Looks weird but tastes good

Well I did it. I asked the gardener at school to go bush and find me some banana flowers. Ten minutes later he triumphantly appeared with two very exotic phallic-looking things. The staff , after falling about laughing (along the lines of “What is this silly white meri going to do with those??), gave me lots of instructions on how to cook them.

So I came home and my neighbour ,who comes from Malaysia, saw me with them and said, “What are you going to do with those?” She then proceeded to tell me what to do with them aka Malaysia.

Totally confused by all this, I ditched the recipe on my post and went for a combination of Tolai and Malaysian, and came up with this.

In a wok cook mustard seeds and cumin, then add the chopped flowers (Cut open the flowers and discard all the red leaves. Chop up like an onion).

Add a chopped onion and cook for a few minutes.

Add coconut cream, curry leaves (which grow in my garden, but if you can’t get fresh use dried) and chilli. Cook until soft.

When it was finished it was purple

- which worried me a little, so off I went to my neighbour who said, “No worries it will do that.” She soaks it in watered down yoghurt as soon as she cuts it to keep it white. So next time I will do that.

She tasted it, which was very brave of her, because I wasn’t game enough too, and pronounced it was good but it needed more chili – she always says that!!!

I took it to dinner at a friend’s last night and they ate it all up, said it was great.......

.....yeah well we did have quite a few bottles of wine and we were eating by candle light - it does look horrible doesn't it??

But we are all still alive this morning.......