Vazhaipoo/ Banana Flowers are the blossom that grows on banana plant and it's used in south indian cooking a lot. We make usili, kola urundai, vadai,poriyal with banana flower, all are really delicious and we as a family love them in any form. But cleaning banana flowers is such a painstaking process and also many beginners are not aware of this, so this post might useful for all the beginners in cooking and  experts this post  is not for you :-) but if you're willing to take a look on how i clean my vazhaipoo/banana flower, you're more welcome.
At one time, when we were in hosur and i was still a beginner in cooking then, bought a vazhaipoo, called Amma & asked about the cleaning method and did all the cleaning, it took around 2 hrs. Once finished cooking them, i had noticed that it had a strong bitter taste and wondered why it had such a bitter taste, then again called Amma, she told that very rarely some vazhaipoo/banana flower has strong bitter taste(mild bitter taste is normal) and it's not advisable to consume them. Later i threw them in trash with heavy heart. So always taste a bit of  raw florets, if it doesn't have any bitter taste, proceed cleaning them, else discard them. Lesson learnt that day !!! Ok, now it's time to check out the cleaning method.

How to Clean Vazhaipoo | Banana Flower

Preparation Time : 20 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Basic | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Banana Flower - 1 

Procedure

First take the banana flower, peel the first layer of petal and you can see the banana florets inside, remove them and place it on the plate. Do the same for next couple of petals. Next take one flower in your hand and inside you can see a stamen(the one with round head ) and a transparent layer.Remove them and discard it. Similarly do the same for all the florets. As you go on, the florets became smaller in size inside. At that stage, there is hardly any transparent layer, so just remove the stamen alone.At one stage, you find it hard to remove the petals, at that stage, don't remove the petals, you can used them as it. Just remove the stem from it and chop them along them with florets.That's it, now it's ready to chop and cook.

Notes:

• Your hands may have dark stains while cleaning. To remove that, just apply some coconut oil on hand after cleaning , rub it with tissue paper and wash it with hand wash or you can use the hand gloves to avoid staining.
• Banana florets becomes dark when keep it outside for long. If you're not cooking them immediately, put them in butter milk, it helps to become dark.
  

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Vazhaipoo Usili | Banana Flower Usili

Vazhaipoo Usili, an accompaniment for rice made with banana flower and chana dal.As the vazhaipoo sits idle in the refrigerator for a week, i thought of making some thing new this time other than poriyal,vadai or kola urundai and searched for a recipe, then i came to know that usili can be prepared with vazhaipoo too.So immediately give it a try and it tastes so good.

To see other vazhaipoo recipe,click the below images.

Vazhaipoo Usili

Preparation Time : 1 hr | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Banana flower - 1 cup (chopped)
Buttermilk - 1/2 cup
Chana dal - 2 tbsp
Red chili - 1
Oil - 1 tsp + 1 tsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Onion -1/2
Curry leaves - few
Salt - to taste

Procedure

First clean the vazhaipoo and cut into small pieces and soak it in buttermilk. For cleaning vazhaipoo check here and here. Soak the chana dal for 1/2 hr and then cut the onions into small pieces.Heat the pan with 1 tsp of oil.Add the soaked chana dal, red chili & salt(just enough for the dal) into mixie jar and grind into smooth paste(if needed add water.) and add it in pan.Saute the dal till it gets cooked well(as the dal starts to stick to the pan,so i transfer into non stick kadai),once the dal is cooked, it looks like crumble, at this stage,transfer to another plate, in the same kadai, heat the remaining oil ,add mustard & urad dal, let the mustard splutter.Then add the onions & curry leaves, saute till the onions becomes translucent,then squeeze the banana flower from butter milk and add it in the pan along with salt.Cover the pan with lid and cook the banana flower till it becomes soft and all the moisture evaporates, then add the cooked dal and mix well. That's it, Tasty Vazhaipoo Usili is ready.We had it with Vedakkai Puli Kuzhambu & Chow Chow Kootu

Notes:

• Instead of sauteing the dal, you can steam cook the dal too.
• After chopped the banana flower, put it in butter milk immediately,it helps to avoid coloring.

