Sarkara Varatti | Kerala Sarkara Upperi | Jaggery Coated Plantain Chips Recipe
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.
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 593kcal
Equipment
- Heavy Bottomed Pan
- Strainer
Ingredients
- 3 nos Raw Banana (Plantains)
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- 2 cups Oil (for deep frying)
For making Jaggery coating
- 1 cup Grated Jaggery
- ½ teaspoon Cumin Powder
- ½ teaspoon Cardamom Powder
- 1½ teaspoon Dry Ginger Powder (Sukku Powder)
- 3 tablespoon Sugar
- 2 tablespoon Rice Flour
Instructions
Preparation
- 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!
Video
Nutrition
Serving: 100g | Calories: 593kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 20g | Fat: 22g | Sodium: 34mg