How to clean Plantain flower-(Vazhaipoo)

Plantain flowers are rich source of dietary fibers and unsaturated fatty acids. It is said to be good for menstrual problems and stomach ulcers. It is good to include plantain flower in our diet once in a fortnight. Cleaning plantain flower can be quiet time consuming but it is worth the effort for the health benefits it offers. I have mentioned how to clean plantain flower in my Vazhaipoo kootu recipe, (plantain flower kootu) but I wanted to make a detailed post. So here we go


Picture wise description

Pic-1. Plantain flower and a bowl of diluted buttermilk kept ready.

Pic-2. Remove the outer petal and you can see a bunch of florets inside.


Pic-3. Take the florets and remove the stamen and the small cover along with it .I have indicated it with arrow marks in the picture.

Pic-4. Chop the florets after removing the stamen and the white cover and discard the bottom portion (indicated by arrow mark). Keep the chopped plantain flower in diluted buttermilk to prevent discoloration.



Pic-5. As you keep on removing the outer cover, at one stage, the florets will be so small that you do not have to remove the stamen and the cover as they will be very tender. So chop it as such.


Pic-6.Keep it in diluted buttermilk till you cook.

My mother usually chops plantain flower, the previous night itself and keeps it in diluted butter milk, so that it will be easy to cook the next morning. Me, being an early riser, do not have the habit of chopping or cleaning any vegetables, a day earlier.

Hope you found this post useful, meet you all again with an interesting recipe, till then, bye from Padhu of padhuskitchen.com

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