Vazhaipoo-Banana Flower : Cleaning For Cooking

 VazhaipooCleaning Banana Flower is also called banana blossom or banana heart.
Its astringent in taste. In Thamizh the astringent taste is known as துவர்ப்பு.

Banana Blossom

All the parts of the flower is not edible.
The flower has to be cleaned before cooking.
Open the bract(covering thick purple layer) and we could see a bunch of undeveloped bananas as shown in figure below. These are the edible part used in cooking.

Opened Bract & Undeveloped Banana 

Remove the bract.

Take out the bunch of undeveloped banana.

Fingers and nails will turn black because of a sticky liquid that comes out while plucking.
To avoid this apply oil over the fingers.
Remove the center stem from each undeveloped banana.

If you pull out it will come easily.

Go on removing the bracts, keep the bunch of edible undeveloped banana in left hand and pluck out the hard stem by the other hand.

The color of the bracts change from dark color to 

pale white.

Also the undeveloped bananas are more tender at inner parts.

Then these cleaned pieces are ready for cooking.

The cut pieces will get oxidized easily and become black.

So it has to be put into buttermilk(yogurt) mixed water.

Or smear with lemon juice.

Or cut and immediately add while cooking.