Banana blossom in coconut cream is guinataang puso ng saging in Filipino and I was in high school when I first learned to cook it. I remember my father advising that I choose the variety of banana blossom that was long, cream-colored and no more than three inches in diameter at the thickest part. Why that was preferable over the more common fat reddish and red and stout banana blossom, I never asked, although I suspected it had something to do with the numerous varieties of banana available in the Philippines. One time years later, when I was obliged to use the non-preferred variety, I realized that the long cream-colored banana blossom was more tender and required a shorter cooking time.
Pork traditionally goes into this dish but I have tried versions using daing (salted dried fish). This is the traditional recipe except for the addition of cilantro.
Ingredients
- 250 grams boneless pork belly
- 1 whole garlic
- 2 shallots
- 1 one-inch piece ginger
- 3 finger chilies
- 3 tablespoons cooking oil
- patis (fish sauce)
- 2 banana blossoms (heart)
- 2 cups coconut cream
- torn cilantro
Instructions
- Cut the pork belly into one-inch cubes (they will shrink during cooking, anyway, so don’t worry that they’re rather large at this point).
- Peel and finely mince the garlic.
- Peel and finely slice the shallots.
- Peel and grate the ginger.
- Trim and slice the chilies.
- Heat the cooking oil in a wide shallow pan (I always recommend a wok for all-purpose cooking). When hot, add the pork and cook, stirring, until lightly browned.
- Add the garlic, shallots, ginger and chilies. Season with fish sauce. Continue cooking, stirring often, for a few minutes.
- Pour in a cup of water, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the pork is very tender.
- While the pork simmers, prepare the banana blossoms by removing the outer layers. Keep at it until you reach the light creamy inner portion. I usually remove three of the outer layers but with more mature banana blossom, you may need to remove more. Discard the outer layers (these are too tough and fibrous). Cut the banana blossoms into half inch rings and add to the pork (see the illustration).
- Cook the pork and vegetables for a few minutes. Banana blossom takes no more than 10 minutes to cook.
- Pour in the coconut cream. Stir well. Taste and add more fish sauce, if necessary. Boil gently, uncovered, for about three minutes.
- Turn off the heat. Let stand, uncovered, for about 5 minutes to allow the flavors to infuse. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro (ah, the difference that cilantro makes!), stir a few times
- Serve the banana blossoms in coconut cream with hot rice.
If you cooked this dish (or made this drink) and you want to share your masterpiece, please use your own photos and write the cooking steps in your own words.
Hello and welcome! I'm a retired lawyer and columnist, wife for 28 years, mom of two, and a passionate cook. What is this blog about? Recipes for dishes 
Mango – rum sorbet
I love that stuff, but I haven’t been able to find it in Australia :( The Malaysian recipe for banana heart in coconut milk is pretty similar (I’m actually a bit surprised at how similar the recipes are!) – what I do is blend coconut milk, some bird’s eye chillies, about an inch of fresh turmeric and 3 – 5 shallots, then bung the whole thing in a saucepan with one bruised lemongrass and bits of salted fish or shrimp. Bring to boil, simmer with the banana heart until cooked. I use the same method for kangkong, spinach and young jackfruit as well. I like this recipe since there isn’t any added oil and using low-fat coconut milk (ugh) doesn’t affect the taste too much. Just don’t talk to me about the sodium content, haha.
This is one of my favourite dishes! I haven’t tried cooking it yet, but, have a friendly, neighborhood turo-turo I used to go to whenever I start craving for this yummy dish.
Aaah Connie, I’ve always wondered how to cook this dish. Thank you for showing me how simple it is. Now if I can only get banana hearts here in Korea. :(
masarap talaga yan ummm……..
i’ll try this when I have puso ng saging. salamat sa recipe mo.
i also love this dish. have you tried using sardines instead of pork or salted fish. masarap siya! pero kami we cut the puso ng saging…manipis.
we use the fat, red variety. What we do is, after slicing the banana heart, we put salt in it, let it sit for a few minutes and then squeeze it. after that, we wash it and it goes to the cooking
Hi Connie,
Love your site.
Your recipe sounds yummy. I love puso ng saging. I wonder if you have a recipe for kilawen na puso, which has, I think, lemon/citrus juice, onions?
uy uy salamat! Hubby accidentally bought a can of puso ng saging and a canned unripe jackfruit (o iba ba tawag dun sa ginugulay?)
Been meaning to search for recipes haha Eto na pala yung para sa saging… any chance you know how to cook a dish for the jackfruit?
:-P
pahabol… how come I can’t find the “print” version?
:-(
auee, re jackfruit, same procedure but jackfruit takes longer to cook.
Re printable version. Sorry, forgot to include the tag when I changed templates. It’s back already. :)
hello!! i rili rili love to cook..,,tnx 4 sharing ur recipe i hope i cn be gud cook like u..!!godbless
hi juz wondering if cilantro is juz like a celery or what we called “kinchay”is that d same??dont know wat is cilantro!!
aha! hehe
I can’t help it. Sometimes the software tester in me wants to say more about some sites I visit regarding their layout. etc but I just stick to the issue at hand haha
:-P
zai, cilantro is coriander leaves locally known as wansuy. kinchay is chinese celery.
auee, thanks to your trained eye. i would have missed that tag for weeks. LOL
hi ms. connie!
my father cooks d best guinataang puso ng saging (for me)! hehehe! he would always teach me how to cook it but it seems tedious coz he would squeez the puso around 3x before cooking it (d way u would do to get d gata from d coconut)… he uses dilis (fried until golden brown w/o oil) nothing more… yuuumm!!! :-)
being a bicolana, i remember that the sliced puso is crushed with a little salt, (before cooking) why, i dont know…never got to ask… i was just always waiting for it to be cooked.. :)
Hi Connie! I cooked na din this food…Yummy….My 3 year old boy loved it….same as my husband….I cooked this twice na…Yummy and healthy!
I should have said “very intersting blog”. Anyway, hope to recieve your approval to use the photos. I’m a Hospitality Management student in Sydney and I want to present our Puso Ng Saging to my Oz classmates.
So long as the photos are for academic purposes and not reproduced online, Abbey.
do you have any idea of what nutrients are there in the banana budS?.
Nope. Am not a nutritionist. :)
hi connie!is cilantro and parsley the same?? i wanna try this using cilantro as well. thanks!
Nope. Not the same.
wow my favorite. sa mga bicolano po siling labuyo ang nilalagay ng tatay ko mas masarap. pag yan ang ulam ko nauubos ko yung isang bandehadong kanin hehe masarap sya talaga. thanks for this recipe.
I HAVE’NT TRIED COOKING THIS RECIPE… I’VE BEEN WANTING TO DO THIS.. SINCE THE LAST TIME I EAT THIS WAS WHEN I WAS 12 YRS OLD.. MY MOM ONCE COOK THIS RECIPE.. I BEEN SURFING THE BEST RECIPE FOR THIS … NOW I FOUN YOURS WHILE AT WORK SURFING… I’LL DO IT LATER