Preparing Banana Blossoms

[ExtraMSG]

I've had banana blossom salads at Thai and Vietnamese restaurants and really liked them. However, I bought a banana blossom the other day and followed David Thompson's instructions (take off leaves to the white core, toss out the stamens, and shred) for preparing it and it tasted like banana peel. Yuck!

Any recommendations?

[Pan]

Are you sure it was fresh? I've never prepared what Malays call "jantung pisang" ("banana heart"), but it should taste like a fresh vegetable, not banana peel! I wonder where those restaurants are getting fresh banana blossoms from. Maybe you could ask them next time.

[ExtraMSG]

It was nice and tight like it's supposed to be. I bought it at a Vietnamese grocer.

[Pan]

This was a very large purple flower, yes?

[AzRaeL]

yum! that STUFF is Delicious. A salad with peel shrimp and basil leaves...*DROOL* i love that stuff. What was the question again?

[Big Bunny]

I had trouble trying to follow Thompson's directions, too.

You actually have to watch what you peel, layer by layer - sort of like an artichoke.

After removing some of the outer leaves - there is no definite number - you should find inner leaves which are a nice "vegetable" (I am not coming up with words now.)

A canned banana blossom isn't so good, but if you look at one you can see what the "goal" looks like.

BB

[ExtraMSG]

Pan and Big Bunny,

Yep, a big purple blossom, which I peeled away until I got to a "creamy" center. I essentially thought about it like an artichoke heart. Even the most inner pieces, though, had a banana peel flavor. You know what I'm talking about? It's that kind of film-on-your-tongue, dry-your-mouth-out waxy/bitter taste like if you've ever bitten into a banana peel. It wasn't that harsh, but it was there.

Do they need to be boiled or cooked first? I assumed they'd just be used like a vegetable. Do they need to be pickled or anything first. The ones I've had at restaurants taste fine.

[zora]

I picked up one of those at an Indian store. They showed me how to peel it like an artichoke and all, which I did, so it was an OK texture, but it was still shockingly bitter--that weird tongue-coating bitterness...like eating banana peel, now that you mention it. They also discolored very quickly--should've dunked them in lemon juice.

Maybe parboiling? Although I've tried this with cardoons, and still haven't been able to get them palatable.

[Big Bunny]

The one fresh banana flower I peeled was nice, but strange.

I don't remember it having a "banana peel" taste, but it was definitely unfamiliar.

Of course, that is the big word - unfamiliar. I have no idea what is a good banana blossom or a bad one because I have only recently had access to them at all.

The one I opened reminded me, very vaguely, of hearts of palm.

Maybe, if they stay available, we can actually develop some "sense" for them.

BB

edit for spelling

Edited February 5, 2004 by Big Bunny (log)

[ExtraMSG]

Maybe I'll try to get in to one of the Vietnamese restaurants in town that serves a great salad from them and see what they're doing.

[Pan]

In Malaysia, I always had them cooked, usually in Sayur (a savory side dish for a meal, which involved boiling various kinds of vegetables in coconut milk with plenty of hot pepper). They never tasted bitter and never tasted like banana peel.

But though they were kind of fun to eat, I always found them more special to look at on the tree.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Banana blossom (it's actually a bud if you think of horticultural terms) needs to cut extremely thin and immediately dropped into acidulated water to prevent discoloration.

The tongue-coating quality that was mentioned earlier is really displeasing. In Vietnamese, we say it's "chat" (ch-AHT). The soaking in acidulated water (lime juice and water, maybe 2 to 3 fat limes to 3-4 quarts of water) mitigates the astringency.

In Vietnam you buy the pre-cut bud at the markets. Yes, avoid the inner core and toss out the flowers. It's the tender petals you want.

I imagine you know what goes into the rest of the salad? It's the normal cast of characters that comprise Viet salads, herbs, chopped roasted peanuts, a little shredded cooked protein. There are fanciful modern versions of this and I imagine that's what you enjoyed.

