Mochar Paturi

Mochar Paturi with Rice

Mocha or banana flower is a favourite dish of ours and made mostly on Thursday's which is a "vegetarian"day at our place, just as in most Bengali homes in Bengal.

Paturi is a cooking process wherein marinated fish, vegetable or cottage cheese (Paneer /Chana) is wrapped in a banana leaf and either grilled or steamed. A parcel is made and then slow cooked .

This time, I prepared this Paturi on a Sunday on the request of my friend, Devi.

Cleaning mocha takes a bit of patience and time. One needs to peel each layer and take out the flowers.
Banana flower has a sticky substance that comes out  when you peel and it makes your fingers black and sticky so take 2 tbsp salt  in a bowl and keep coating your fingers with it. Most ladies use oil but I would recommend salt instead, Try it.

Then take out the hard central stick and also a plastic like petal. Then take a bunch of cleaned flowers in your hand and with the help of a pair of kitchen scissors finely chop. It has to be almost like mince. When the whole banana flower is cleaned and minced, boil in a pressure cooker with salt and turmeric until nice and soft. Peel and dice a medium size potato and add to the pressure cooker at the time of boiling.

Discard the water used to boil the banana-potato.

Now, grate half a coconut. 
Next, grind the grated coconut, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tbsp mustard seeds , 2 green chillies to make a smooth paste. Add a little raw mustard oil( I add 1 tsp but mustard oil can be very pungent so add as per your tastes) to the paste and the boiled banana-potato and mash them all together .Use your hand to mash all well. When done, keep aside.

Wash the banana leaf and dry with a kitchen towel.  Lightly roast the leaf so that it becomes soft and manageable . Hold over a low flame and remove. 

Take the banana leaf and place it on a plate. Coat with oil. Put the Mocha mix on it and wrap well.
Tie with a thread to seal .

You can also use an aluminium foil instead of a banana leaf, but raw banana leaf gives a nice flavour to the dish. Without the leaf the flavour will be missing. For us in India it's easy to procure banana leaves all round the year but not elsewhere.

Instead of  a griddle you could use an oven to prepare the dish. 
Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees and then put the parcel in for 20 minutes or till the banana parcel is browned.

I used a Tava. Heat a flat griddle or a non-stick pan and  put the parcel on it. Now cook on medium high flame till done, if you decrease the flame the mix inside will release water . We don't want a soggy paturi. Keeping the flame on medium high, cook the dish turning sides till the leaf is completely browned on both sides.  I would recommend not to run around doing other errands while cooking this paturi.

Mochar paturi

When done, put flame off, remove and serve hot.

Paturi is always served with plain rice. An easy recipe actually and the taste is divine.