Back when I was in India before my marriage I rarely cooked because my grandmother and mother took care of it. I knew few basics like kootu, rasam and some poriyal (dry curry), so that was enough to help them out occasionally but certain things I did not know. One such thing is the procedure for cooking banana flower (vaazhai poo). Although my grandmother used to make usili and poriyal out of it I never bothered to learn how to prep the flower for cooking. After coming to US I did not see it in the local markets so I literally forgot that such a thing existed.

Last summer we went to New Jersey to see Dasavatharam. Yes, we drove 2 hours to watch that movie because my DH is a movie-enthusiast (that’s my “good” me trying to sound poise but actually biting my teeth!). That experience by itself should qualify for another post of ranting. Anyway the only good thing from that trip (at least for me) was the visit to the Indian grocery stores there. I felt like I was in India and was so excited to see all the vegetables and greens, the variety of of flours, grains and nuts and more all laid out neatly. You should have seen the look in my face! For those of you who have come to NJ directly from India, you cannot relate to me, because in the place where I used to live (suburbs of Philly) we didn’t have that many desi stuff and choices. I was so excited that I was asking my husband to look for a job in NJ and I started looking for apartments too. Really, I’m not kidding. So we (read it as I) literally filled up the car trunk with groceries and veggies including the exotic banana flower.

I didn’t know how I was going to cook it but bought it anyway. Most of my purchases are like that only since I started this food blog! With the help of technology I learned how to prep it. No, no, no I did not Google it. I video chat with my mother everyday, so I had the banana flower in front of me and she was giving me the instructions. So finally it was done. My goodness it’s a lot of work and takes so much time. (The how to’s in another post.) She also had asked me to soak the chopped flower in buttermilk with little turmeric powder mixed to it, so that it would remove some of the bitterness. Yes, it’s slightly bitter (thuvarpu in Tamil). Did everything as she said (a teaspoon of sugar can also be added while cooking) and prepared usili the next day as usual and it tasted so good, worth the trouble taken to prep it.

Fast forward one year, I’m in Canada now and happened to see banana flower in the store here. Brought it home with the same excitement, sat down patiently to prep the flower, chopped it and made the poriyal (dry curry) which my grandmother used to make, tasted a spoonful and yuck! It was so bitter and I was wondering what I did wrong. After talking with my mother I realized that I did not soak it in buttermilk this time. I tried every possible trick to make it right, but the bitterness was like a tough grease on a pan, it would not go. Even the thought of throwing it away was making me feel very guilty. It’s not that I have not thrown away anything but to throw something as healthy as this and also after spending so much time on preparing it, it did not feel right. So I was just moping around until I saw the lentils I had soaked to prepare usili for the following day’s lunch. Aaha! the light bulb went on!

I’m sure you would have guessed it by now. Vaazhaipoo vadai (banana flower patties) is the solution. Though I have heard about these vadais we have not prepared it in our home and I have not tasted it elsewhere too. Proceeded anyway because I know that anything deep fried in oil will definitely taste good!

So took about 1 cup of the soaked lentils (approximately 3/4 cup of chana daal, 1/4 cup toor daal and masoor dal or red lentils together ), drained the water and processed it in a food processor with 1 red chili and mixed the banana flower curry and finely chopped onions with the lentil batter. I even fried one batch of vadais and that’s when another idea came. Why not bake it instead? I have seen a couple of recipes for baked falafel, so decided to give that a try and it worked too! Yay!

Preheat the oven at 375F for 15 minutes. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat it with cooking spray. Take a ping pong ball size of dough, roll it between your palms and place it on the baking sheet. You can either flatten it or leave it as it is. Repeat the same for the entire dough and spray the tops with non stick cooking oil spray and bake it in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until its golden brown. Check once in between and you may flip the patties. The only thing to be noted is that while grinding the lentils, be sure that the water is drained completely and sprinkle water little by little if necessary. If you add too much water, you will not be able to handle the dough and you would have to add rice flour or corn starch to bind it.

