerala. The flavors of ginger, cumin, cardomom are coated on the jaggery fried chips. It's a crunchy sweet with abundance of flavor and taste.
Sakkara Varatti / Sarkara Upperi / Jaggery Coated Plantain chips is one of the common sweet made for any Sadya (feast) in Kerala. Few pieces of this upperi (chips) are served on the extreme left tip of banana leaf along with a small banana and pappadam. Plantains are chopped like crescents and then deep fried till they are crispy. This chips are soaked in the jaggery syrup along with cumin powder, cardamom powder and dry ginger powder. The spice from ginger, sweet from cardamom, savory taste from cumin are rightly blended in jaggery syrup and coated on the plantain chips. This is an absolute treat to our taste buds
Make sure that the chips are absolutely crispy. If not, we will end up getting only the soggy chips. Cook the chips in a low-medium flame and allow the plantain pieces to cook completely. This may take about 20-30 minutes.
Cooldown the chips before adding to the jaggery syrup. Check the crunchiness of the chips before adding to the jaggery syrup. If it’s not crunchy, then you may want to deep fry them again.
It is very important for the jaggery syrup to be of the right consistency else the chips will be sticky. Keep stirring the jaggery juice till it reaches stone consistency. If you add a drop of syrup to cold water, you should be able to make a ball. The syrup should not dissolve in water, rather we should be able to shape it to a ball. This is the right consistency
Completely dry the raw banana pieces before frying them in the oil.
Sarkara Varatti or a sweetened plantain chips is part of any Sadhya (feast) in Kerala. The flavors of ginger, cumin, cardomom are coated on the jaggery fried chips. It's a crunchy sweet with abundance of flavor and taste.
Peel the plantains and soak them in 2 cups of water along with turmeric powder. The turmeric water prevents decolorization and also removes the stickiness of the plantain. Leave the plantains soaked in turmeric water for 15 minutes
After 15 minutes, take out the plantains from water. Slit them vertically and then chop them into crescent shape pieces about 1cm thickness
Place the chopped plantain pieces on the tissue paper to dry out any moisture
Deep Frying
Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot enough, gently add hand full of plantain pieces and deep fry them till they are crispy. The flame should be medium-low to allow the chips to fry completely.
Generally one batch will take at least 20-30 minutes for deep frying. Wait till all the bubble ceases and the plantain pieces are golden brown. If you drop a plantain piece in a bowl you should hear the dropping sound like a coin. You can also break a fried piece and check of the inner portion is soft or crispy. If the inner portion is soft, then it needs more frying. Make sure they are really crispy both outside as well as inside
Let the fried plantain chips cool down, meanwhile lets prepare the jaggery syrup.
Making of Jaggery syrup
Heat a pan and add 2 tablespoon of water and grated jaggery. Allow the jaggery to get dissolved completely.
Strain the juice and bring it to boil. Keep stirring the jaggery juice till it reaches stone consistency. If you add a drop of syrup to cold water, you should be able to make a ball. The syrup should not dissolve in water, rather we should be able to shape it to a ball. This is the right consistency
Add cumin powder and cardamom powder and stir well.
Jaggery coated plantain chips
At this stage, add the fried plantain chips and mix well. To this add 2 tablespoon of sugar and rice flour and mix everything well. Finally add dry ginger powder and another tablespoon of sugar and switch off the flame
Upon cooling all the jaggery gets nicely coated and you will have crispy and sweet plantain chips with a rich flavor of dry ginger powder and cumin powder
Store the delicious Sarkara Varatti in an air-tight container and enjoy the dish!
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Method to make Sarkara Upperi with step by step pictures :
Peel the plantains and soak them in 2 cups of water along with turmeric powder. The turmeric water prevents decolorization and also removes the stickiness of the plantain. Leave the plantains soaked in turmeric water for 15 minutes
After 15 minutes, take out the plantains from water. Slit them vertically and then chop them into crescent size pieces about 1 cm thickness
Place the chopped plantain pieces on the tissue paper to dry out any moisture
Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot enough, gently add hand full of plantain pieces and deep fry them till they are crispy.
Keep the flame in medium while frying the plantain pieces. Generally one batch will take at least 15 minutes to get finished. Wait till all the bubble ceases and the plantain pieces are golden brown. If you drop a plantain piece in a bowl you should hear the dropping sound like a coin. You can also break a fried piece and check of the inner portion is soft or crispy. If the inner portion is soft, then it needs more frying. Make sure they are really crispy both outside as well as inside
Let the fried plantain chips cool down, meanwhile lets prepare the jaggery syrup. Heat a pan and add jaggery and 2 tablespoon of water. Allow the jaggery to get dissolved completely. Strain the juice and bring it to boil.
Keep stirring the jaggery juice till it reaches stone consistency. If you add a drop of syrup to cold water, you should be able to make a ball. The syrup should not dissolve in water, rather we should be able to shape it to a ball. This is the right consistency
Add cumin powder and cardamom powder and stir well. Add the fried plantain chips and mix well.
To this add 2 tablespoon of sugar and rice flour and mix everything well. Finally add dry ginger powder and another tablespoon of sugar and switch off the flame
Upon cooling all the jaggery gets nicely coated and you will have crispy and sweet plantain chips with a rich flavor of dry ginger powder and cumin powder
Store the delicious Sarkara Varatti in an air-tight container and enjoy the dish!
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