Banana Blossom Palya & Nostalgia...

Banana Blossom Palya

Wearing a long silk skirt with matching blouse, little Gowri was playing with her friends. Trying to push back the curls escaped from her thick, long braid and lifting her skirt little high to tie it tight on her narrow waist, this 8 year old was busy concentrating on catching a butterfly fluttering around. Little did she know that it would be her last day where she was allowed to play on street with her friends!!!

Just when she was about to catch that colourful butterfly, she saw her mother rushing towards her. To her annoyance her mother had come to take her back home. “Come with me little darling. You are getting married next month. You can’t play on streets anymore”, said her Amma. And to top it her friends started clapping their hands and chanting “Gowri is getting married. Gowri is getting married”. Large pearls of tears threatened to appear on her large beautiful black eyes which she tried hard to hide from her mocking friends. “I don’t want to get married Amma. I want to play”, she shouted and ran to her house.

Mother tried to console her daughter with a promise of getting her new set of gold jewellery and new Kanchipuram silk saris of her favourite colours for her wedding. With in few weeks her wedding took place with 14 year old boy whom she had never seen or met before. Sitting on a wooden plank next to her soon to be husband in brightly decorated Mandap, little Gowri was more interested at looking colourful flower decorations around her. With never ending marriage ceremony with hundreds of Sanskrit sholaks and chanting, she started to doze off in between her wedding ceremony. She didn’t realise when she was lifted from wooden plank and placed on her father’s lap and she was hardly awake when her husband tied sacred yellow thread around her neck. She was not a girl anymore but a married woman and became Gowramma from Gowri.

That’s the story of my Mudi Ajji (translates old grandma:) or great grandmother which took place in late 19th century. It was a time when child marriage was accepted norm in Indian society and children were married before they reached puberty. My great grandmother was one of those child brides and before she reached mid-twenties she was widowed with a small daughter on her lap. Still she managed her home and property with little help from her only brother. She was indeed one remarkable lady whom my mother and her siblings shared a very strong bond while growing up.

All I remember of her is a small woman with heavily wrinkled hands and face and moving slowly around big house with bended back. Little did I know about her strong determination, integrity and courage to survive in all men’s world!!! I do remember those shining, twinkling eyes which would compete with small diamond earrings she wore and toothless grin which would brighten the room. And I still remember her love and passion for cooking and you could taste her love in every mouthful.

One of her favourite recipe to cook was Banana Blossom Palya which is nothing but a simple stir fry served along steamed rice, simple Rasam and big dollop of her love in a form of Thuppa/Ghee. With many banana trees in a backyard Banana Blossom would make regular appearance through out the year. Mudi Ajji would sit on a wooden plank containing razor sharp crescent shaped blade and chop this creamy banana hearts into very small pieces. “Shruck, shruk, shruk….” the rhythmic sound coming from chopping the vegetables on that blade was fascinating to me. With in few minutes she would have finished chopping dozens of Banana Blossoms and take it to dark, steamy kitchen where magic was created every time she cooked. And within few minutes, heady aroma of spices from the curries would waft from big copper Kadais/woks placed on a wood burner stove. This Banana Blossom Palya mixed with perfectly cooked, steaming rosematta rice in its stock called as Ganji/Congee with big dollop of Ghee melting on top and big tender mango pickle in the side was one delicious memory which I relish even today. Crunchy onions and banana blossom taste are heightened with spicy chilli, tangy tamarind and crisp, aromatic tadka. Memories, sweet memories… make me nostalgic whenever I think of her…

Banana Blossom

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Banana Blossom Palya (Banana Blossom Stir Fry)

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Serves: 3-4
Recipe Source: Great Grandmother

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Ingredients:
1 Banana Blossom
1 small Onion, finely chopped
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
1-2 cups Sour Buttermilk or ¾ cup sour Yogurt mixed in a cup of cold water
2-3 Green Chillies, slit (Adjust acc to taste)
1 tsp Tamarind Paste
1 tsp Jaggery/Brown Sugar
¼ cup grated Coconut, fresh/frozen
Salt to taste