Surprisingly the oven baked vadais were crisp too. Crisp on the outside and soft inside. I had my doubts whether the lentils would be cooked inside because unlike falafel where cooked (canned) chickpeas is used, the lentils in this recipe was not cooked prior to the baking. So if you have that doubt too, don’t anymore because it gets cooked. The vadai was not bitter also. It tasted very good the next day too. Of course not crispy as the the first day but definitely tasty.

This goes to my Low Fat Baking Event.

(Click the image for a bigger view)

I’m happy to inform everybody that this is my first entry for the prestigious CLICK photo contest.  I didn’t have the idea of taking part in the contest until this evening.  Like many other bloggers, I have this pre-conceived notion that it’s for great photographers.  So I didn’t even bother to think about participating in it.

At this juncture I would like to mention one other thing.  Actually I don’t take any pictures for my blog.  I arrange the food and my husband being a photography enthusiast, takes the pictures.  I was taking it earlier when we had the simple Sony Cybershot digital camera.  But recently my husband bought the Canon EOS 40D camera and I have not yet learned to operate it, so for the time being “JK” is the official food photographer. 

He ALWAYS has the habit of rushing through things in the last minute, and that’s how he got the idea of participating in the event this morning.  I was telling him that we can do it in June, but he was determined to make it this month itself.  He has this idea that, only when we near a deadline, we can become more creative.  I hate to admit that, but he was right. 

We got all these crazy ideas and he started taking pictures of various beans and lentils around 4 PM.  He was telling something about using different cookie cutters and to fill them up with different types of beans.  So I thought of making flowers with round and heart shape cutters.  But that did not come out properly.  Then suddenly an idea flashed in my mind, why not use alphabet cookie cutters to spell out CLICK and fill it with different beans.  So I tried it out and it did look good, but it was plain.  I felt that soemthing was missing and moreover there was a little white color smudge mark on top of “K”.  So I had to do it once again in another clean place.  Then I got the idea of having a border around the word and started working on it.  In the meantime the sun started to set and on the other side my toddler was trying to pull the poster board on which I was working.  Finally I was able to complete it and my husband took some pictures.  I think it has come out decent.

Here is another click on the same theme:

I really loved this experience of working with my husband or rather arguing with him.  So eagerly looking forward to take part in the contest every month. 

Thank you very much Jai and Bee.

I found this recipe in the “Good Housekeeping” magazine.  This recipe was featured under Heart Smart Dinners and Healthy in a Hurry category.  With 16gms protein, 13gms fiber, 0mg cholesterol and just 1gm saturated fat per serving, it’s definitely heart healthy.  Added bonus, very tasty and easy to prepare too.

I reduced the quantity of ingredients.  Even then it was a lot of soup for the 2 of us.  I have another serving left for tomorrow.  Check the original recipe for actual quantities and detailed nutritional information.

Ingredients:
Olive oil – 1 tablespoon
Carrots, medium, chopped – 3
Onion, small, chopped – 1
Ground Cumin – 1 teaspoon
Canned diced tomatoes (14.5 oz) – 1 can (I didn’t have this, so used crushed tomatoes)
Vegetable broth (14.5 oz) – 1 can
Dried red lentils (masoor daal) – 3/4th of a cup
Baby Spinach (5 oz bag) – 1 (I used frozen spinach)
Salt – as per taste
Ground black pepper – as per taste
Grated ginger (this was not mentioned in the original recipe, but I chose to use it because red lentils especially has the reputation to cause gas)

Procedure:
1.  In a saucepan heat oil and add carrots, onion and cook until lightly browned and tender.  Stir in cumin; cook 1 minute.

2.  Add tomatoes, broth, lentils, 2 cups of water salt, ground black pepper cover and cook until lentils are tender.  Stir in spinach.

My Notes:
1.  I soaked the lentils before starting to chop the vegetables.  I did this because I thought that this will reduce the cooking time and it did.  Later only I came to know that soaking the lentils and throwing away the water and then using the lentils aids in easy digestion.  Just be sure to throw away the soaking water.  Enjoy!