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Vazhaipoo Kola Urundai | Veg Kola Urundai | Banana Flower Balls

Did you ever taste Vazhaipoo Kola Urundai? If not, surely give a try to this, you will be amazed by the taste and texture of this dish.It can be served as a accompaniment for any rice dish or as starters or as snack for evening tea. I like to have them as snack for my evening tea.
For mutton kola urundai, you have to grind the mutton flesh, somewhat i feel uncomfortable for grinding the mutton in mixie jar and use the same jar for other purpose. So i keep on postponing, dont know when will i make? But to satisfy my craving of kola urundai, i make this vazhaipoo kola urundai often.It taste equally good.
Cleaning the vazhaipoo is a bit time consuming process and also you need lot of patience.To clean 1/2 cup of Vazhaipoo, it takes minimum 20 mins and it's enough for only 10 small kola urundai. So if you're making in large quantity, definitely it will be good if you're having an extra hand to clean.Let see the procedure now.

Vazhaipoo Kola Urundai

Preparation Time : 30 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Makes : 10 
Recipe Category: Starter/Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Vazhaipoo - 1/2 cup(cleaned & chopped)
Roasted Dal/Chutney Dal/Pottukadalai - 1 1/2 tbsp
Onion - 1/4 cup(chopped)
Red chili - 1
Fennel seed - 1/2 tsp
Garlic - 1 pod
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few 
Oil - for frying

Procedure

First clean the vazhaipoo and cut into small pieces. For cleaning vazhaipoo check here and here. Put it in buttermilk to avoid coloring. Take the roasted dal in the mixie jar & powder it well and collect it in separate bowl.In the same mixie jar,add the chili,fennel seed & garlic and grind it coarsely, squeeze the vazhaipoo from the buttermilk and add it in mixie jar and pulse it once & twice.Cut the onions & coriander leaves into small pieces and roughly torn the curry leaves and add all this into the grounded vazhaipoo. Add enough salt and mix it well.Now add the powdered roasted dal in the vazhaipoo mixture little by little and mix it well till it all comes together. Take a small amount of vazhaipoo mixture and round into small balls.Heat the kadai/saucepan with enough oil for frying, once the oil becomes hot, add few balls at a time and fry till it becomes golden brown.Drain the oil and remove the kola urundai, place it on tissue paper.That's it, Tasty & crispy Vazhaipoo Kola Urundai is ready.
Notes:

• Squeeze the vazhaipoo well and then add for grinding.
• Depends on the moisture content, you many need more or less roasted dal powder,so always it's better to keep some extra.
• If you prefer, you can add ginger also.
• If you dont like fennel smell, add 1/2 tsp of cumin seed instead of fennel seed.

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Vazhaipoo Poriyal | Banana Flower Stir Fry

Vazhaipoo poriyal , a simple stir fry  made with banana flower/blossom and it tastes great with any South Indian Meal. 

Cleaning vazhaipoo is really a tedious task and also very time consuming.Usually i clean this while watching any tv shows or movies :-)  or get help help from ST. Apart from the cleaning, Vazhaipoo cooks very fast, so you can make this with 15 mins.

Related: How to clean Vazhaipoo

Vazhaipoo tends to brown when you chop it, so to avoid browning, put the chopped vazhaipoo immediately in the buttermilk. If you don't have buttermilk, add a couple of tsp of curd into the water & whisk it well and use that.

Now let's check out on how to make delicious Vazhaipoo Poriyal.

Vazhaipoo Poriyal

Preparation Time : 45 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins |Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Condiments | Recipe Cuisine: South Indian

Vazhaipoo Poriyal, Banana flower stir fry Vazhaipoo poriyal , a simple stir fry made with banana flower/blossom and it tastes great with any South Indian Meal.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Banana Flower/ Vazhaipoo - 1 cup (chopped)

Onion -1 small

Chana Dal - 1 tsp

Red chili - 1 no

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp each

Curry leaves -few

Grated Coconut - 2 tbsp

Buttermilk - 1/2 cup 

Procedure

First open the petals and take the florets. In the floret, remove the transparent layer and stamen(one with round head), shown in the pic below. Remove them from all the florets and chop into small pieces

Immediately put it in buttermilk until use . Cut onions into small pieces and heat the kadai with oil and then add mustard , let it splutter and then add urad dal.

