Plantain Flower Usili (Vazha poo/ Anti poo)

Plantain flower(Vazha poo/Antipoo) is one of the most delicate ingredient(Should I call it flower/vegetable!!!! I am not sure) that is used for cooking. You need a lot of patience and time to remove the petals and clean them up. But the pains taken are absolutely worth it. The usili curry is so yummmm :)

Ingredients:

Plantain flower(Cleaned and Chopped) - 1 cup
Red chillies - 5
Thoor dhall - 1/2 cup
Coconut scrapings - 2 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Salt - for taste
Mustard - 1 tsp
Curry leaves


Note: Take a look at this link to know what parts of the flower you need to remove before cooking.

Method:

Clean and chop the plantain flowers into small pieces and soak it in watery butter milk until you use.

Cook the chopped plantain flower in the pressure cooker for 2 whistles and keep it aside.

Soak thoor dhall in water for 1 hour and grind along with red chillies, coconut scrapings, cumin seeds, asafoetida , turmeric powder and salt. The batter should be coarse and thick. Do not add excess water while grinding.

Now steam cook the batter in a pressure cooker like idly. Once it it done let it cool for a while. Crumble the idly finely with hands. For best results, cut the idlis into small portions and run it in the mixie slightly to crumble it well. Keep this aside.

In a pan take a tsp of oil, cracle mustard, add the curry leaves and then add the cooked plantain flower and fry for few min till it becoms dry. Finally add the crumbled powder and then fry for 2-3 min till it all blends well.

Plantain flower usili is ready to eat. I bet no one can hate it :)

Serve it with curd rice or just mix it with steamed white rice along with some ghee. :)

Decoration: I have used the plantain flower petals to mock a lotus design.

I would like to thank Ambika for giving me the giant bear hug and thanks to Sangeetha Subash for giving me the one lovely blog award :) I should thank Raje for sharing her love by awarding me both together. It gives me so much energy to go on :)

Written by: Nithya
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