Banana Blossom Salad

By pixen

A traditional Malaysian herbed salad using the flower bud of Banana Tree.

Ingredients

• To be chopped finely:
• 1 Whole Banana Blossom
• 1 cup Fully packed Thai Basil
• 1 cup Fully packed Mint
• 1 cup Fully packed Coriander leaves
• 2-3 nos Limes - for juice only (or more if you like sourness)
• 4 nos Fresh Red Chillies (or 1-2 Tablespoons of Sambal/Chilli paste)
• 15 nos Shallots or Small Red Onions-slice thinly
• 50 g Bean Sprouts - blanched
• 50 g Roasted Pine Nuts/ Peanuts - roughly crushed (I prefer to use Pine Nuts)
• Fish Sauce to taste
• Sugar to taste

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from pixieate.blogspot.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Prepare a deep bowl of water; you may add some lemon/lime juice or salt for soaking the banana blossom to avoid discolouration. Meanwhile, boil some water in a deep pot just enough to cover the banana florets and the 'heart'.

2. Peel off the hard outer layers of the banana blossom but reserve the florets until you reach the 'white' part of the blossom. You can keep the petals as serving bowls or 'boats'. For the florets, remove any hard stamens from inside the centre of each florets. Towards the end of that task, I normally didn't remove the softer stamens; it's soft enough to chew... :-P

Soak all the florets and 'white' part of blossoms in the water.

Note: Some people would throw away the florets. I don't know why but I used them (not wanting to waste the precious plant.) It's edible as well.

3. In the boiled hot water, put in the 'heart' and florets. Boil them until just soft but still maintain the crunchy texture (that's my preference but you can cook them until fully soft.) That would take 20 - 30 minutes or more depends the size of the 'heart' of banana. The little florets are faster to soften. Normally, I would remove the florets first, soak them in cold tap water to stop the cooking process then continue cooking the 'heart'.

You can use pressure cooker to cook them. Follow the manufacturer's instructions and cook them for 15-20 minutes depends on the quantity and hardness of the banana 'heart'.

4. In another small pot; blanch the beansprouts quickly in hot boiling water for few seconds; Remove and cool it in cold water to stop further the cooking process. Set aside.

5. When the florets and 'heart' are cooked, slice them thinly or roughly chop to bite-size if you like.

6. Now, comes the easy part; In a separate/mixing bowl, mix nicely all the herbs, blanched beansprouts, chopped nuts, sliced chillies or paste, lime juice, sugar and fish sauce to taste. If you are using the reserved larger petals of the banana blossom for serving; spoon the salad mixture into individual petals, decorate and serve in plate or on a large banana leaf (you can cut into shapes you like or cut into several rectangle pieces according to how many guests you're serving.) You can serve in a salad bowl to accompany your other main dishes.