The Whole Banana - Part 1

A recent encounter with turmeric flowers got me thinking (again) about the Southeast Asian penchant for making use, whenever possible, of the whole plant. The sago palm supplies roofing materials (its leaves), starch, and protein. The leaves of nipa palms are also used for thatch roofing; its fruits are a tasty snack, and the sap from its flower stalk is used to make vinegar, distilled and undistilled alcoholic drinks, and sugar.

And then there's the banana tree. In this part of the world (and others, no doubt) its leaves are plates, bowls, 'pans' to place atop the barbecue, and wrappers for cooking and bundling food for takeaway. Its fruit is eaten fresh, battered and deep-fried, steamed, boiled, grilled, baked in cakes, added to sweet soups, doused with palm sugar, smashed into fritters, mashed into 'pancakes' ... well, let's just say it's eaten in more ways that you or I can ever hope to imagine. Its blossom is shredded, fresh, for Vietnamese and Thai salads; sliced and added to soups and curries; boiled and eaten, along with other vegetables and herbs, with sambal.

It's stem, too, ends up on the plate. In Vietnam snow-white disks of banana stem are an essential component of the fresh-herbs-and-veggies plate that accompanies the northern crab-and-noodle soup bun rieu cua. In Burma it's added to some versions of mohingya, a comforting fish noodle soup that might qualify as the country's national dish. Southern Indians (and Indian Malaysians) cook it with coconut milk. And, as we found last year in Butuan (Mindanao), some Filipino cooks add it to a chicken stew called binanihan.

 

Having only ever encountered banana stem at the market, we were interested to see how the tree is harvested. So one afternoon we headed, with our Butuan hosts, to their banana (and other fruits) plantation outside of town. We arrived to find the deed already done and the field strewn with signs of carnage.

The stem of the banana tree is composed of a series of concentric half- and three-quarter circles. We were surprised to learn that a 'tube' of banana stem roughly 2 inches (or 5-6 centimers) in diameter (like the stems in the opening photo) comes from a tree at least five times that size. Turns out the edible part of a banana stem, much like an artichoke, lies in the middle of a large amount of inedible outer material (at least with artichokes you can eat part of the leaves).

The fact that the stem isn't more widely eaten (banana trees cannot produce fruit indefinately, so you can imagine how many are cut down every year, all over the world) might have something to do with the amount of labor and time it takes to prepare it for cooking (or eating).

First it must be sliced and - if you don't want it to turn brown (less of a concern if the stem is to be cooked than if it will be served fresh) - placed in water.

Then the fun begins. Banana stem is as hairy (fibrous, really, but the fibers are as fine and thin as hairs) as a Persian cat, and every one of those hairs must be removed.

This is done by rolling a wooden stick over the surface of each slice.

With three of us 'stringing' pretty steadily it took a good hour to ready enough banana stem for a stew that ended up serving 6-8 people; by the time we were finished my hands felt arthritic (and I wasn't working at even half the pace our hostess was).

(Note the cottony bulge of collected fibers on the wooden stick in the photo above.)

After we finished stringing the stem slices the chefess rubbed them all aver with salt for several minutes - to 'crush them a little bit,' she said - then rinsed them in water and set them aside to drain.

She then added them to a native ('free range') chicken that had been cooked with garlic, onion, and ginger, and doused the lot with 'second-pressing' coconut milk.

After another 15 or so minutes she finished the dish with rich coconut cream, stirring just long enough to heat the stew through. It was fantastic - mild and comforting (chicken and coconut milk is such an easy-to-love combination) with a rich sweetness and lots of textural interest from the banana stem slices.

(The photographer was, unfortunately, too busy eating to snap the finished dish.)

This recipe, by the way, is courtesy of the same talented cook who introduced us to this over-the-top crab dish - which if you like crab, you really should try.

If banana stem is common in your kitchen I'd love to know how you're using it.

