Vazhaipoo Adai / Banana Flower Lentils Crisp / Vaazhaipoo Adai

  

Banana Flower which is called as "Vaazhaipoo" in Tamil is a purple flower which blossoms at the edge of the banana bunch in its tree. Its widely used in many regional cuisines of India. Due to its dietary fiber and high protein value, including this healthy vegetable in our regular cooking is wiser. Also, its very good for stomach related problems. My mom often made this vegetable during our thanjavur childhood days, she generally made Vaazhaipoo Curry, Vaazhaipoo Paruppu Usili, Vadai, etc., Also I remember her Vaazhaithandu Mor Kootu which is one of my favourites. Though we dont get the Vaazhai Thandu ( Banana Stem ) here, I am lucky to see some fresh Banana Flowers atleast in a nearby China Market. Though I make many versions of food items using this great flowery vegetable, this time I made a protein rich Adai ( Lentils Dosa ) and its so... yummy and healthy. Try this out during tiffin time with a side of fresh curd and a spicy pickle. A very healthy tiffin item for all ages...

Cleaning the Banana flower seems to be a little time consuming job initially. Once you know the technique of it, its a matter of few minutes.

• Rub your hands with little oil while doing this job as your hands might turn sticky and black during this process.
• Open the purple petals one by one and take out the yellow colour florets carefully.
• Remove the two parts from every floret carefully.
• In the picture I added, I showed the two parts that are to be taken out from each floret. One part looks like a plastic ear phone and the other part is a thick long stem with a thick dot on its top.
• Chop the cleaned florets under each petal and immediately put them in a diluted buttermilk in a vessel. This is mainly to prevent colour changing.
• Follow the same process for all the petals till you notice a small cone shaped yellow tender bud. As this tender yellow cone is also highly nutritious, chop them too finely and add it to the vessel. Keep it ready.

Ingredients

Toor Dal / Thuvaram Paruppu / Kandhi pappu  - 1 Cup

Channa Dal / Kadalai Paruppu / Senaga pappu - 3/4 Cup

Moong Dal / Payatham Paruppu / Pesara Pappu - 1/4 Cup

Rice / Idly Rice / Par Boiled Rice - 1/2 Cup

Dry Red Chillies - 4 or 5

Hing / Asafoetida - 1 Dash

Salt - As required

Curry Leaves - 1 Stem

Chopped banana flower - 2 to 3 cups.

Oil - For making the Adais / Crisps.

Method

• Soak all the dals and rice in one vessel for nearly 2 hours.
• Grind them coarsely in a mixer grinder along with dry red chillies.
• To the mix, add required amount of salt, hing, curry leaves.
• Drain the chopped banana flower florets from the diluted buttermilk vessel and add them to the Adai batter.
• Just grind it for another few seconds with these additional ingredients. Now the Adai batter is ready to make. Make sure that the batter is neither too thick nor too watery.
• Heat the griddle or frying pan  make the surface smooth and ready for making adais.
• Pour one full ladle of the adai batter and spread them uniformly and make a thin circle. Pour oil along the edges and allow them to cook on both sides.
• Flip to the other side and take out the adai from the tawa after both sides are completely cooked and crispy.
• Serve with a cup of fresh curd and a spicy pickle or chutney.