Banana Flower Chutney (Arati Puvvu Pachadi)

What is a Banana Flower?

It is nothing but a flower which grows at the end of the stem that holds a bunch of bananas. It looks dark purple on the outside with layers of leaves or bracts wrapped tightly around each other that contain rows of thin, pale colored flowers inside. These pale flowers are used for cooking different kinds of dishes.

Picture Courtesy: Recipetips.com

Even though it is a tedious process to separate florets from a Banana Flower, the taste it gives in recipes is so good. We usually make Patoli or this pachadi with this. DH said it tasted exactly like Curry Leaves Pickle.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Banana Flower pieces
• 6 or 7 dry red Chilies
• 1 tsp Sambar Powder
• ½ tsp Tamarind pulp
• Few Curry Leaves
• ½ tsp Cumin Seeds
• A pinch of Turmeric
• 2 tsp Oil
• Salt

Preparation:

Heat oil in a pan and add banana flower pieces. Pour little water and allow to cook until the pieces become soft and cooked.

To this add cumin seeds + curry leaves + turmeric + red chilies and sauté well for some time.

Finally add sambar powder and mix well. Turn off the flame and allow the mixture to cool.

Then grind the mixture into a fine paste by adding tamarind pulp and salt. Add very little water, if needed.

This chutney goes well with rice/chapathi.