Mochar Ghonto

 Mocha Kata / How to cut and clean Banana Blossom

One of the important and trickiest parts of cooking banana flowers is cleaning and cutting the banana flower. We call Mocha Kata o Porishkar kora in Bengali. While planning this post with the detailed recipe video, I decided to include the process of cleaning and cutting as well. I waited for Maa to come to my place. While she cleaned and cut, I captured the moments. I am listing the process below along with a set of pictures. You can also see the video for a better understanding.

Mocha chopping Tips

Mocha Kata / How to cut and clean Banana Blossom

One of the important and trickiest parts of cooking banana flowers is cleaning and cutting the banana flower. We call Mocha Kata o Porishkar kora in Bengali. While planning this post with the detailed recipe video, I decided to include the process of cleaning and cutting as well. I waited for Maa to come to my place. While she cleaned and cut, I captured the moments. I am listing the process below along with a set of pictures. You can also see the video for a better understanding.

Mocha chopping Tips

Mocha chopping Tips

Mocha aka Banana Flower

Removing the boat-like covering

Pistil and Calyx- are to be discarded

Cleaning Mocha

Pistil and Calyx- are to be discarded

Cleaning Mocha

This is how you clean Mocha aka Banana blossom

Cutting Mocha

While peeling  the banana flower, always apply oil in your hands well, once you peel a bunch of flowers, hold together and dub in your hand, the pistil, the hard one with black head can be seen, which needs to be removed from each one. It is a laborious job, but the end result is worth it. Another important point to remember is that once you cut he flowers, soak it in water with little buttermilk added to prevent it from getting black.

 

 

Ingredients

 

550 g whole mocha (banana blossom; 300–350 g after cleaning)

100 g potatoes

25 g mustard oil

2  dried red chilies‍

1 clove‍

1 cardamom 

1 cinnamon‍

¼ tsp cumin seeds

20 g grated coconut about 4 tbsp

4 green chilies

20 g ginger paste

1 tsp turmeric

¼ tsp red chili powder

2 g cumin powder

20 g salt (total) or to taste

18 g sugar / 3 tbsp

8 g ghee‍

¼ tsp garam masala

 

 To cook the florets

Transfer the chopped florets and the chopped inner core to a pressure cooker. Add salt, turmeric, and water. Pressure cook everything on medium heat for one whistle. Let the pressure release naturally.

Strain the mocha. Let it cool for 30 minutes.

Mash the boiled mocha using your hands. This will help produce a good mix of mushy and crunchy texture.

Cooking

1. Chop potatoes into 2-cm cubes.
2. Pour mustard oil into the kadai. Let it smoke gently and turn pale yellow in colour.
3. ‍If using prawns, coat them with a pinch of salt and turmeric. Add prawns and fry on medium heat for 1 minute. Set aside.
4. Temper mustard oil with dried red chilies, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, and cumin seeds.
5. Add potatoes. Fry for 4 minutes until golden.
6. Add grated coconut and continue frying. Be careful to not burn the coconut.
7. In a small bowl, mix ginger paste, cumin powder, turmeric, red chili powder with water. Add this slurry to the kadai.
8. Add salt and sugar. Stir to mix everything well. Add 2 slit green chilies.
9. Continue frying the spices until the raw smell goes away. Add a splash of water if the spices dry out. This will take around 5 minutes.
10. Add soaked chola. Cook them with the spices for 3 minutes.
11. Add boiled and strained mocha. Mix well. Cover and cook on low heat for 6 minutes.
12. Add 2 more slit green chilies. Stir gently.
13. If the dish looks too dry, you can add 2 tablespoons of milk.
14. Keep cooking on low heat for 3 minutes. Add ghee and garam masala. Mix everything well.
15. Serve hot with rice and dal.
    

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