Kela wada

As I belong to a Jain family potato was a strict no at my home. From childhood, we were taught not to eat it and I still continue the tradition by restricting it on the fasting days.

My mother is a great cook and over years she managed to turn out every possible potato recipe to be made by the raw banana. Trust me they taste awesome. Many guests at our place could never recognize that the dish they were served was prepared from raw banana. One such snack item she makes is kela wada. 

You must have heard about the famous batata wada from Maharashtra. But you will find many places serving kela wada in Gujarat, as India's maximum Jain community resides here. This recipe is completely my Mom's creation and we love it. 

It is very easy and you can prepare the stuffing beforehand and fry them anytime.

Kela Wada

Makes 9 pieces

Ingredients

For Wada Mixture

2 Raw Bananas
1 tsp Oil ( for tempering the stuffing)
Pinch of Hing
1/2 tsp Jeera
Small piece of ginger
1 Green Chilly
15 - 20 fresh Pudhina leaves
8-10 Curry leaves
1/2 tsp Garam masala
Salt to taste
Pinch of Black Slat
1/2 tsp Amchur Powder
2 -3 tbsp of green peas( I used frozen peas)
10 pieces of cashews and raisins each

For Batter

5 tbsp besan
Pinch of salt
Pinch of Soda
1 tsp of hot oil
Water as required

Method

• Boil the bananas in a pressure cooker with the skin for 3whistles. Remove from cooker, peel off the skin and mash them. Mash them when they are hot out of cooker. It is easier to do so and will give a good texture to the wada mixture.
• In a small grinder jar, take ginger, chilly, pudhina and curry leaves. Grind them coarsely. Do not add water while grinding.
• In a pan, heat a tsp of oil. Add hing and jeera to it. 
• As the jeera crackles, Add peas and pudhina mixture. Saute it for half a minute on low flame.
• Now add cashews, raisins, garam masala, amchur powder, Common salt and Black Slat. Mix nicely.
• Lastly add mashed raw banana. Mix thoroughly. If the mixture is very dry sprinkle few drops of water. Mix well switch off the flame and keep covered.
• Taste for any seasoning as per your taste. These measurements work fine for me.
• In a bowl take besan, add salt, soda and a tsp of hot oil. Slowly add water to make a medium thick batter. give it a nice mix for a minute. This will aerate the batter making the wada fluffy. Keep it aside once done.
• Now roll small equal sized balls and keep it on a plate ready to fry.
• Heat oil for frying in a kadai. We need medium hot oil. Very hot oil will burn the wadas quickly.
• Once the oil is hot enough to fry, dip a wada into the besan batter. Roll it gently to cover and slowly put it into the oil. Similarly fry all wadas. A batch of 4- 5 wadas takes a minute or two to fry. 

Serve them hot with ketchup or coriander chutney. I enjoyed them with ketchup and a glass of fresh homemade orange juice.

Try them this winter and share your experinces in the comments section below.

Till then,

Stay Happy Stay Healthy.