Cut bananas into medium size chunks with skin intact. Heat water in a steamer. If you don’t have a steamer, you can use any big vessel on which a metal sieve can fit and make your own steamer. I used my rice cooker as a steamer. Once vapour start to form keep cut bananas on the perforated vessel (such as sieve) and place it over hot water. Place a lid over the arrangement and steam bananas for about 10 mins. Open the lid and check if the bananas have softened, switch off the gas.
When the banana pieces cool down, remove the peel. It can be easily removed now. Finely mash all the banana pieces. You can also grate the banana pieces if you want to.
Add chopped coriander leaves, broken mint leaves, green chillies, black pepper powder, cardamom powder, and salt according to your taste. Mix everything properly.
Add 2 tablespoon water to water-chestnut flour and mix well. Then gradually add more water till you get slightly thin consistency. It should be thinner than the batter of pakodis.
Divide mashed banana mixture into 10 equal parts. Make small cutlets with the help of your palms. Now keep water chestnut slurry and grounded peanuts nearby. First dip each cutlet into slurry, and then roll in grounded peanut to get a thin peanut coating.
Heat ghee in a pan. One by one place cutlets on pan, and shallow fry on low to medium flame till golden brown from both the sides.
Serve hot with phalahari green mint chutney.
Recipe Notes
Choose good quality raw bananas as the texture of kebabas depends upon the texture of cooked bananas. Sometimes banana becomes dry and hard on cooking. In that case add a little water to mashed banana so that you get soft and juicy kebabs instead of dry ones.
They taste best when served hot and freshly made. If you have to serve them later, fry them slightly initially and store them in a container. Fry again till they turn golden brown just before serving.