Binanihan (Native Chicken Stewed With Banana Stem and Coconut Milk)

I didn't take measurements as I watched our hostess at work, so ingredient amounts are approximate. Add less or more of whatever you dislike/like. It's the sort of dish that's hard to mess up. A possible, untested substitute for banana stem: jicama. 

To make coconut milk in under 5 minutes: Place two cups grated coconut and 1 3/4 cups hot water in a blender. Pulse a couple times, just to blend (don't turn it to a puree). Empty the contents into a cheesecloth-lined strainer, gather the corners of the cloth, and squeeze. This is 'first-press' coconut milk. Repeat the process, using the already squeezed coconut and 1 1/2 cups more hot water, for ' second-press' milk.

Alternately, use canned coconut milk, stirring the solids from 1 can into the milk for 'first-press' and diluting a second can by about half with water for 'second-press'. Or try to find some of this coconut cream.

6 cloves garlic, chopped

a couple of onions, chopped

a finger of ginger, chopped (if you want more ginger flavor grate instead of chop part of it)

cooking oil

1 flavorful chicken, cut up (for most of us Westerners this means - into thigh and drumstick and breasts, but for the most flavor cut the chicken as if for an Asian preparations: each breast into two or three pieces, thighs and drumsticks into two; the cut bones will flavor the stew)

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 1/2 cups thin, 'second-press' coconut milk

3 approximately 12-inch (30-cm) lengths of banana stem

1 cup 'first-press' coconut milk (or coconut cream)

Saute onion, garlic, and ginger in cooking oil over medium heat till soft but not brown.

1. Add chicken pieces, salt, and pepper, turn heat to very low, cover partially, and allow the bird to cook very slowly in its own juices until almost done, 15-30 minutes depending on how you chopped the chicken.
2. Add banana stem and thin coconut milk, bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and cook about ten minutes, or until chicken is done.
3. Add coconut cream and cook until heated through, stirring all the while so that the coconut cream doesn't curdle (don't allow it to boil).
4. Taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper if necessary, and enjoy with rice.

Comments

[Heiko Grabolle]

You know, I live in Brazil and we also have banana trees here, but I didn´t know that you can eat the middle of the trees. Very nice, I´ve got to try.

Thank´s a lot,
cheers, Heiko Grabolle.
http://www.heikograbolle.blogspot.com

[Robyn]

Heiko - interesting. I'm not sure if the stem of all varieties of banana are edible. For what it's worth most bananas here in Asia are smaller and stubbier than the type found in North America - not sure what sort of bananas you've got there in Brazil.

[Tuty]

Fantastic post... When I grew up we had banana trees in our backyard and our helper would cover the chopped trunk with the leaves overnight. The next morning she will collect the water that accumulated in the indentation of the trunk for her hair "tonic". Of course, I didn't pay attention whether this home remedy works. But I thought I'd share this story with you.

[Robyn]

Hi Tuty - Fascinating! Thanks for sharing that story. I've read that banana stem, in addition to being full of fiber, is supposed to be quite healthy -- and that juice is sometimes made of it in India.

[My Taste Heaven]

Oh, did not know that we could cook a dish with banana stems. Thank you for the informative post.

[ntgerald]

In Iloilo we cook ubod (the white inner trunk of the banana) with chicken and kadyos (a type of beans, usually black). No coconut milk.

Not all types of banana trees can have the inner trunk cooked this way. Only the saba type (Philippine plantains) will do. Not the lacatan, neither the latundan.

[eastingfeasting]

another great read.
you make eating very educational, and we can't take everything for granted.
i keep coming back to your blog to learn something new. in central vietnam the blossom is also eaten with bun bo hue, the tartines is added to this fatty, spicy beef soup.

[Kelantan Gal]

Your post brings back some childhood memories about banana stem art projects. Dip the ends of the stem in paint and stamp it on paper. They make lovely patterns. :)

[Marcos Calo Medina]

What a surprise! I was wondering what had happened to our Butuan Banana Adventure. I can't believe we chopped all those trees just for that little pot. I've tried chicken with coconut milk, but no hearts of banana trunk (or whatever you call it). Not quite the same. Wonder what in the trunks makes it different?

