Vazhaipoo / Plantain / Banana flower Paruppu usili

Vazhaipoo is always a special veggie usually we make Vazhaipoo Vadas for all special occasions. After a long time I prepared this paruppu usili, when my sweet sister brought Vazhaipoo and best part is that she also helped me with cleaning process. Vazhaipoo Paruppu Usili  goes well with Mor Kulambu as accompaniment or hot rice with ghee.

Ingredients:

Vazhaipoo  - 1 small size

Butter milk – 1tbsp

Turmeric powder- ¼ tsp

Salt to taste

To grind:

Toor dhal – ¾ cup

Jeera – 1tsp

Red chili – 4 no

Grated Coconut – 2 tbsp

Asafoetida – 2 pinches

For tempering:

Oil as needed

Mustard seeds – 1tsp

Curry leaves few

Preparation:

• Wash and soak toor dal for 2 hours.
• Wash, clean and remove the stamen part with white layer and Collect the bunch of florets.

• Immerse these florets in water diluted in buttermilk to avoid discoloration until use.

• Now grind the soaked toor dal into coarsely along with the items given under “to grind” section.

• Make small balls of this toor dal mixture and place them in some greased oil idli plate or plain plate.
• In a pressure cooker keep toor dal balls and collect the plantain florets from water and chop them nicely, place both in separate plates and steam for 15 minutes.
• Crumble the pressure cooked dal with your hands or using a blender.
•  In a non stick pan add oil and temper with the given items and saute the steamed plantain flower for 2 minutes.
• Then add the crumbled dhal mixture. Cover and cook for few minutes until it gets soft.

• Now adjust the salt and switch it off.

         Serve hot rice with ghee or Mor Kulambu. 

         Also check out my earlier post Vazhaipoo Vada.

Tip:

• To save time and to enjoy the cooking this dish, you could clean the vazhaipoo the previous day and refrigerated them in plastic or Ziploc cover.
• Apply some sesame oil in your hands before cleaning the plantain flower, this prevents stickiness and nails turning black.
• You could use cluster beans instead of plantain flower, it also taste good.

VazhaiPoo Vadai / Banana Flower Vadai

I like vahapoo vadai for its flavour and tastes. Usually I buy one small vazhaipoo and make into halves and use for making vadai and paruppu usili. Cleaning vazhaipoo is the time consuming but tell you it’s all worth for its taste, you will also agree with me after you try and taste this yummy vadai.
Vazhai poo has lot of health benefits too, especially for pregnant women.

How to clean Vazhai Poo?

• Rub your hands with some oil or wear gloves to avoid sticky and your hand turns black when you clean this banana flower.
• First keep ready with turmeric water which is added with salt.(i.e., a pinch of turmeric + 1/ tsp of salt + 1cup of water).



• Take off the outer petals and remove the bunch of flowers and keep separately. Remove the stamen part from each flowers and chop the remaining part of florets and soak them in turmeric water until use, to avoid turning black.

 

• While adding florets to the vada mixture, drain the water completely.

Ingredients:

Vazhai Poo – cleaned and chopped 1cup
Channa dal – 1/2 cup
Toor dal – 1/2 cup
Red chillies – 3nos
Fennel seeds – 1/4 tsp
Garlic – 3pods
Ginger – 1” piece
Onion – 1 finely chopped)+1/2
Asafoetida – 1 tsp
Coriander leaves few finely chopped
Curry leaves few finely chopped
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method:

• Wash and soak dal for minimum 2 hours. In a blender add red chilli, onion 1/2, fennel seeds, garlic, ginger with soaked dals and grind coarsely by sprinkling less water.





• To this mixture now add the chopped vazhaipoo, chopped onions, coriander leaves, curry leaves, asafoetida and salt to taste and mix well.



• Heat oil in a pan and make a small size vada and drop in oil and cook well in medium flame until crispy and golden brown on both sides.



• Drain the excess oil in tissue paper and enjoy this hot and tasty vadai.

Note:

• You can also soak the florets in buttermilk mixed with water to avoid decolouration.
• Grinding the dal mixture coarsely can get crunchier and crispy vada, you also can grind to smooth.
• While grinding do not add more water.
• Instead of channa dal you can replace pattani paruppu, it tastes so good.
• Don’t make big size vada, as it take time to fully cook.