Banana Heart Prepared Two-way

I'm not going anywhere today,  I'm still sick, my cough and colds have recurred though I'm feeling much better.  But even if I'm sick, I'm not one to be seen lying in bed or just sitting down.  So I thought I'd cook something that is appealing to my taste today since I remembered the banana heart that is ripe for the picking in the adjacent vacant lot.  Jim said it is okay to get it, since nobody is there, it will just go to waste anyway. 

Yesterday was terrible, I had a headache, I didn't want to read and I couldn't taste anything.  Even my favorite KFC that Jim had delivered was not appealing.  I could only appreciate pineapple-mixed juices and santol fruits, peeled, pressed in sea salt kept in the refrigerator. Preserved like this will last a week. 

Let me share my version in preparing banana heart. 

Two-way banana heart: one way sautéed banana heart in vinegar (adobong puso ng saging); another way is preserving banana blossoms for adobo and pata Tim recipes. 

Preparation: 

Remove the matured outer covering until the tender portion. 

Take away the more matured blossoms for drying but use the tender ones for the adobo. 

These are the outer, matured blossoms.

Remove the core (match-stick-like) portion and the plastic-like membrane of each blossom.

Look at this, I pulled out what is to be removed without totally detaching it.

Do you see what is to be removed?

One way: adobong puso ng saging

Chop the banana heart into thin slices making sure to separate the blossoms as you slice so the stick and the plastic part can be removed. 

Chop, dredge with salt and set aside.  

Squeeze the bitter liquid and wash three times to remove salty taste. 

Sautee this with garlic, onions, bay leaf, cinnamon, sugar, one pork bouillon, pepper and vinegar.  Add 1 to 2 cups of water if you want more soup.  

Here's the adobong puso ng saging. 

The other way:

Blanch the matured blossoms after removing the stick and plastic. 

Blossoms laid out on a pan to sun dry.

These will be used in my chicken-pork-adobo; Jim won't eat adobo without  banana blossoms. 

I enjoyed the sour taste of the banana heart, I had it for lunch with the remaining KFC pieces. Yum!