Fruity Fetish: Banana Blossom

In the cultures of Southeast Asia, there appears to be a consensus among the mothers that the blossom of the banana tree yields amazing powers when it comes to nursing your baby. A little over two months have flown by since I embraced motherhood, and to say that it's been a huge learning curve is merely an understatement. One of the most challenging aspects in all of this is breastfeeding, but lo and behold, my mother, such as she is, has her age-old remedy: banana blossom, or hua pbee in Laos. Word has it that this richly-hued fruit, with its milky white sap, is the key to helping nursing moms with their milk production. I kid you not.

The trick to preparing your banana blossom for any dish is to soak it in a bath of cold water sprinkled with the citrus from some slices of lime (or lemon). The citric acid in these fruits stops the oxidation process so that the flesh of the blossom doesn't turn an unappetizing dark color. Afterwards, you'll want to drain out the water and use the sliced blossoms immediately in your favorite soup or salad. Stay tuned for more recipes featuring this healthy delicacy in the upcoming month. 

The trick to prepping a perfect banana blossom:  A citrus ice bath prevents discoloration | via Chandara Creative

How to Prepare a Banana Blossom

Serves 2

• Ingredients 
  • 1 medium-sized banana blossom
  • 2-3 slices of lemon or lime
  • 1 cup water
• Instructions:
• 1. Wash and peel away the darker outer 3-4 "petals" of the banana blossom.  Cut in half lengthwise and thinly slice into small pieces. Soak the prepared banana blossom slices in a bath of cold water sprinkled with lemon or lime for at least 10 minutes. Drain and use immediately in your favorite soup or salad.  

Fruity Fetish: How to Carve a Pineapple Fruit Basket

These days, time is of the essence. With a little guy that demands to be nursed around the clock, I realize that concocting lavish meals, plating, and photographing them have really become a new challenge to say the least--one that I'll hopefully learn to master in due time. So as I embrace my new role, I'm also going to undertake a new series of posts where I'm going to go back to the basics and share with you some fun how-to posts highlighting cool & easy recipes along with some staple ingredients & condiments of Lao cooking, such as my recipe for toasted rice powder that seems to make its way into every dish I love. If this sounds new to you, then let me just preface this by saying that it's quite possibly the key ingredient into amping the volume of any meaty larb dish or refreshing salad, such as my Calamari + Pomelo Salad I featured a while back. So, those are just some of the upcoming posts that's been brewing in my head for quite some time now.

This week, however, I'm sharing a little bit of sunshine with you with my pineapple fruit basket. In lieu of my baby's first Easter basket, he received his own little fruit basket along with a book. I know what you may be thinking: Chandara, the boy doesn't even have any teeth yet and you're one nutty mommy for making this for him (Yes, guilty as charged), but I couldn't help myself seeing that these are currently what's in season at my local grocer. It was actually a pretty fun project and I was quite happy with the final result. I think it would make a lovely Mother's Day centerpiece as well, so why don't you give it a try and let me know how it goes!

Baby's first gig as mommy's professional hand model. It appears that we are still working out the specifics of his compensation package.

Step 1: Wash your pineapple and slice it in half, lengthwise

Step 2: Using a small paring knife, slice into the inner perimeter of the pineapple, then make 2 cuts down both sides of its core. I find it easiest

this way since you can then slice out the core, and leave the rest of the edible flesh in tact.

Step 3: Carefully slice out the meaty flesh of the pineapple 

Tip:  I find it easier to slice small sections of the pineapple which leaves the flesh in tact enough so that you can slice chunks of it for your fruit basket.

Step 4: Scoop out the remaining bits of flesh with a spoon. Since these chunks are small and uneven, save them to make some pineapple juice which you can

later sprinkle over the fruit salad you'll be putting into your fruit basket.

Step 5: Slice up a generous variety of colorful fruits for a vibrant pineapple fruit basket. I made mine with chunks of mangoes, nectarines, strawberries,

guavas, watermelons, and of course, pineapple! 

Published in Hawaii Luxury Lifestyle Magazine, April/May 2014

It gives me great pleasure to finally blog about this because I've had to keep mum for a few months. A while back, I think you'll remember my post about my Rambutan Mojito Mocktail, and I guess somebody besides my own circle of friends was reading because the editors of Hawaii Luxury Lifestyle Magazine caught wind of it and decided to publish my work for an article on exotic fruits! I'm tickled as I write this because not only is it published in this amazing magazine, but it's for that beautiful place that is near and dear to my heart. If you're a regular on this blog, you already know just how much I adore the aloha aisles and if you also happen to be enjoying spring break on the islands during this time, be sure to snag yourself a copy before hitting the beaches. Mahalo!