Tattva-viveka
I'm looking for banana flower recipes
Babhru Das - November 10, 2005 3:45 am
If anyone knows of good recipes for cooking banana flowers, I'd be very grateful if you'd share them here. I hate throwing the flowers or composting them when I know they're good food. I've just neer learned to cook them. Can anyone help?
Mahalo.
Syamasundara - November 10, 2005 5:26 am
pakoras?
In italy we fry zucchini flowers in a batter and they're pretty good.
Igor - November 10, 2005 10:38 am
Here is one recipy from cookbook! It's exotic!
Ariti Pooru Kobri
banana Flowers
salt
water
For the gravy
2 tbsp oil
1/2tsp mustard seeds
2 red chillies
1/4tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp whole black gram dal
curry leaves
2 tbsp chopped green chillies
1/2tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp of semi boiled green gram dal
2 tbsp grated coconut
boiled banana flower
1/2tsp salt
1 tsp lime juice
coriander leaves to taste
METHOD
Clean the banana flower and chop it into tiny pieces. Then boil in water and salt and keep it aside.
For the gravy, heat the oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, red chillies, cumin seeds, whole black gram dal, curry leaves.. Then add chopped green chillies, turmeric powder, semi boiled green gram dal, grated coconut, boiled banana flower salt and lime juice. Mix it well.
Ariti Pooru Kobri is ready. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.
Syamasundara - November 10, 2005 7:20 pm
I've juust seen a picture on google. Scary things. I thought they were lotus buds in the chinese stores. now i'm curious to cook them too!
Bhrigu - November 12, 2005 11:08 am
I've tried to make something similar to the recipe above, but it didn't turn out very well at all. The dal turned into a kitchari-type mush. This recipe also seems rather too vague for me ("banana flowers"), but I may try out one of the recipes Jagat posted on Gaudiya Discussions. Boy am I jealous of your bananatrees, Babhru!
Babhru Das - November 12, 2005 8:21 pm
I'm going to try Jagat's suggestions, or at least fiddle around with them, and see what happens.
I've always loved bananas, and I love banana trees. I think they're quite beautiful. I believe I heard (from Srila Sridhar Maharaja?) that the banana is Mahaprabhu's favorite tree.
Syamasundara - November 13, 2005 7:02 am
I heard it's a gift from Indra to the earth.
Bhrigu - November 13, 2005 4:45 pm
I believe one can also eat the soft inner core ("heart"?) of the Banana tree as well. Has anyone tried that? And the leaves! No plate can match a fresh banana leaf in terms of aesthetic appeal. A small mound of salt and a piece of lime on the side, a steaming pile of rice in the middle with dahl on top, surrounded by sabjis and savouries... 
Babhru Das - November 13, 2005 7:42 pm
When I was a brahmachari in the very early '70s, we used banana leaves for serving Sunday feasts. Our guests thought it was really exotic. And afterwards, they went into Babhru's compost pile!