Banana Blossoms Stir Fry with Mustard and Ginger
Banana blossom side dish with the zing of freshly ground mustard, ginger and green chilies, cooked in mustard oil.
Servings: 4
Equipment
- wet grinder
Ingredients
- 300 g Banana blossoms (plucked and cleaned)
- 1/2 tsp Salt (adjust to taste)
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 Green chilies (2 if you like it hot)
- 1 inch knob Ginger
- 1 tbsp Yellow mustard seeds
- 1 pinch Asafoetida powder
- 1 tbsp Mustard oil
- 2 tsp Lemon juice
Instructions
Boil banana blossoms
- After banana blossoms are plucked and cleaned, slice them into thin 1-inch strips.
- As you slice, transfer the pieces to a pot of water (4 cups) to which a teaspoon of salt has been added.
- Boil the pot of sliced banana blossoms in salted water for 20 minutes. At the end you’ll find that the banana blossoms have softened and the water has turned dark.
- Drain the blackened water and rinse banana blossoms with fresh water. Drain again.
- Add salt to taste. Keep aside.
Make mustard-ginger paste
- Grind these ingredients together to make a thick spice paste: a tablespoon of mustard seeds, a 1-inch knob of ginger, and a green chili (1, or more if you want it hotter).
Bring it all together
- Heat mustard oil in a pan. When smoking hot, set heat to low and add asafoetida powder.
- Follow immediately with the ground spice paste.
- Stir around for half a minute, or until the spice paste turns a deeper color.
- Add turmeric powder, and then boiled, salted banana blossoms. Stir well.
- Cook covered on medium heat, stirring every other minute, for 6 minutes or till the seasoning has infused its flavors into the banana blossoms.
- Finish with a dash of lime juice.
Notes
1. For extra heat and variation in texture, add another coarsely chopped green chili into the pan when you add the freshly ground spice paste.
2. If mustard oil is not available for cooking in your region, substitute with your regular cooking oil – note that this will lessen the zing of the finished dish. To compensate, you can increase the amount of mustard seeds in the ground spice paste to 1.5x.