Three South Asian Snacks
Recipes for kelyache umber, shor nakhud and lotus root crisps. Words by Advaita Raut, Hawa Kakar and Taahira Ayoob. Photos by Sanskriti Bist.
Good morning, and welcome to Vittles! Today, we have three recipes for quick South Asian snacks. But before that, an announcement about an upcoming Vittles event at the London Review Bookshop.
To mark the release of our second print issue titled ‘Bad Food’ (which you can still buy here), writers Sheena Patel and Lauren J Joseph will discuss the short stories they contributed to the magazine. Patel and Joseph will be in conversation with Vittles editor Odhran O’Donoghue about the relationship between food and the erotic in their writing. Tickets cost £10 are available here.
Three South Asian snacks for teatime
The chef and writer Thomas Zacharias recently wrote in these pages: ‘In India, hosting friends has suddenly started implying cheese boards, dips, olives, crackers. I’ve often found myself wondering, Where’s the South Asian food? Why should we only bring out our recipes when it’s time for dinner?’ So, here are three (more) recipes for SouthAsian snacks from cooks and writers across the subcontinent: Kelyache Umber or Maharastrian banana fritters, the popular Afghan snack Shor Nakhud, and Singapore-inspired Lotus Root Crisps. All these recipes are quick and easy to whip up, and go well with a beverage, be it beer or chai.
Kelyache Umber (Maharashtrian Banana Fritters)
by Advaita Raut
One rainy afternoon in August, I pulled up the CCTV app on my phone, which offered me a bird’s-eye view of my parents’ sunlit kitchen in Naigaon, a little town in Mumbai’s northern suburbs. I watched my mother scoop balls of a sweetened, caramel-hued batter and fry them in glassy-hot oil. She was making kelyache umber, or Maharashtrian banana fritters. Their fragrance – sweet banana mingled with a hint of cardamom – seemed to miraculously waft via the camera’s grainy vantage to my apartment in Singapore.
Throughout my childhood, kelyache umber only ever made an appearance on special occasions, but now I eat and cook them often. They’re soft, fluffy and bite-sized, with a slightly chewy texture reminiscent of toffee. The appeal of kelyache umber lies in their simplicity and lack of pretentiousness: the product of just a few ingredients mixed in a bowl, without the need for fuss or precise measurements, these misshapen and oddly sized treats make for an imperfectly perfect snack.
Kelyache umber taste best when you pop them in your mouth straight off the stove as you’re frying – as a well-deserved award. They’re an ideal impromptu treat when friends drop by and you have some bananas languishing in your pantry that need to be used up.
Makes 25–30 fritters
Time 40 mins
Ingredients
4 over-ripe bananas (roughly two cups, mashed)
2–2 ½ cups (approx 275–350g) regular atta (wholemeal flour)
1¼ cups shaved jaggery or 1 cup (125g) icing sugar (see notes)
1 tbsp semolina
a pinch of ground cardamom or cinnamon