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BY: SUN STAFF
Jagannatha Deities, ISKCON Australia Jul 20, 2016 — CANADA (SUN) — A journey through India: border to border, bhoga to prasadam.
Bananas hold a special place among the most favored foodstuffs offered in temples. Used in fire yagnas and in opulent displays of fruit offered to the deities, bananas are always a striking symbol of Sri Krsna's amazing arrangements for feeding the living entities.
At Lord Jagannatha's temple in Puri Dhama, bananas are featured in numerous offerings and rituals performed for the Deities. During Makara Sankranti (January 13-14th), Their Lordships are offered Makara Chaula, an opulent mixture of fresh uncooked rice that is moistened with milk and mixed with ripe banana, ginger, coconut, cheese, raisins, black pepper, sugar candy and camphor.
Among the 56 varieties of bhoga offered to Lord Jagannatha each day (chhappan bhoga), each morning at 9:00 a.m. breakfast foods are offered, including ripe banana, curd, chipped coconut, khai (sweet popcorn), and kora (coconut sweets). Throughout South India, bananas are regularly offered to the deities. Lord Murugan is offered Panchamirtham (Five Nectars), made of banana, honey, jaggery, kalkandu and ghee. At His Kerala abode, Sri Padmanabha Swamy (Visnu reclining on Ananta) is regularly offered Unni Appams, which are spongy, golden-fried sweets made of rice flour, banana, jackfruit and jaggery.
Frying banana chips As the devotees know, Sri Krsna loves to eat bananas, and Radharani makes Him many opulent foodstuffs that feature these golden fruits. In the Govinda-lilamrta, which we have often quoted in this Prasadam series, we find many descriptions of the wonderful dishes prepared for Krsna by Radha and the Gopis. In Verse 41, Mother Yasoda is calling out the names of so many dishes for Krsna: Govinda-lilamrta 41-42: "Oh putri (daughter) Radhe! You are an experienced rasavati (cook) in flavorful cooking. Mother Rohini has already gone to the kitchen. So you can join her to make all sorts of sabjis and sweet-rice. Oh Putri Rai! Carefully prepare the soft, nectar-defeating tarts called karpura keli and amrita keli. When Krishna samples them, he becomes invigorated. But within the three worlds, only you know how to make such delicious pastries." The Rasa-tarangini Tika commentary gives the recipes for preparing some of these sweets: "Karpura keli —First yogurt is added to boiling milk to make curd. Then rice powder, yogurt, black pepper, sugar, ground coconut, jatiphala (a fragrant spice), cardamom, cloves and bananas are mixed into a paste. Next mung dahl is ground into powder, rolled in the above mentioned ingredients, and fried in ghee, adding honey and camphor. Amrita keli—Ripe bananas, kalai-dahl powder, ground coconut and pepper are added to think milk. Then cardamom, cloves, jatiphala, cinnamon and camphor are added. These ingredients are fried in ghee and later fried in sugar water. Although these are the directions, no one can prepare such recipes like Radha—for with her unique touch, they become divine." In verses 88-109, Yasoda Ma is describing some preparations made with banana flowers: Govinda-lilamrta 88-109: "Just see! Moca (the banana flower), mankocu and panikocu (roots that grow in the ground and in the water). gourds, pumpkin, potatos, along with darasha (lady fingers) were all cut into circular pieces and fried in ghee. Then everything was dumped in a sweet sauce made from mung dahl paste." [ ] Radha has made mouth-watering dugdha-tumbi (milk and squash) adding sugar, cardamom and black pepper. Then using khira (instead of milk), she made khira-tumbi also. Here is another dish made with large turnips cooked in ghee with dhatriphala seasoning, yogurt and sugar. And using kad-bael fruits, another variety was prepared. We cooked banana flowers and large squash, adding yogurt and sugar. This cooling dish has a sweet and sour taste." 
