I'm looking for banana flower recipes -

I wasn't sure where was the appropriate place to post this, so I tried this forum:

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.

Aloha-
Jay Radhe.
I don't know any nice bangla recipes, but the most common thing to do with banana flowers in Cali is to bread them with dal flour and deep fry them in ghee.
Don't know the spicing.
Jay Radhe!

Chop up fine and fry with garam masala and mustard seed. It's a ghanta recipe (mocha ghanta). You can do the same with white courge (lau).

Now that I think about it, there may be something you have to do to the mocha before you do anything, like soak them overnight. Maybe dasanudas knows.

Mochar ghanta (Bikrampuri style)
Author: Saumen {sengupta@sunyit.edu}

Ingredients:

(a) The flowers of a mocha with the pollen stem coming out from inside removed. However, it is important to select the fresh mocha flower appropriately. Often they render a bitter taste if one is not careful. In absence of fresh mocha flower one could use preserved mochas in cans.
(b) Two to three tablespoons of grated coconut (sweetened ones).
© Peeled potatoes and chopped in cubes.
(d) Fresh green chilies
(e) Salt, sugar, jeera powder, mouri, bay-leaves, turmeric, chili-powder
(f) garam-masala (freshly powdered cardamom & cinnamon - no cloves, this time)
(g) A little flour (in case of emergency), ghee

This method of preparation is basically a standard one for many vegetables. One could even call it a base scheme.

1. Cut fresh mocha flower stalks into short pieces. Boil them till they are sufficiently tender. If canned mochas are used, remove them from the can, wash them thoroughly and chop them into short pieces. Boil them. You may find the water turning black but don't that distract you. After the mocha is boiled, remove them from the water and keep it aside.

2. While the above step is carried out, fry the potatoes in a little ghee. To do this, sprinkle a little turmric and salt onto it and coat them evenly. On a hot frying fan, fry them till they turn slightly redish. Do not overfry them. After they are done, keep them aside.

3. Now return to your boiled mocha. Wash your hands thoroughly and then mash this mocha as much as you can with your hand attending particularly to the hard centers that you'd occasionally meet. Now you are really ready.

4. In a clean frying pan, heat some ghee. When the ghee is hot sprinkle some whole mouri, a bayleaf or two, some green chilies into it. Before they start to burn, add the coconut and stir it. Almost immediately (and you don't have much time otherwise the coconut would begin to burn), add the potatoes into it and stir it. Now add the mochas into it, stir it a little. Now add the turmeric, chili powder, a little geera powder, a half a teaspoonful of mouri powder (you can prepare it in your grinder). Stir everything thoroughly.

5. After a while the potatoes would be cooked inside it. Taste it, if it requires a little more sugar, add a dash of sugar (1/8 th of a teaspoon, say) and stir into it. If it is still kind of watery -- add into it a little water containing some flour -- say a teaspoon-full at most and stir into it. Very soon the whole think would appear dry as it should be.

6. Just before removing it from the heat, add a half a teaspoon-full of garam masala and stir into it.

Mochar Ghanta

Ingredients:


Ingredients :
Mocha : 1 no (5kg) Chopped into small pieces and soaked in turmeric and salt water.
Potato : ½ kg cut into small cubes.
Ginger Paste : 1 teaspoon
Chopped Onion : 3 no ( Medium sized )
Bay Leaf (Tejpata) : 2-3 pcs.
Chilly Powder : ½ teaspoon
Tumeric Powder : ½ teaspoon
Whole Cumin Seeds : ½ teaspoon
Coconut : ½ (coarsely chopped)
Desi Ghee : 1 table spoon
Dry Whole Red Chili : 2-3 pcs
Refined Oil : 100 grams

Preparation:

Squeeze out water, before adding masala to the chopped Mocha pieces. Heat oil in a kadai then add dry chilly and cumin seeds. Add garlic paste, ginger paste and when lightly brown pour a little water. Then add tumeric and chili powder and let it come to boil. Now its time to add potato cubes, chopped mocha and salt to taste. Keep cooking with constant stirring till the water is reduced and the Mocha becomes soft and tender. To finish off add powdered Garam Masala.

If I had some, I think I would try making them into pakoras.

I have chopped them up before and cooked them in subji.

I doubt they really have much flavor. Mainly, they will take on the flavor of the spices and veggies you cook them with. They are just a filler that adds some texture.

It's kinda like food with about as much flavor as paper.
It's just for texture and bragging rights.