Mochar Ghonto ( Banana flower, Chenna curry)

I love any recipes out of banana flower. I simply love it's taste... Even when cleaning the flowers , I love to eat its centre oval shape portion raw which is said to be good for health of women. First you have to remove reddish skin and collect the florets. Like this remove all skins and collect florets inside. Can continue this till last or stop when red colour changed to yellow skin... You just cut along with skin after that..... Then remove centre stamen and transparent membrane of each floret. Then chop all the florets finely and put it in water, salt, buttermilk mix to avoid decolouring. Can add turmeric powder too instead of buttermilk, which also prevents decolouration and removes bitterness. This is the method to clean florets. Mainly because of this tedious process many avoid this. But please include it in your diet atleast once in a week since they help to lower cholesterol, are anti-inflammatory, anticancer and anti-aging agent. This is a famous Bengali dish, so better use mustard oil for cooking to get original traditional taste.

Ingredients

Banana flower - 1 ( cleaned and chopped by following the above method) 

Black chick pea - 1 cup ( soaked overnight)

Green chilli – 2 no

Coconut coarsely grated – half cup

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt and oil as needed

To grind

Onion - 1

Tomato - 1

Ginger - 1 inch piece 

Garlic - 4

For powder

cinnamon , Cloves , cardamon 

For seasoning

Bay leaves - 1

Cumin seeds 1 tsp

Method 

Boil the chopped banana florets in water, turmeric and salt and cook for 15 minutes or pressure cook it for one whistle.

Pressure cook black chick peas and keep aside

Grind the items mentioned under grind.

Powder the items mentioned under powder.

In original recipe boiled potato is added. But I avoided it. You can boil potato, cut it into cube and keep aside.

Then in a pan add oil, season with items mentioned under seasoning. Add coconut and fry for few minutes. Then add grinded paste and cook for few minutes. Now add salt, turmeric powder, chopped green chilli, cumin powder and coriander powder; mix well. Then add spice powder, saute well, add boiled chick pea, boiled banana flower and sugar. Mix all and cook for few minutes.

Serve hot with plain rice and roti and taste will be a bliss.