Banana stem gravy - a different side dish

 Hi friends, 

I  was a little busy last week,so couldn't write whole recipes, just shared my menu ideas. But I promised myself that I would be writing at least one recipe every week from now on.

Yes you read the title right, it is a banana stem gravy. The ingredient may be slightly different but the gravy tastes absolutely delicious. 

When I was small, I didn't at all like thandu (banana stem). Whenever my Patti kept it in my lunchbox, I felt very sad. One thing that we all do in our family is we never waste. We don't make special dishes for everyone in the family. It is the same for everyone whether they like it or not. So in turn, we started eating everything without wasting. Even if you are a picky kid.

It was usually thandu dry curry with coconut or thandu kootu or thandu more kootu. Once I started cooking, again it was the same thing. So I have been making thandu in various methods. Out of all the methods, I like this one as it is very versatile. 

Let's get to the recipe

Ingredient:-

Banana stem -1 piece

Onion -1

Tomato-1

Green chilly -1

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder 

Chilly powder 

Coriander powder 

Roasted jeera powder 

Jeera and hing for tempering

Boil chopped pieces of banana stem in salted water. In the meantime, grind into a coarse paste, onion , tomato, chilly, ginger garlic paste. 

In a kadai, take 1 tsp of oil or ghee. Temper that with a tsp of jeera and hing. Then add the ground paste and saute it  till raw smell goes off. Now add chilly powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and jeera powder.  Saute it well in low flame so that spices don't burn. Once it is done ,add boiled stem with a little bit of salt  and cook it for 5 minutes. Just before switching off the gas  , add a pinch of garam masala.

Garnish with coriander leaves. 

This can also be made in a no onion,no garlic version.

This is so versatile that we can add potato, peas, carrots and make it a mixed veg too.

Serve these with jeera rice, rotis or phulkas.

Please try these and let me know.