Banana blossom cooked with coconut, potato, and panch phoron — mochar ghonto — is the vegetarian centrepiece of the Durga Puja feast in Hindu Bengali households. The banana flower requires patience: it must be stripped of its outer petals, the stamens removed from each inner petal, and the whole mass squeezed of its bitter juice. In Kolkata homes this work falls on the morning of the puja, when the women of the house sit together and cut mocha — and that hour is as much the ritual as anything that happens at the pandal.
The work is the ceremony. The result is a dish of extraordinary texture and a flavour that has no equivalent outside Bengal.
Zone: River Delta
SOURCE: Shree Shree Annapoorna – a Bengali household cookbook, Kolkata, 1965.
LOCAL NAME: মোচার ঘন্ট
INGREDIENTS
- 1 medium banana blossom (mocha, approx. 500g prepared weight)
- 2 medium potatoes (cut into 1cm cubes)
- 4 tbsp mustard oil
- 1 tsp panch phoron
- 2 dried red chillies
- 2 green chillies (slit)
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 75 g fresh grated coconut (or desiccated — see notes)
- 1 tsp ghee
- ½ tsp Bengali garam masala (cardamom, cinnamon, clove)
METHOD
- Oil your hands thoroughly with mustard oil before handling the banana blossom — the sap stains and the iron in the flower will blacken your hands without it.
- Peel away and discard the tough outer purple petals. Work through the inner layers, removing the stamens and the hard translucent tip from each small floret. Chop the cleaned florets finely. As you work, drop them into a bowl of salted water with a little mustard oil to prevent blackening.
- Squeeze the chopped blossom firmly in your hands to remove as much bitter juice as possible. Repeat twice. This step determines the flavour of the finished dish — insufficient squeezing leaves bitterness.
- Boil the prepared banana blossom in salted water for 8 minutes. Drain and squeeze again.
- Heat mustard oil in a wide pan until it just begins to smoke. Reduce to medium. Fry the potato cubes until golden at the edges, around 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
- To the same oil, add the panch phoron and dried red chillies. Allow to splutter for 30 seconds.
- Add the banana blossom. Add turmeric, cumin powder, coriander powder, salt, and sugar. Stir and fry on medium heat for 10 minutes, until the blossom is dry and begins to colour.
- Add the fried potato and green chillies. Stir through.
- Add the grated coconut. Cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until the coconut is incorporated and the mixture is dry and fragrant.
- Finish with ghee and Bengali garam masala. Stir once and remove from heat. Serve with steamed rice.
NOTES
UK adaptation: Tinned banana blossom from South Asian or Caribbean grocers, and increasingly from health food shops where it is sold as a meat substitute — the tinned type is already blanched, so skip steps 2–4 and proceed directly from draining and squeezing. Fresh banana blossom from South Asian markets when in season. Desiccated coconut as substitute for fresh grated. Bengali garam masala from South Asian grocers or blend your own.
US adaptation: Tinned banana blossom from Whole Foods, H-Mart, or Amazon. Fresh banana blossom from Caribbean or South Asian grocers in larger cities. Desiccated coconut from any supermarket. Bengali garam masala from Patel Brothers or Indian grocery stores.
Cook’s note: Mochar ghonto contains no onion or garlic — this is the niramish (pure vegetarian) tradition of the Hindu Bengali kitchen. Do not add them. The flavour comes entirely from the panch phoron, coconut, and the blossom itself.