Banana plant in flower The dishes described above, made with banana flowers, are among the most exotic and wonderful dishes to be made from parts of the Banana. Each part has a name; bananas in general are called Kela, Nendran, or Nenthra pazham. Green bananas are known as Hara kela and Kachcha Kela. The flower of the Banana is called Kere, Kafool, or Mocha kela ka phul. Banana pith is Thora gahar, while the soft inner stem is called Vaazhai Thandu. Outside of India, banana flowers, kafool, are often looked upon as an exotic foodstuff, and many cooks never try their hand at preparing them, but in Vedic cuisine they're considered a staple ingredient for sabjis. We find mention of banana flowers in the Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya lila narrative of Mother Saci's pastimes after her son Nimai had taken sannyasa: Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya lila 15:42-92: "One day My mother, Saci, offered food to Salagrama Visnu. She offered rice cooked from sali paddies, various kinds of vegetables, spinach, curry made of banana flowers, fried patola with nimba leaves, pieces of ginger with lemon, and also yogurt, milk, sugar candy and many other foods. "Taking the food upon her lap, Mother was crying to think that all that food was very dear to her Nimai. "My mother was thinking, 'Nimai is not here. Who will accept all this food?' As she meditated upon Me in this way, her eyes filled with tears. "While she was thus thinking and crying, I immediately went there with great haste and ate everything. Seeing the dish empty, she wiped her tears away." Another mention of this specialty, kafool curry, is found in Madhya Lila 9.296: "As soon as Sri Ranga Puri recalled Navadvipa, he also recalled accompanying Sri Madhavendra Puri to the house of Jagannatha Misra, where he had taken lunch. He even remembered the taste of an unprecedented curry made of banana flowers."
Banana flowers And we also find mention of banana flowers in the Bhoga-arati-kirtana from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur's Gitavali:
sukta-sakadi bhaji nalita kusmanda dali dalna dugdha-tumbi dadhi moca-khanda "They are then served a feast of s'uktâ and various kinds of green leafy vegetables, then nice fried things, and a salad made of the green leaves of the jute plant. They are also served pumpkin, baskets of fruit, small square cakes made of lentils and cooked-down milk, then thick yogurt, squash cooked in milk, and vegetable preparations made from the flower of the banana tree."
The deep purplish-crimson banana flower is borne at the end of the stem, and is quite beautiful to behold. Long, slender, flowers are protected by large reddish bracts. To cook them, you must remove and discard the outer bracts until the inner, paler portion is revealed. You can steam the whole blossom for 20 minutes, then use it in whatever preparation you like. The following recipe for Banana Flower Salad, a delightful summertime dish, is a good place to begin, since it includes detailed instructions on cleaning and preparing the banana flower. The same method can be followed when prepping the flowers for sabjis, although you could include some of the tiny, immature bananas rather than discarding them, to add a note of bitterness to the dish.
Banana Flower Salad
Preparing banana flowers Following are a number of recipes for traditional banana flower curries and savouries, as they're prepared in both north and south India.
Ingredients: 2 cups Banana Flower (crushed or chopped) Clean the banana flower well and cut the flowers finely. Prepare banana flower the previous night and keep it in the refrigerator. Put chopped banana flower in a bowl, pour water and salt and turmeric powder over it and bring it to boil, Cook until soft. Remove from the heat and drain the water and set aside. Soak rice and mustard seeds in the water 15 minutes. Grind them with red chilis into a coarse paste. Heat ghee in a pan and fry 1 tsp black gram dal, broken red chilis, curry leaves and asofoetida for 2 minutes, then add cooked banana flower. Stir well then add ground to a paste, mixing well. Add tamarind paste and little water to it. Cover and allow it to cook for few minutes. Remove from heat and let it sit uncovered for a minute before offering. Ingredients: Banana flower 1 whole Clean the banana flower well and cut the flowers finely. Grate coconut. Boil in a pressure cooker with 1 cup of water, and when cooked remove water. Heat oil in a pan. Add whole Red chilli, Kalonji seeds, Cumin seeds, Turmeric powder and Chilli powder. Fry lightly. Add Banana flower and grated Coconut. Mix well and add salt. Add 1/2 cup hot water and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add 1 tsp Wheat flour, pure Ghee and Garam masala. Mix well and offer hot.
Dwarf bananas and flowers
Gaura Purnima, 2005, ISKCON Australia
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