For Tadka/Tempering:
1 tbsp Oil, preferably Coconut Oil
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 tbsp Chana Dal/Split Bengal Gram
½ tbsp Urad Dal/Split Black lentils
1-2 Dry Red Chilli, halved
A Pinch of Hing/Asafoetida
Few Curry Leaves

Banana Blossom Palya

Method:

Apply a tbsp of coconut oil to your palm and rub well. Applying oil to your palms help in preventing the sticky sap oozing from banana blossom sticking to your hand which leaves nasty black colour for few days. Remove the outer tougher covering and discard, till you see the creamy part which is called as Banana Blossom Heart. Don’t discard the florets. The mature florets will have black stigma and transparent covering which needs to be taken out before chopping. No need to remove the stigma and transparent covering on the tender ones. Now chop this banana heart and florets into very fine pieces. Place these chopped pieces in a bowl containing sour buttermilk till required. This helps in preventing discolouration.
Heat oil in a pan/wok and add mustard seeds to it. When mustard starts to pop and splutter, add channa dal, urad dal and halved red chillies. Sauté till dals turn golden brown. Now add hing and curry leaves and mix well.
Mix in finely chopped onion and sauté on a medium flame till they turn light golden brown, about 2 mins. Add slit green chillies and turmeric and mix well.
Drain butter milk completely and add these chopped banana blossom to the pan. Add tamarind paste and jaggery and mix well. Stir fry continuously for another 7-10 minutes at medium flame till banana blossom is cooked well.
Mix in salt to taste and grated coconut and cook for another 3-5 mins. Serve this delightful stir fry hot with rosematta rice, rasam and ghee and enjoy.

Banana Blossom Patrode: Try Something New and Delicious!

Banana Blossom Patrode

Mangaloreans love two things, one coconut and another curry leaves. Between these two there is another vegetable/fruit which is indispensable to us and it's plantain or banana. Most of the houses in South Canara, even with small garden, will have one coconut tree and a banana tree along with wildly grown Curry plant swinging to cool evening breeze. I grew up with three banana plants in the backyard and hundreds of them in our estate. So it is no surprise that I have tasted almost everything cooked from its stem, fruit and even its flower/blossom using banana leaves as organic and bio-degradable plates.

I have had tasted many recipes using Banana Blossoms ranging from simple stir-fries to delicious Chutneys cooked by my Amma, aunts and Ajji. Our recent summer trip to India I was first time introduced one very novel dish by my mother in law and that dish is Banana Blossom Patrode. Last year during casual chat with my MIL she mentioned about making Patrode/Patra using Banana Blossom and like any foodie I was totally intrigued and couldn’t wait to try it. In spite of being really busy with the last minute wedding preparation of my BIL’s, my Atte managed to cook this for me. And to my surprise it turned out to be one of the very best foods I have ever tasted. I have been craving for this Patrode ever since we came back from India but never got around to make this as Banana Blossom is not easily available at my neck of woods and I was not very sure if I will be able to manage chop them in a right way and cook without any problem.

During our recent trip to down under (nope, not Aussie ;) I couldn’t resist from buying two banana blossoms in hope of making patrode. And boy, did I manage to cook it beautifully or what!!! Traditionally Patrode is made using Taro/Colacasia Leaves by spreading spicy paste on their surface, rolling and then cooked to perfection using a steamer. Same spicy batter is used here but banana blossom is used in place of taro leaves and no rolling is involved. This was the first time I have ever used Banana Blossom in cooking without any help from my mother or MIL and I was really proud with the end result. Except for laborious cleaning and chopping of banana blossom, this is really a very simple recipe and can be cooked very quickly. To top it all, it can be simply stored in a freezer for months together. Banana Blossom Patrode is spicy with mild note of sweet and tanginess from dry red chillies, tamarind, coconut and jaggery used; a taste which is hard to resist and even harder to forget. Without further delay let me give you step by step instructions on how to make Banana Blossom Patrode and please make sure that you go through the instructions carefully before cooking it. I am sening it to this week's Weekend Herb Blogging guest hosted by Zorra & initiated by dear Kalyn.

