Cooking web notes

         Cleaning vazhaipoo is really a time consuming process… I rarely get to see vazhaipoo in Mustafa, so when ever I see I take one,if its good. After I finish all my works,in my leisure time,while watching TV, I do this process. I know its a boring thing to do,but its health benefits and the rare appearance make me to just do it! I cooked this recently after decades and really loved this with ghee and rice!

         The recipe with vazhaipoo I choose depending upon the amount of it,if I have so much,then I go for poriyal…  If we want to make vadai,then only half of the vazhaipoo is enough, so remaining half we can make vazhaipoo paruppu usili ….

INGREDIENTS

Vazhaipoo/banana flower	1 no.
Sambhar powder	1 & 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder	1/8 tsp
Coconut grated	1/4 cup
Salt	as needed
Onion (optional)	1 no.

To temper:

Oil	1 tsp
Mustard	3/4 tsp
Urad dal	1 tsp
Curry leaves	A sprig

 

Method:

1. Before you touch the flower for cleaning,either use gloves or apply sesame oil on both of your hands thoroughly. This prevents your fingers and nails turning black and ugly!
2. Separate the edible flower part by removing the petals one bye one.
   
3. Hold a bunch and remove the two parts of the flower that is shown in the picture,they tend to not cook,so we remove it before cooking. Towards the middle part,they will be so tender,so no need to remove that,if you feel its tender!
   
4. We eat this smallest remain raw,as it is very good for stomach,its crunchy and good in taste too !
   
5. After you are done cleaning the florets, chop them finely and immerse and keep in water mixed with sour buttermilk/or curd,to lessen the blackening effect.
   
6. My mom-in-law even cuts and immerse it in the buttermilk water overnight for the next day early morning cooking.
7. Drain the water,in a vessel, bring water to boil and add the chopped florets along with sambar powder,turmeric and salt. Water just to immerse is enough,as this gets cooked quickly.(Other way is to directly cook in the pan by covering and sprinkling water to get cooked,you may adopt which ever method you are convenient. )
8. After it gets cooked,drain the water(you may use it for sambhar preparation) completely and keep aside.
   
9. Heat a pan with oil and temper with mustar,urad dal and curry leaves. (If you want to add onion add now and fry till transparent.) Add the cooked florets and stir fry for 3-4 minutes in medium flame till the moisture evaporates
   
10. . Add the coconut and stir well for 2 minutes.
    
11. Transfer to the serving bowl and enjoy as an accompaniment for rice.

Me and my husband even love this mixed with rice and sesame oil!