Guest Post ~ Saravana's Banana Flower Fry / Poriyal / vepudu

I met Saravana Kumar through a friend. In the few days of knowing him, I loved our common love for food and the will and interest..No..a strong need to experiment with ingredients. He is among those very few single men who can actually cook - really well! I need to mention his sense of humour and his meticulous (food experiments) documenting skills (I have been planning to do that for ever!!). I am so glad to have met another soul who has a holistic approach to food and cooking.

So over to Saravana.... :-)

Banana Flower Recipe
Banana Flower (Arati Puvvu in Telugu, Vazhai Poo in Tamil), which may also be called banana blossom, is used as a vegetable in India, especially in South India. It is known to have many medicinal values
Owing to its cumbersome process in cooking this flower, this recipe is not tied often. However, it is not so laborious process to cook this flower, if you have some practice. This flower is a classical example for acrid (vagaru in telugu,) taste.

Many cuisines add the sliced banana flower to meat stews, stir-fries, soups, and rice or noodle combinations. It is also used in cold salads, with the salad mixture presented to the diner in one of the large purple-red outer bracts.


How to peel the flower for use
I suggest coating the hands with cooking oil prior to working with it  
Banana flower consists of many layers of bracts or petals. Under the layer of each petal are a bunch of florets. Remove the hard pink petals and take out the florets found underneath. Once the tougher, darker outer bracts are pulled away, the paler and tender inner leaves are used in the recipe.

In each floret, you will find a string in the middle with a tiny head and also a small plastic like white cover around it. Both are not edible. Remove both from all the florets. The florets in the upper portion are slightly bigger than the florets in the inner portion. From the big floret, you can easily see these and remove it. But it is little difficult to find the string in the small florets. You have to open each small floret gently by your fingers and remove the string and cover. To do this, take a bunch of florets in one hand and hold the bottom and gently rub the top of the florets in your palm. Now the florets will open up and you will see the strings in each floret. Remove it. When you remove the hard layers, you will find the color of the bract will change from dark pink to a pale yellow and finally end up with a small white bulb The florets in the inner portion will be more tender. You can use the tender florets and the small white bulb as it is. No need to remove string or anything from these.

Then chop all the florets into tiny bits (you can whip them in a blender too) and put in water mixed with little butter milk till you cook the same. This will avoid discoloration of the florets.

And now for the Recipe
Ingredients

Banana Flower: 1 Large bulb / 500 grms 

Salt: to taste 
Spice:  Green Chillies - 3 small, slitted  
Tamarind Pulp / Paste - 2 tsps 
Buttermilk - just enough to soak the chopped florets

Tempering:
Asafoetida : 1 Pinch
Mustard Seeds: ½ spoon
Chana Dal – 1 spoon
Urad Dal  - 1 spoon
Curry Leaves -

Oil / Ghee  - 2-3 spoons 


The Recipe
Tempering:  Add oil in a wok or a pan. Add to it the usual spices, depending on your interest to make the curry as spicy as you like
Add Asafoetida, Mustard seeds, Bengal Gram and Black Gram and fry till they become brown. You can add sufficient amounts of green chilly slices, as per your requirement. Add the sliced florets to the above mixture and boil in a simmer. You can add a little water and boil the mixture till cooked, around 10 minutes on low flame.

Serving Suggestions
Serve hot, along with Rice or Rotis.  Accompaniments with this dish should be usually very tangy or spicy like pickles, chutneys or spicy salads which generally go well with acrid taste.

Other Dishes with Banana Flower:
• Banana Flower in Curd - Perugu Pacchadi
• Banana Flower Vadai
• Banana Flower with Mango - a gravy 

Trivia
Banana Flower is used in many other cuisines, across many far eastern countries .


Actual lunch menu on the specific day: 
Rice (with urad dal called Mudganna) (center), with Banana Flower Curry (extreme right) along with Moong Dal (left) and Mango Ginger Chutney.

Served in Banana Petals

footnotes (courtesy wiki)

• Banana flower is considered to be a good source of vitamins A and C. It is considered for its blood purifying qualities and is effective in curing Gynec disorders. It increases hemoglobin levels in the blood and is traditionally believed to be beneficial as a lactating agent.
• The cut ends of the banana flower leak a sap that will stain skin and other surfaces black. The precaution of rubbing the hands with cooking oil makes cleanup easier. Exercise care while handling so that the flower does not stain your clothes.
• Banana flower is also treated in several Asian and tropical cuisines as a vegetable. It is known in Japan as ‘Banana no tsubomi’, in Thailand as ‘dok kluai’, in Indonesia as ‘jantung pisang’, in China as ‘Shang chao fua’, in Sri Lanka as ‘kehel mal’. The words “banana flower” are variously translated as “banana blossom,” “banana heart,” or “plantain blossom.”

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I appreciate Saravana Kumar to have taken time out to send me this wonderful write up.

Pics and content courtesy: Saravana Kumar