Hi friends! Long time no see. Moving along, Nature’s Charm sent me some free cans of their Banana Blossom (you can buy on Amazon usually but seems to be out at the moment…), Young Green Jackfruit, Jackfruit Confit, and Sriracha Green Jackfruit. The confit and sriracha jackfruit are delish and ready to go right outta the can. But for the banana blossom, I had big plans in mind!
That’s the can. And Dolores.
So this is the first I heard of banana blossom. But it’s typically used in South Asian and Southeast Asian Cuisine. Here’s a little more info on the background and health benefits, and if you want to see the plant pre-can, Vegan Miam did a great post of that.
I searched around for a banana blossom fish and chips recipe but really couldn’t find that many…and then like a week later! Carrots and Flowers did this perfect recipe in conjunction with Nature’s Charm. So I’ll tell you the hodgepodge recipes I used but you should probably just use theirs because it’s basically the same, just all in one place.
First I rinsed the banana blossoms. They look and feel kind of like a mix between artichoke hearts and jackfruit. And as far as I can tell, they don’t taste that much different than jackfruit–which basically means it has a very subtle flavor. It’s really all about the sauce. So next, I marinated it in seaweed flakes, lemon, and dill, using this recipe.
After that, I made a beer batter using my girl Martha Stewart’s recipe, which is already vegan provided you have a vegan beer. Then you dip your marinated banana blossom in the batter, and fry it up in a pot of oil (you can follow Martha’s instructions–when I fry, since it’s not meat or anything, I just wait ‘til the oil is hot and test by putting a drop of batter in and seeing if it fizzles, that means you’re good to fry).
There’s the fried bad bs. After I fried these, I cut up some potatoes and made the “chips” (lol). Um does anyone not know how to make fries? You just cut up potatoes…and fry them.
I also made a vegan tartar sauce–I know, this has a lot of steps, but each step is actually p easy. Like I veganized Martha’s tartar sauce (sans hot sauce bc nancy) and it’s just mixing some stuff into vegan mayo. Super simple. But again, Carrots and Flowers has basically the same tartar sauce recipe in theirs so you can just follow that.
Now, the last step, I ATE THEM!!!! Well, I garnished with parsley and lemon and took 1000 pics…but then I ATE THEM!!!!! My verdict: totally delicious! I mean it’s not the exact same texture as fish bc not like…tough or whatever meat is, but it was delish. Do recommend.
