Mocha or Banana Flower
Mocha is a delicacy in Bengali homes. We cook Banana flower in many ways, but the difficult part is the cleaning and cutting of these flowers, and it takes a lot of time . I have tried to show how it is done in some photos.
TIP: Before you start to cut the Mocha rub some oil on your hands and fingers to save your hands from becoming black.
When you remove the Pink sheath/ bract, you will see a bunch of flowers. Discard the pink sheath. We will use the flowers.
These are the flowers. as you keep removing the sheaths you will find the flowers getting smaller and after a point the pink sheaths will not be there but a whitish centre.
In each flower you will find a matchstick like Stigma in the middle, if you give it a good tug it will come out, discard this as it does not cook. In the front there is a small petal like thing remove that too.
As you can see in the photo we throw away these two pieces in the front of the flower.
we will use the rest of the flower.
Each flower has to be cleaned in this way.
when all the flowers are cleaned, chop them up small.
In the center of the big banana flower is this part , you will find this as you peel off the pink sheaths.
Cut the stalk off and then divide it in half like this.
Slice the halves this way.
Chop them small, and keep them with the chopped flowers.
Heat a pan with enough water, add a teaspoon of salt and add the chopped flowers. let is boil for 5 or 6 minutes.
Drain out the water and keep the flowers on a dish, to cool.
Now this is ready to be used to make any Mocha preparation you want.
At this stage the cleaned and partially cooked Flowers can be kept frozen in an airtight container for some time in the fridge.
Before using the frozen Mocha you have to bring it to room temperature.
Use this to make Mocha Ghanto or Chop.
