1.Plantain stem fried rice

Ingredients:

• Plantain stem - 25g
• Carrot - 1
• Beans - 10
• Cabbage - 30g
• Onion (big) - 1
• Garlic - 5 teeths
• Basmatic rice - 300g
• Soya sauce - 2 tsp
• Oil - 3 tsp
• Ajnamotto - 1 tsp
• Salt - as per taste
• Pepper powder ( White ) - 1 tsp
• Spring onion - little

Method:

1. Cut the vegetables to small pieces.

2. Soak the basmati rice for 10 minutes ,cook it (Ratio for basmati rice and water is 1 : 1 1/2 ) and allow it to cool.

3. Heat oil in a pan and fry carrot, cabbage, onion, plantain stem, beans till it is cooked.

4. Add soya sauce , pepper powder, salt, ajnamotto and rice and mix it well.

5. Garnish with spring onion  and serve.

2.Plantain flower soup

Ingredients:

• Plantain flower - 100g
• Onion(medium size) - 1
• Carrot - 1
• Corn flour - 2 tsp
• Tomato - 1
• Pepper - As per taste
• Salt - As per taste
• Oil - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Cut carrot,onion and tomato to small pieces.

2. Pluck the flowers from plantain flower and cut it to small pieces.

3. Heat oil in a pan and slightly fry tomato,onion and carrot.

4. Add little water to the vegetables, cook for sometime and then allow it to cool.

5. Grind the above in a mixie and filter it using a filter.

6. Heat oil in pan and fry plantain stem.

7. Add the grinded paste , salt to it and wait till it is cooked.

8. Add little water to the corn flour to make it a paste.

9. Add the paste to the cooked vegetables and wait till it becomes thick.

10. Add pepper according to the taste and serve it.

3.Banana payasam

Ingredients:

• Sago / Jowar ( Javvarisi in tamil ) - 25g
• Milk - 150ml
• Ghee - 1 tsp
• Banana - 3 ( Medium sized )
• Cashewnuts - 4 to 5
• Dried grapes - little
• Sugar - As per taste
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Smash the banana into a nice paste.

2.  Cook the jowar, allow it to cool and grind it to a paste.

3. Break the cashewnuts to pieces and fry it in ghee.

3. Add sugar to the milk and boil it.While it is boiling, add the pastes of banana and jowar.

4. Then add grapes, cashewnut and cardamom powder.

5. Remove the payasam after it is boiled and serve it hot.

4.Plantain flower-Dhal usli

This is called 'Parrupu Usli' in Tamil

Ingredients:

• Toor dhal - 1/4 cup
• Channa dhal - 1/4 cup
• Red chillies - 4 to 5
• Plantain flower - 250g
• Asafoetida powder - little
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves
• Oil - 3 tsp
• Salt - As per taste

Method:

1. Pluck the flowers from plantain flower , cut it to small pieces and cook it.

2. Soak the toor dhal and channa dhal mixture for 30 minutes.

3. Grind toor dhal,channa dhal,salt and asafoetida by adding little water to a fine paste.

4. Keep this paste in idli plates for 10 minutes.

5. Allow the paste to cool and smash it using hand.

6. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.

7. When mustard seeds sputters out, add curry leaves.

8. Add the smashed dhal and fry for sometime.

9. Add the cooked plantain flower,mix it well and fry for sometime.

10. This can be mixed with rice and eaten with sour curd kuzhambu as side dish.

Note :

1. While cutting plantain flower / stem, put this in a vessel with little butter milk so that the vegetables don't turn black.

2. Plantain stem is very good for health.It removes the bad wastes, stones etc from our body

3. For the paruppu usli instead of Plantain stem you can also use Beans, Cabbage, Cluster beans etc. The procedure is same.