VIETNAMESE BANANA FLOWER SALAD
1 tablespoon nuoc mam (fish sauce)
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1 skinless boneless chicken breast, cooked and finely sliced
1 skinless boneless pork chop, cooked and finely sliced
1 ½ teaspoons dried red pepper flakes or 1 finely chopped chili
1 cup bean sprouts
1 big handful mint and basil, coarsely chopped
¼ cup chopped peanuts
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
2 oranges, sliced into thin wedges, pith and skin removed
1 fresh banana flower
1 lemon (for water mixture)
Combine first eight ingredients in a large bowl. Prepare banana flower according to instructions above, discarding undeveloped baby bananas. As you peel, try to keep leaves as whole as possible. Reserve the lemon water in another medium-sized bowl. Once the leaves are rinsed, stack several on top of one another and slice them crosswise into thin strips. To keep the leaves from turning black, place immediately in the lemon water, turning occasionally. You will have a heaping double handful of sliced banana flower. Let the sliced flower soak in the lemon water for 30 minutes.
Rinse the flower in a colander under running water until the water runs clear. Drain the banana flower and toss it with other ingredients which have been marinating in the large bowl. Sprinkle with the peanuts, oranges, and sesame seeds.
Recipe posted by Elize de Kock
Photo: Craig Snyman – I sliced the heart and put into cold water with lemon and vinegar.
Marinade:
15 ml fish sauce
15 ml soya sauce
30 ml lemon juice
chopped a clove of garlic
15 ml rd seracha sauce
45 ml cold water
Mix together and add to the salad.
Grated a carrot too, add to salad. Heart is pretty small but different and worth the effort. Can’t explain the taste, but yes, I will make it again. They say you can add fried prawns, chicken and anchovies.
Elize de Kock:
The external “petals”, which are tougher and darker, have to be removed – but the fleshier ones can be stripped of their pulp. Then, one by one, the crisp leaves are peeled off to reveal the light- coloured tender heart, the most prized part of the blossom.
Cut into fine strips, the heart can be eaten raw in salads with a hot spicy sauce, as in the Thai dish nam prik or the Indonesian sambal –also excellent when teamed up with prawns and macadamia nuts. Like those of the artichoke, the petal-like leaves of the banana flower will quickly oxidize on coming into contact with the air once cut: because of their iron content, they will turn brown so it is advisable to dunk them in acidulated water.