Keep cooking and eating,

Andrea Nguyen

[ExtraMSG]

Thanks for the help. I wonder if they place I've had it and liked it was preparing the product fresh themselves or if they were buying some pre-processed or dried product. I guess I'll just have to experiment more. Besides acidulated water, is there anything that works well for getting rid of the chat (in Chicano-ese, you might say the chit )?

Nick

Edited March 4, 2004 by ExtraMSG (log)

[badthings]

I noticed a complicated procedure for dealing with this in one of the Elizabeth Schneider books, but I don't remember the details. The weird thing is, I bought one once and made something pretty good out of it without any idea about the buds and the bitterness. I wish I could remember what I did.

[ExtraMSG]

I noticed a complicated procedure for dealing with this in one of the Elizabeth Schneider books, but I don't remember the details. The weird thing is, I bought one once and made something pretty good out of it without any idea about the buds and the bitterness. I wish I could remember what I did.

Oh, thanks a lot. "It can be done. I've done it. But I can't tell you how." Lot of help you are!

[Andrea Nguyen]

Nick,

I think your restaurant prepped it themselves. In the U.S. you can get pre-shredded green papaya and carrot but not banana bud. On the other hand, the inventive Vietnamese may be figuring out how to do this right now as I type!!

Instead of the acidulated water, you can blanch the sliced banana blossom to get rid of the astringency. Note that this will alter the consistency of what you get -- a beautiful pewter tangle that's lost some of the burgundy charm of the slightly crunchy raw bud. To tell you the truth, I kinda like it blanched.

Here's what you do: Bring a pot of water to boil and drop the slices in. Once it comes back to a boil, drain it immediately. Drain it well in a colander, pressing on it to remove excess water. For color and texture, try adding about 1/2 pound of bean sprouts or a finely julliened carrot to the blanching process.

Herb-wise, try finely chopped mint or rau kinh gioi (a Vietnamese balm). If you want more info on this herb, visit the Essential Viet Herb page.

As with many Asian foods, banana blossom is mostly about texture. It has little taste on its own. Once that you've been able to manipulate it to get rid of the astringency, you can go to town to create your own delicious salad!

Good luck,

[gingerly]

Besides acidulated water, is there anything that works well for getting rid of the chat (in Chicano-ese, you might say the chit )?

in indian cooking ,the banana flower is usually chopped very fine and kneaded with a little oil before cooking to get rid of any stickiness .don't know if that's of any help since you're trying to use it raw.

found this

Edited March 5, 2004 by gingerly (log)

[JustKay]

I'm gonna add my 2sen worth.

The banana flower should be peeled until you get to the softer petals. Then stop, and the whole 'flower' is then vertically cut into two and blanched in hot water (salt added) before using in any dishes, be it salad or cooked in some other dishes. There should not be any banana peel flavor after you've blanched it. Over here, the blanched banana flower is simply served with a hot sauce called 'sambal air asam' which is a mixture of pounded fresh chili, red onion, tamarind juice and maybe a tad of belacan (dried shrimp paste) or made into a salad (usually involves shredded coconut). However, this is all Malay cooking.

The only thing that I can think of that would make your banana flower taste like banana peel is that if you have used the flower of an inedible specie of banana!

And also, we sometimes make a dish out of small unripe bananas - peel and all - someting called Pisang Masak Lemak (banana in coconut milk gravy). So, you see, sometimes we eat the banana peel also (and it doesn't even taste like banana peel then!).

[Pan]

Just one clarification: When Malaysians say "bawang merah" ("red onion"), they do not mean what Americans call "red onion." They mean "shallots." Garlic is "bawang putih" ("white onion"), and just plain old onion is "bawang besar" ("big onion"). Clearly, translating "bawang" as "onion" is problematic. I guess a more technically accurate translation might be "edible member of the Allium family." But doesn't that really roll off the tongue.

[ExtraMSG]

What about "edible bulb" or just "bulb".

Thanks for all the help. I should go out and purchase another banana blossom and give it a try.

Do you shake out the -- what are they? -- stamens, too?

[JustKay]

Yes, I meant shallots. Thanks, Pan.

If I mention daun bawang, they'd know what "onion leaves" are? To us, green onions or spring onions would seem to mean a different thing. I'm picturing a makcik here being asked to buy some green onions, she'd have a hard time finding any bawang hijau.

