Just two weeks ago, I lamented that this possibly-magical product wasn’t available near my Los Angeles home. It still isn’t, but it was in lovely Tilton, New Hampshire. Below is a video review.
Posts Tagged: Banana Recipes
13
May 09
No ice cream? NOT a banana split!
The New York Times has been very kind to me, but one has to say that a banana split where:
- There’s no strawberry, pineapple, or chocolate sauce.
- There’s something called “ganache.”
- There are no nuts.
- The dish is not “boat” shaped.
- AND ICE CREAM IS FREAKIN’ OPTIONAL!!!!
has to be a bunch of hooey and snobbery. Get it together. Really.
Here’s NYT’s “banana split,” which is suitable only for fellows like the gentleman pictured below.
.
Snob.
Here’s the real deal at BananasWeb, and the kind of fella who’d enjoy such a treat.
Baby Gorilla. Not snob.
24
Nov 08
This Thanksgiving, One Condiment to Rule Them All
Got this at a Philippine grocery a few blocks from my house in Los Angeles. Price: $1.59. The lady behind the counter called it "banana ketchup," and that's pretty much what it is, with the same basic ingredients – sugar, vinegar, salt, and spices – as the tomato stuff, but with bananas substituted for the red fruit base.
There are a bunch of varieties from Jufran. The product is listed at Ketchupworld.com, with both regular and hot versions; neither of these seem to be the one I found – the ingredients listed for both are different. The ketchup site gets $3.50 for a mail-ordered bottle. Searching around, it seems that the product has multiple incarnations, with different labeling – some designated as "sauce," others as "ketchup," and some using bright red food coloring to make them look more like the real thing. Mine is marked as "The Original," so I'll go with that.
How did ours taste? Fantastic: a little spicy, a little sweet – with the same consistency as tomato ketchup. I had mine on a big hunk of Turkey breast. Whupped the daylights out of cranberry sauce.
All hail the new King of Condiments.
Here's a link to a brief wikipedia entry on banana ketchup.
27
Oct 08
I Declare War on the Banana Diet!
Homemade banana ice cream sammiches, Image from chubbyhubby.net
We don’t have to sit by while the “Morning Banana Diet” marches across the planet, raising prices for the fruit and making emaciated zombies of us all. Here’s a brand new recipe – from the Chubby Hubby Blog – for homemade banana ice cream, served between brownie cookies – that I hope will be the beginning of a massive counter-strike against the craze that begin a few months ago in Japan.
Banana tip: freeze them when they go brown. They keep for months, and you can use them to make all kinds of delicious stuff. Next in the arsenal: this banana pudding recipe – made with vanilla wafers – from the chitterlings.com soul food site (the recipe is almost at the bottom of the page.) We’re going to make some this week. Report, with pictures, to come.
Thanks to my Dad for suggesting the recipe.
4
Oct 08
Ugandan Comfort Food Championships Underway. Your Local Market Next?
Matooke flour, courtesy Ugandan Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development Programme
Steaming banana leaves for matooke. Full video sequence here.
There’s a knock-down, drag-out contest going on right now in Kampala – held as a precursor to next month’s World Banana Congress in Kenya – to see which chef makes the best Matooke, a Ugandan banana dish which I describe in my book as “the macaroni and cheese of the African highlands.”
The contest began with over 100 chefs offering their recipes made with tooke, a flour made from East African Highland Plantains. Nine are now left standing, and they’ll face off on October 5, serving their creations at a Presidential banquet to be held at the Kampala Serena Hotel.
Here’s a description of the dish, which I refer to in my book, and which is more commonly referred to, as matooke. Interesting side note – I’ve mentioned it several times here, but Uganda is so dependent on bananas – many people get up to 90% of their daily calories from the fruit, eating up to 900 pounds of it a year, compared to about 25 pounds of it here in the United States – that in some small villages, the word for food, banana, and this signature dish are actually all the same. The description is from the Uganda Tourism website.
“One popular local dish is matooke (bananas of the plantain type) which are cooked boiled in a sauce of peanuts, fresh fish, meat or entrails. Matooke really goes with any relish, except that the best and most respectable way the Baganda cook it is to tie up the peeled fingers into a bundle of banana leaves which is then put in a cooking pan with just enough water to steam the leaves. When properly ready and tender, the bundle is removed and squeezed to get a smooth soft and golden yellow mash, served hot with all the banana leaves around to keep it hot. In Buganda, the food production process revolves around the banana tree. Tender banana tree shoots are removed from the plant and singed over fire to make a fine foil into which chunks of pork or beef are tied up and steamed on top of a bundle of bananas. This style of cooking preserves all the flavours and cooks up food like a pressure cooker, if not better. Dry banana leaves are used like bandages when bundles of matooke are being wrapped up for steaming. Strips and chunks cut from the banana tree stem can be used as a foundation at the bottom of the cooking pan so as to avoid the boiling water touching the bundle of the matooke being steamed.
