T.S.D.O.B: Day 8 - The Banana Blossom

Welcome back for Day 8 of Thirty Straight Days Of Blogging. What I have for you today is something a bit different. Most Americans probably won't recognize it. Hell, I just learned about it myself a few months ago. But, if you the adventurous type, this might be right up your alley.

What you see above is the banana blossom. To be honest, my knowledge of this ingredient is limited at best. I'll just tell you what little I know and how I came across this interesting item.

A good friend of mine at work had first mentioned them to me about 4 or 5 months ago. I didn't know anything about them, but he told me that I could find them at a local Arabic market. I didn't think too much of it at the time.

A couple months later, I was watching a cooking show with Chef Luke Nguyen. In it, he used the banana blossom in some sort of salad. He said the flavor and texture were reminiscent of an artichoke. That sounded good to me, so I decided to give it a try.

After I purchased it, I realized I had no fucking clue as to how to prepare this thing, other than what I briefly saw on the cooking show. I watched a few videos on youtube, and most of them said the same things:

Peel the leaves back until you can't do so.
Make sure the cutting board and knives are coated with lime juice.
It will brown very quickly.
Place in lime water as soon as possible
Can be eaten raw or cooked.

I only bought one of these things to play it safe, so I decided to cook half of it.

There are a good number of pictures, so let's get down to business.

First, I got a couple limes out and prepped my board and blade. I put on a small pot of water to boil. I also got a bowl of water and added lime juice to it.

From here, I started to peel away the petals of the blossom. Under each petal were the bananas. Or the flowers that become bananas.

I kept peeling until it looked like this:

From here, I cut the stem off and sliced the pod down the center length wise.

The side I was going to eat raw I sliced up very thin. That's what all the videos said to do, so I did it. The other half I quartered and boiled for about 15 minutes. That's what Luke did.

At this point, I can tell you that they were not bullshitting about this thing browning quickly. As soon as you start cutting it starts browning! Even after I dropped it in the lime water, it was still browning. I had to add more juice to the water to slow it down. Not cool.

Since you can eat it raw, it seemed like a good time to try it. I fished out a few strips and popped them in my mouth. In my opinion, it's not very pleasant raw. It does have a slight crunch to it, but it feels like you are chewing on banana skin. At this point, I was hoping that it would be better cooked.

When I took out the blossom from the boiling water, I sliced them up just a little. I didn't have to do much to it at this point.

I took a bite of the cooked blossom and...it was much better. The texture is very close to artichoke. Really soft with the tiniest bit of chew to it. It's also very subtle in flavor. I can see this getting lost in a dish. It didn't yield a lot either.

My plan for the cooked blossom was to mix it into a light salad. I used arugula, shallots, carrots, mango, and, banana blossom. I lightly dressed it with salt and pepper, extra virgin olive oil and apple cider vinegar.

I bought a small cut of mahi mahi for the protein. I just cooked it in a little butter and seasoned it with salt and pepper. Nothing fancy, just trying to let the natural shine.

Now, time for the plate-up.

One more shot!

The fish was cooked nicely. I was a little worried about over cooking it, but it was good. The salad came out far better than I ever expected. It was so light and refreshing! It complimented the mild flavor of the fish perfectly. One of the best parts of the salad were the strips of mango. That little bit of sweetness brought a huge amount of balance to it.

I wish I could say the blossom made a huge impact, but it didn't. You could tell it was there, but that's really about it.

Even though it didn't turn out as good as I was hoping, I don't consider this a failure at all. I got to try a new ingredient, which doesn't happen very often these days. I made one of the best salads I've ever made in my life and will forever keep that recipe. How can all that be a bad thing?

That's it for this one. If you can find it, I say try it. Just make sure to cook it. :)

See you tomorrow!