One of the many vegetables I enjoy having is “puso ng saging” or banana heart/blossom. A perfect background veggie for Kare-kare and sinigang na bangus, it is the star of a popular dish which calls for it to be cooked in coconut cream (ginataang puso). I remember a slightly different version, though. Mom would cook it without the cream and it had a hint of tartness in it (she is Kapampanga.. no wonder). I searched all over the internet and I got mostly the creamed one. So I uttered a silent “good luck to me” as I tried to recreate this childhood food from memory. Once done with the cooking, I spooned some of the little sauce on a bowl of steaming Japanese rice and scooped a generous portion of the veggie on top.
Ingredients:
- 1 big Puso ng Saging (Banana Heart/Bud)
- 1/4 k Kalabasa (squash)
- 100 gms vermicelli noodles
- 200 gms small shrimp (you can opt to remove the shells)
- 1 medium size tomato (diced)
- 1 medium size onion (sliced)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 cups water
- salt and pepper to taste
Cooking Instructions:
- Remove red layers of the puso ng saging until a yellowish core
- is revealed.
- Sliced the core thinly and soaked in salted water.
- Rinse and squeeze the veggies, throw away the water. Do this twice or until the sap is completely off the veggies.
- In a pan, saute garlic until light brown in color. Add onion and tomatoes and stir fry until tender.
- Put in soy sauce and pepper. Saute for a minute.
- Add shrimp and cook for until shrimps changes in color. Add water and bring to a boil.
- Add the banna heart veggies, sprinkle some salt and pepper. Cover and cook until vegetables are tender.
- Stir in vermicelli noodles before removing from heat.
- Serve.
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