I wish I was in Kenya to taste the gourmet versions, which are probably not entrail-laden. The dish, which can also be prepared with banana flour, may be coming to stores near you, according to a report published by the New Vision Ugandan news service. “We believe there is a huge market locally and globally for value added matooke products,” said. Dr. Florence Isabirye, director of the Ugandan Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development Programme (PIBID.)
Here’s a recipe for matooke. You can use green plantains. It won’t be the same, but you’ll get the idea.
4
Feb 08
Banana Splits of the World
DAIRY QUEEN: “Delicious DQ soft serve covered in luscious strawberry, pineapple, and chocolate toppings, with whipped topping and nestled between a sweet banana.” DQ’s advantage is that it is ubiquitous; her highness has outposts in nearly every U.S. state, and internationally, too (I ate at one in Beijing.)The ice cream is special – no other soft-serve tastes like DQ – and that makes the split nearly perfect. Price: $3.00. Rating: four of five. Royal hint: go for the banana split blizzard instead – all the ingredients, mixed into a cup. Locations: Almost 6,000.
CARVEL’S “BANANA BARGE”: No official description. But the picture speaks for itself. The best quality soft-serve in the bunch, but just two scoops/swirls. Unconventional name, unconventional presentation, but it works. Price: $6.00. OW! Stars: Five of five. Locations: 500 (recently opened several stores in Los Angeles.)
BASKIN-ROBBINS: “Delight in a traditional treat with your favorite ice cream flavors, two banana slices, crowned with chopped almonds, whipped cream and three cherries.” About as close to the classic banana split as you can get. But traditional hard ice cream suffers in the age of Haagen-Dazs. Rating: two and a half of five. Price: about $5.00.
TASTEE-FREEZ: Claims to have invented soft-serve. I’m not so sure. But this is high-quality stuff – almost as creamy as Carvel. R ating: four of five. Price: $3.00 About 100 locations, with the most in California, Texas, and Illinois. One in Alaska.
FOSTER’S FREEZE: Weird, yucky, yellow ice milk. This California chain has passed its glory days, though you can find them in – and this is kind of yucky, too – hybridized “El Pollo Loco” stores. Plus, the picture is BOGUS: look at the glass dish. Price: $3.00 Rating: one of five. Locations: About 40.
CULVER’S: This midwestern chain features not ice cream, but creamier frozen custard (whole milk, egg yolks.) Don’t forget to eat ten or so of the chain’s “Butter Burgers,” which taste exactly the way they sound: smooth as meat. Rating: SIX (!!!!) of five. Price: $4.00. Locations: 350.
SONIC DRIVE IN: Another middle-of-America chain. Best known for 1950s-style car hop service, the ice cream is pretty undistinguished (note that the regal sundae is positioned behind some DQ Blizzard-like treat in the picture.) Some stores sell deep-fried pickles. Rating: two of five (add two points if you’re pregnant.) Prices: $3.00. Locations: 3,000.
15
Dec 07
Made in a plant that processes Peanuts®
Once again, scooped by BoingBoing. In Japan, Lucy and Snoopy hawk popcorn with “banana milk” flavor. Picture from Cory Doctorow’s flickr stream.
PS, you can’t buy the popcorn stateside, but somewhat yummy Nesquik banana milk is only as far as your local Circle-K, AM-PM, or Kum & Go or – and this is kind of weird - United Dairy Farmers convenience store. The latter is the family business that launched the career of Carl Lindner, former chairman of Chiquita.
12
Nov 07
The fix must have been in at the Texas State Fair!
see original image at flickr.
Every October, culinary masters compete at the Texas State Fair for the “Big Tex” prize – an award for the most fabulous, new recipe for a fried dessert. Though this year’s winner – fried cookie dough – sounds lovely, I was bummed to hear that a recipe for Fried Banana Pudding failed to place, especially considering the heart-wrenching tale behind it, according to the Dallas Morning News:
“Although food vendor Debbie Hays and her family were among the vendors who weren’t awarded a Big Tex trophy, they said they are still walking tall.
B.W.’s Original Fried Banana Pudding was the invention of Ms. Hays’ brother, longtime concessionaire B.W. Morrow, who died of a heart attack earlier this year. His recipe was picked to be in the contest posthumously.
His wife and daughter came to the contest to see how everyone would respond to Mr. Morrow’s last fair food contribution, banana pudding wrapped in a tortilla and fried.
The judges said it was deliciously comforting.
“He had worked on creating this for this year’s fair,” said Mr. Morrow’s wife, Judy. “This is a real honor for us to be in the contest. He’d be proud.”
Rest in peace, B.W. You’ve earned your place in the pantheon of the greats.
7
Nov 07
Eat these
Twinkies are not baked. They cook themselves at room temperature. Until World War II, the filling was made with bananas (huh? Hostess used real flavors?) Then, a shortage of the fruit led to the introduction of today’s “white” flavored innards.
Banana Twinkies – Return, oh primal filling – A full Zen circle
