Theluli Boashi

We did publish a Boashi (banana blossom) recipe sometime back. But that was a dry curry type recipe that had Lonumirus curry powder and coconut milk in it.

Here we have a Theluli Boashi recipe where all the ingredients are fried separately and then later combined to form a deliciously crunchy side.

Those of you handling a banana blossom for the first time, yes it’s a bit sticky and weird, but don’t worry about it because the salt water soaking will get rid of the starchiness. Also, for a Theluli Boashi to be successful, you’ll need to get everything fried crispy. The key here is medium heat, frying in batches and draining off as much excess oil as possible after frying.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups water
• 2 tbsp. salt
• 1 Boashi (banana blossom)
• 2 large onions
• 6 garlic cloves
• 15 curry leaves
• 6 dried red chillies
• 50 grams dried tuna chips
• 1/3 cup and 2 tbsp. oil

Instructions:

1. Add the salt and water to a large bowl. Stir to dissolve the salt completely.
2. Clean and wash the banana blossom. We removed a couple of the outer petals along with the florets growing around it.
3. Slice the banana blossom thinly into the salted water and let the slices soak for around 15 minutes.
4. When you are done with the soaking, drain and rinse the banana blossom and set aside.
5. Slice the onion and the garlic thinly. Keep them separately though.
6. Heat 1/3 cup oil in a pot and fry the onion slices until they are golden brown and crispy. To make sure they turn crispy, keep the heat on medium, and fry in batches. When you remove a batch from the oil, spread it over some tissue paper to get rid of the excess oil.
7. When you are done with frying the onions, fry the banana blossoms in the same way you fried the onions; in batches and over medium heat and until crispy. Banana blossoms fry faster than the onions; so do keep an eye on it. Spread the fried banana blossom slices on tissue papers too.
8. Add the dried tuna chips to the oil, fry until crispy, remove from oil and spread on tissue paper.
9. Next, fry the dried red chillies in the same way, remove from oil and spread on tissue paper. Although we fried the chillies whole, you can actually chop them up before you fry them too.
10. Heat 2 tbsp. oil in another pot. A small one would do as we are just going to fry the garlic and the curry leaves. You can of course use the other pot with the same oil for this step; we just wanted a bit more control over the garlic because it burns quickly.
11. Add the garlic, fry until golden brown and crispy, remove from the oil and spread over tissue paper.
12. Add the curry leaves and fry until crispy remove from the oil and spread over tissue paper.
13. Place all the ingredients you fried in a large bowl and mix them together. Do a taste test and add some salt if you need to. Our mix was salty enough from the soaking as well as the dried tuna.  
14. Let the mixture cool down completely and transfer to an airtight container for storage.