Banana Blossom Curry

Photo © Rob Jones

I love finding unusual ingredients ….

But it always takes a few days to think about what to do with them.

Watching a re-run of a re-run series on an obscure channel, the presenter was visiting Thailand and was introduced to Banana Blossom.

There it’s used as an alternative to fish, and here in the UK, it’s becoming a vegan alternative in fish-n-chip shops. (trendy ones obvs). Only to get the fishy flavour it has to be soaked in brine, and seaweed, before battering like cod or haddock.

However …

… my search for it was a little tricky. I tried all sorts of health food shops and the oriental shop up the road which usually has all sorts of ‘non-standard’ things with no luck. The wholefood shop actually said they’d never heard of it.

And then …

There it was in the regular supermarket in the world food section. It comes in tins, in water.

Uncertain of the texture or indeed how to cook it, I opted for a curry recipe.

Priority is prepping the Banana Blossom. Un-tin it. Wash it. I chopped it into bite sized chunks. The texture was a bit like tuna. Into water with lemon juice while you prep the rest.

Make a curry paste of a Red Onion finely chopped; plenty of garlic; Chopped Turmeric and Ginger; a chopped Red Chilli; And some toasted flaked Almonds. Fry in a little oil.

Pre-cook some diced, boiled then fried potato and some whole button mushrooms.

Into the paste mixture, add a tin of coconut milk, lemongrass and bay leaves.

Let it reduce a little … then add the potato, mushrooms and the Banana Blossom.

Reduce further.

Leave it as long as possible. It’s better the next day.

Banana Blossom - Odd to cook - very tasty though.

R