Anyways Pan, do Americans know of/use bawang goreng as a garnish? The closests would be those French Onions, eh? I had a friend sent me a can of those, but it seemed like it has been battered lightly before being fried? Can't quite remember.

ExtraMSG - no, once you get to the soft petals, leave the thing whole - don't peel further. These soft petals should not be like the deep purple color of the 'outside' petals but rather like fading purple, almost whitish. This is what I suppose being refered to as banana bud.

The 'stamens' from then on are good to eat too. But the stem you discard.

The banana flower/blossom eaten here are from the Pisang Berangan variety (maybe Pan can help identify that with an english/scientific name), other varieties may not be so suitable for eating and may need 'further treatment'. This info probaby won't help much though as I suspect you don't have much of a choice?

But from Andrea's post, it seems that the Vietnamese do not eat the 'stamens'. Only the petals.

Anyways, here is one variation for Banana Flower Salad

Banana Flower Salad

It somehow seems funny to me to refer to it as banana flower. Jantung Pisang literally means 'the heart of banana' and the 'stamens' is what we call Bunga Pisang which translates to banana flower which actually forms each banana. Am I right, Pan?

Do tell how do you eat your banana flower.

And Nick, your avatar is verrry skeeery.

Edited May 12, 2004 by kew (log)

[Pan]

Kew, I honestly don't remember what daun bawang are.

Bawang goreng=fried onion (but in Malaysia, usually fried shallots). Yes, fried onions are used often in various types of cooking in the U.S., from an accompaniment for hamburgers or liver to a preparatory step in making sauteed vegetable dishes, and some people do substitute shallots for onions. But these are normally fried up from fresh onions. In my experience, fried onions are normally not battered unless they're being made into onion rings (though I'm sure there are other instances of batter-frying them). In big cities like New York, we can also get airtight containers of fried shallots just like you can get in Malaysia in Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Indonesian stores and big Chinese/Southeast Asian supermarkets (in fact, some of them are imported from Malaysia). Otherwise, probably the closest thing you could find - nationwide in supermarkets, I figure (and sold expensively, no doubt, by big spice brands like McCormick and Durkee) - would be dried onion chips (in tiny little pieces), which I doubt most eGulleteers would recommend for most purposes; they're not aromatic like the fried onions you're asking about.

I Googled "pisang berangan Latin name" and got the following result:

http://gmr.landfood.unimelb.edu.au/Plantna...rting/Musa.html

[Latin name] Musa acuminata

However, the same site claims that all these Malay names describe the same species:

Pisang masak hijau, Pisang embun lumut, Pisang ambon lumut (Indonesia), Pisang ambon loemoet (Indonesia), Pisang berangan , Pisang barangan (Indonesia).

That looks like three names with some alternate spellings to me. But is it true that pisang masak hijau, pisang embun lumut, and pisang berangan are all of the same species?

In terms of where the fruit comes from, I have to tell you that I learned that in Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan some 28 years ago, and it's a wonder that I even remember that banana trees are propagated by cuttings, let alone precisely how the fruit forms. I always assumed that the jantung pisang was simply the flower and the fruit followed it, like on other fruit trees, but heck if I really know.

Oh, also, how I eat banana flowers in the U.S. is not.

[JustKay]

Kew, I honestly don't remember what daun bawang are.

...... In terms of where the fruit comes from, I have to tell you that I learned that in Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan some 28 years ago, and it's a wonder that I even remember that banana trees are propagated by cuttings, let alone precisely how the fruit forms. I always assumed that the jantung pisang was simply the flower and the fruit followed it, like on other fruit trees, but heck if I really know. 

Daun = leaves. Daun bawang are green onions or spring onions.

Hmmmph ..... I've never heard of that one! What I know is that they grow from 'rhizomes'? That each banana tree will bear fruit only once and then die. And that each tree could have many anak pokok = young tree growing around it. But wild bananas have seeds though.

All this banana talk is making me want some banana cake.

And this thread is about banana blossom!!

And yes my Googling yielded the same results.