Sarkkaravaratti/Banana chips sweetened with Jaggery

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Just like the regular banana chips this one is also related to festival cooking in Kerala.  Infact, you must eat both the salted chips and this one together, yes the normal "khatta meetta" way. When I was younger I used to grab more sarkkaravaratti than the upperi (banana chips-salted).  My DH is not very keen on this one, but loves the upperi. So invariably my mom will pack both the varieties for us when we visit.

It's been a while since I had sarkkaravaratti and hence decided to make some to quench my craving.  Of course I made some banana chips too, to please my DH :D. You can find the recipe here. The recipe is very simple, the only trick is to get the chips perfectly fried. Hope this recipe, yet another one from my father, will help you achieve the perfect result :-)



Ingredients:

Raw Banana (preferably Nendran)- 3
Jaggery (melted) - 1/2 cup
Roasted rice(grains)- 1/3 cup
Cumin Powder- 2 Tsp
Ginger Powder- 2 Tsp
Oil- For deep frying

Method:

1.Skin the banana completely and cut it into 2 equal halves length wise.  Cut them into small pieces that are ~1/4 inch thick.
2.Heat the oil and fry this until they are done.This should be done at medium high for the first 5-6 minutes and then on medium heat for 16-18 minutes or until the inside also becomes crispy.
3.If you do not fry them properly the chips become soft once you put them in the jaggery syrup.
4.Cool the chips by spreading on a kitchen tissue paper.
5.Dry roast the raw rice till it gets puffed up a bit and start turning golden brown in color. Dry grind it to get the powder and mix this with cumin and ginger powders.
6.Melt the jaggery in a thick bottom pan (preferably a uruli) and keep stirring. You can check for consistency by taking a drop on your index finger and pressing with your thumb and releasing. If you see more than 3 threads, pour little more water(do this very carefully, it will splutter , and may cause serious burns and injuries! and stir to boil it again to get the desired consistency.Switch off the heat.
7.Throw in the fried and cooled banana chips to this. Also sprinkle mixture of powders to this and mix well.This is bit hard, since you have to do this faster and also the jaggery is sticky. It would be great if someone is there to help you sprinkle the powders while you mix the things. This will help to get the chips evenly coated .
8.Let it sit for sometime and cool.Store in an airtight container (if you have some leftovers :-) !)