Recipe: Banana Flower Chorizo

Here is a woman in her 60s who walks three miles here and three miles back, toting sacks of herbs and medicinal wine, to treat the ailing people of San Nicolas with natural remedies. Here is a woman who, during the Contra War of the 1980s, spent late nights making coffee for men, so that they could stand wide-awake at their posts all night long. Here is a woman who birthed 14 children, though only nine are still living.

Doña Victoria works in the natural medicine clinic in front of our house, so we have come to anticipate the “mi amors” that she showers upon us when we see her. One day she taught us how to make a dish from the banana flowers hanging from the banana trees in our back yard. When she opened our spice cupboard and couldn't find the achiote spice that was right in front of her, we realized that she has never learned how to read. She was the oldest sister of a huge flock of children, she explained, and so she always had to stay home from school to help her mom wash the clothes.

We know how impossible it might be to find banana flowers in an American grocery store, but we want to share the recipe that Doña Victoria shared with us anyway. When her family couldn't afford to buy meat during Semana Santa, Doña Victoria would go out to the back yard, hack down some banana flowers, and make this dish. She claims that her kids loved it and never doubted that it really was meat.

Flor De Guineo Chorizo

3 small banana flowers, sliced and diced (Flowers are quite sticky. It helps to coat your hands with oil before you chop them up.)
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 big green pepper
1 onion
1 teaspoon achiote
5 leaves of chicoria (cilantro is similar)
2 tablespoons oil
1 bouillon cube
salt to taste

First, rinse the flowers and chop them up. Then blanch the flowers in boiling water for five minutes. Strain the flowers and blanch them again for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, dice the rest of the ingredients. Strain the banana flowers well; the water will appear black, but don't worry.

Heat oil in a large pot and fry the flowers in the oil first. After stirring the flowers for a few minutes, add the other ingredients. Cook for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is ready. Serve with some combination of rice, beans, and a tortilla.