[Ed]

Robyn, did you have "jukut ares" while you were in Bali? ("Ares" is the Balinese word for young banana stem.)

[Robyn]

Hi Ed - we've had it a few times on Bali, most in soups ... one with young starfruit leaves and one, I think, with beans (black-eyed peas?). How have you eaten it?

[Cupcake]

My mum makes Burmese Laksa with banana stems!

[Jess]

In Cambodia, they use a lot of banana flower -- my favorite is grated raw on the bottom of a bowl of Noam Ban Chop, Cambodian noodles. Yum.

(http://jessincambodia.blogspot.com/2008/10/top-ten-khmer-foods-10-noam-ban-chop.html)

[pratibha]

Hi Robyn,
In India, especially south and east where Banana grows in abundance, every part of the plant is used, but in a fashion never harmful for the plant.
The fruit - consumption mentioned by you, the dried leaves are turned into environment friendly as well as healthy cups and plates( vendor stalls can serve food in them with no fear of contamination, like in paper plates)the green leaves are used to make sweet and savoury crepes, dumplings, as well as a lining in steamers, the outer bark is used to create strings as well as clothes( yes banana bark fibre clothes are ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS - lustre of silk, comfort of cotton, elegance of linen) and the stem is used as a vegetable - it is made raw into salads, as well as cooked into gravy vegetables - shred stem fine, steam, grind lashings of coconut, green chillies, a few tbsp of yoghurt, boil for a few minutes, temper with coconut oil, mustard and some urad Dhal and you eat it with Rice and Ghee, YUM!, as well as steamed dry vegetable - steam, add a sprinkling of salt and sugar, a few dustings of dessicated coconut, temper with green chilly & Mustard and voila, you have a fabulous veggie to eat with rice / roti whatever. The stem is used to cure gall bladder stones - eat the stem as a raw salad every day - chop as you mentioned, grate / cut into juliennes, soak in water mixed with lemon / yoghurt( I tsp mixed in water). this step is basically to retain the colour. drain, add salt, lemon Juice, a couple of pinches of sugar or better still palm sugar / jaggery, temper with mustard, curry leaves and chilly and you have a great salad that is a sure fire cure for gall stones.... more effective is just the juice - no headaches of cutting, slicing etc. Just cut it up into juicer sized chunks pass through the juicer and drink a glass neat. Gall stones will vanish in a month!
Now, coming to waht kind of 'banana's" have stems.
there are two kinds of banana plants - those that fruit & those that do not fruit( grown for leaves only - which is used to serve food in India)
All fruiting bananas, post fruiting - i.e, after the fruit has been harvested, can be cut for the stem. This does not harm the plant, as anyways, after fruiting once, the mother plant gives off baby offshoots ( through the roots) and dies!
All banana stem adn leaves are harvested and used at that stage. hence, it is a totally plant and environmental friendly way of doing things.
BTW, in India, we rarely cook meat adn vegetables together( unless it is tribal societies)
Hence, you will find "Pure vegetarian food" as accompanyment to rice / dals / rotis and meat dishes!
Sorry if this post is long... just so much info to share! Hope this was useful! :)

[bladder control]

Yeah, banana stems in South East Asia are edible. They can serve as great garnish to cooked foods.

Sam

[Shafeeque]

That was a nice post.I am from South India(Palakkad, Kerala).We make use of almost all parts of banana tree.The central part(we call"vazhappindi" in Malayalam)is used making many dishes and this is the first time I see used with Chicken. The water we get after crushing the central part(vazhappindi) is used as a natural medicine for fever..

[Vivian]

Banana pseudostem can be eaten? Save or not? Is there any toxic chemical like lead, cadmium....accumulated in banana pseudostem?