Banana Blossom & Florets

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Banana Blossom Patrode (Steam cooked & Pan fried Spicy Rice Cakes made using Banana Blossoms)

Prep Time: 15-20 mins
Cooing Time: 20-30 mins
Serves: 4-6
Recipe Source: MIL

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Ingredients:
1 Banana Blossom
1 large Onion, finely chopped
2-3 tbsp Oil, preferably Coconut Oil
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
10-12 Curry Leaves, finely chopped

Grind to thick Batter (Dosa batter consistency):
2 cups Rice, washed and soaked overnight for about 8-10 hrs
½ packed cup Coconut, fresh/frozen/dried
1 tbsp Coriander Seeds
½ -¾ tbsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
Medium lime sized Tamarind Pulp (Adjust acc to taste)
6-8 Dry Red Chillies (Adjust acc to taste)
1 inch cube Jaggery
Salt to taste

Banana Blossom Patrode- Before Steaming

Method:

Drain water from rice and grind it to smooth batter by adding water and all the ingredients listed above. Make sure that you have little thick batter than that of dosa batter consistency. Adjust tamarind, chillies and jaggery according to your preference.
Now comes the little tricky bit of chopping the banana flower. First apply 1 tbsp of coconut oil to your palm and rub well. Applying oil to your palms help in preventing the sticky sap oozing from banana blossom to your hand which leaves nasty black colour for few days. Remove the outer tougher covering and discard, around 2-4 outer tough skins. In my case I had to remove two outer skins. Don’t discard the florets. Now chop this banana flower and florets into very fine pieces.
Usually these chopped pieces are soaked in very sour butter milk to prevent from discolouring. In spite of doing so it discolours to some extent. So you can simply skip this step as we will be mixing them in the prepared batter.
Add 2-3 tbsp of Coconut oil and mix them well. This way you can easily separate layers which otherwise would be sticking to one another.
Now add this chopped banana flower, finely chopped onion, turmeric and chopped curry leaves to the ground batter and mix well.
Here comes the important step of steaming. You can either use usual Idli stand or flat bottomed vessel and steam cook them in a streamer or pressure cooker without putting its weight. Or another best way is to wrap it in banana leaves and steam cook it, same way as Genasale. I have used Tatte-Idli Stand. Grease the plates with oil and pour the batter with ladle into each plate. Place each plate back in the stand and steam cook in pressure cook or Idli steamer or Steamer for about 20-30 minutes till cooked properly.
Let it cool for 5 minutes before opening the lid. Remove cooked Patrode from plates and cut them into desired shapes. You can serve it with Ghee/Coconut oil or proceed to next step.
Heat tawa/griddle and place cut Patrode pieces on it. Add a tsp of Oil/Ghee for each piece and cook on both the sides for about 2 minutes till nice brown spots starts to appear on the surface.
Serve it immediately with or without any chutney or plain tomato ketchup and enjoy. It tastes best when roasted with Ghee/Coconut Oil.

Banana Blossom Patrode- After Steam cooked and Pan fried

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Notes:

Banana Blossom or Banana Heart grows on the end of long stem holding cluster of Bananas and this deep cherry red blossom is id considered as one of the delicacy in southern Indian states, both when cooked or eaten raw. Banana blossom has layers of tightly packed reddish flaps which wrap around rows of creamy florets with black stigma. Usually this black, hard stigma and transparent covering on every floret is removed as they are difficult to cook. I skipped this step as the steaming process helps in cooking them thoroughly. You can go ahead and remove them or just leave them as they are.
Try to stick to the amount of Tamarind and Jaggery used as they helps in mellowing the bitter taste of Banana Blossoms and spicy red chillies. If using old tamarind, reduce the quantity by ¾ th of the original quantity.
To steam cook, add about water depending on the size of pressure cooker you use. In my case I had to add about 2½ cups of water (about 1½-2 inches). Place the Idli stand and cover the lid without putting its weight and steam cook for about 20-30 mins.
The left over Patrode pieces can be stored in zip lock bag once they are completely cooled and can be frozen for about 1-2 months in freezer. When needed heat then in microwave (don’t thaw) and then roast them on tawa with ghee/oil and serve.