Now add chana dal, onions,red chili & curryleaves one by one, saute till the onions becomes translucent and then add the chopped vazhaipoo along with buttermilk.

Add required salt and cover the kadai with lid. Cook till it's done and all the water evaporates.

Add the grated coconut, mix it well and then switch off the flame.

Tasty Vazhaipoo Poriyal is ready. Serve it with your meal. We have it with rice, sambar, mango sweet pachadi, potato butter beans curry and vazhaipoo poriyal.

Related: How to make Vazhaipoo vadai

Notes:

• Vazhaipoo turns dark when it's chopped,so immediately put it in buttermilk.
• If you dont have buttermilk,take 3 tbsp of curd and add enough water to make it as buttermilk.

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Vazhaipoo Vadai | Banana Flower Fritters

Vazhaipoo vadai, a crispy and tasty fritters made from the chana dal and banana flower. It is one of the tastiest vadai that i have made so far. 

Whenever i hear about this vadai, i remember the movie "Kandukondein Kandukondein", in this movie, mamooty find Aishwarya Rai family with this vadai taste.

 
Every time i buy vazhai poo, after making vazhaipoo poriyal, i reserve some just to make this vadai as evening snack for our tea ! It's so flavorful, crispy and delicious with a cup of hot chai !  

Cleaning Vazhaipoo is a tough one and it takes a really long time so i always get help from ST to clean the vazhaipoo. That way i don't feel exhausted while finishing cooking this vadai 

Related: How to make Ginger Cardamom Chai 

Make sure to chop the vazhaipoo finely so that it's easy to make vadai shape. If you can't make vadai then pulse the vazhai poo or the whole mixture(if you mixed the dal and vazhai poo) a couple of time , it will helps to hold the mixture and make vadai. 

Ok, now let's check out on how to make this delicious vazhaipoo vadai.

One delicious meal platter with vazhai poo vadai. In the plate, it has rice with mixed veg sambar, pudalangai poriyal, vendakkai pachadi and vazhaipoo vadai

Vazhaipoo Vadai

Preparation Time : 1 hr | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Makes : 10 
Recipe Category: Vadai/Fritters | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Vazhaipoo Vadai, Banana flower fritters, Banana Blossom fritters, Vazhaipoo vada Vazhaipoo vadai, a crispy and tasty fritters made from the chana dal and banana flower..

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Banana Flower - 1 cup (chopped)

Channa Dal - 1/2 cup

Fennel seed - 1/2 tsp

Red Chili - 1 or 2 (depends on your taste)

Curry leaves - few

Onion -1 finely chopped

Salt - to taste

Oil - for frying.

Procedure

Soak channa dal for 1 hr. In the mean time, clean the banana flower, first open the petals and take the florets. In the floret, remove the transparent layer and stamen(one with round head), shown in the pic below. Remove them all the florets.

Check here for detailed guide on how to clean Banana florets/Vazhaipoo

Cut the flowers in to small pieces and the chana dal is soaked well now.

Now take the channa dal in the blender along with chili,fennel seed and salt. Grind into coarse mixture and collect in a bowl.

Add banana flowers, onions & curry leaves into channa dal mixture.Mix it well.

Heat the oil in a kadai for frying.Make small patties from  the mixture and drop it in oil. Cook on both sides in the medium flame.

Tasty, crispy Vazhaipoo Vadai is ready.

Related : How to make Vazhaipoo Kola Urundai 

Notes

•  Cut the flowers just before mixing it with chana dal. It will change to dark color if you keep it long time after cutting.
• You can pulse the flowers along with chana dal once too instead of mixing it with your hand.

  

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