VAZHAIPOO VADAI | BANANA BLOSSOMS VADA

Cuisine: Tamil Nadu state of India

Ingredients:

Banana Blossoms (Cleaned) - 3 cups

Chana Dal (split Bengal gram) - 1 cup

Onion (chopped finely) - 1 large

Green Chili (chopped finely) - 3

Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Salt - as required

Whole wheat flour - 2 tablespoons

Coconut oil - for deep frying

To Grind:

Dry red chilies - 3

Fennel seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Garlic cloves - 10

Ginger (chopped) - 1 inch

Method:

Cleaning the Banana flower:

Take the banana flower and peel off the first layer. Inside, you can see the bunch of florets. Separate them from the peel and place the florets on a plate. Do the same for the whole flower. As we peel off the layers deeper, the size of the florets become small. At one stage, it becomes hard to remove the layers. Then, you can stop peeling. That inside-most part which remains after peeling can be eaten raw. While removing the florets, separate them into 4 different size-wise groups. Then, open one floret and inside will be a tall stiff stigma and a transparent petal. Remove both of them. Do this for all the florets from first 3 groups. The florets in the 4th group will be so small, so no need to remove anything from inside them.

Soak Chana dal for 3 hours. Then wash the soaked dal and drain the water completely. Transfer the cleaned banana blossoms into a  blender and grind into a coarse paste without adding water. Then, grind the soaked chana dal coarsely without adding water and set aside. Grind the ingredients under To Grind into a coarse paste without adding water. In a large mixing bowl, add ground banana blossoms, ground chana dal, ground masala, finely chopped onion, finely chopped green chili, asafoetida, salt and whole wheat flour. Mix everything well. Grease a small piece of banana leaf with oil. Take a small portion of the vada mixture and form into a small lemon sized ball. Press the ball on the greased banana leaf and flatten into half centimeter thick disc. Heat oil in a deep kadai / pan. Drop the vada into the hot oil and fry on medium heat until brownish. Repeat the same process for the remaining vada mixture. Serve hot as a snack, breakfast or as a side dish along with sambar or rasam.