BANANA TREE STEM RECIPE

Finely sliced banana tree stem (core) 3 cups.Moong dhall (lentils) 1 cup, washed and boil/cook soft and drain some water off¼ tsp. turmeric.¼ tsp. cumin seeds.½ cup thick coconut milk. Goya brand. Keep it in fridge and scoop from the top of the can of milk.Garlic salt as required according to your taste.

Note: Cut banana tree after harvesting the bananas. Use the bottom 2/3rd of the tree as this part will be more tender. Although the top 1/3 can be used too(it will have more fiber)After cutting off the bottom part of the tree, make a long vertical slit with a very sharp knife and rip apart the layers until you reach the innermost part which is the core. This is the part that is needed in the cooking. You may cut the core into 1 foot length for easy handling. Next wash and slice the core into very thin discs. Remove the fine fiber between the discs by twisting with your finger tips and put the discs in a bowl full of water. Take 5 or 6 discs, pile them up and slice very thinly into strips. Slice again the opposite direction to form small cubes. Now the sliced banana tree stem (core) is ready for cooking.

Method: Add all the above items together and cook in medium heat until banana stem is tender. Even though the stem is cooked, it will still be a little crunchy like uncooked turnip or celery. We cook it more like a thick stew( not overcooked). Some people fry garlic and ginger and curry leaves, cumin seed in a little oil before adding all the above ingredients but we watch our oil intake so we did not use any oil.