Banana recipes
In the western world we mostly see bananas as fruits that are used for deserts, maybe for banana bread. It mostly ends here. But if you look across the world you will find that there are many different ways how people use bananas in their cuisine. Ways that are not limited to just fruits and desserts but full meals. You could even compare bananas with potatoes when it comes to preparation of bananas.
The first banana recipe that I will give you comes from Pennsylvania and is pretty old. You all know it or have heard of it – it is simply called banana split because the bananas are split in half and served with some ice cream and strawberry and chocolate sauce, and maybe some whipped cream.
Then if we go south, way south so south America – Brazil we will find another recipe using bananas. They mash them together with some brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger and the cook this mix for a long time. The sugar melts, everything melts together and becomes thick. They later leave it to cool down and they make delicious rolls out of it.
You can not only cook the bananas – you can also fry them. and they do just that in the Caribbean. They make a special dessert the is called the banana fritters. A short description of the recipe would be: cut the bananas in chunks, cover them with flour, dip them in batter, add some rum and fry them. When they are done cover them with powdered sugar and you are ready to go.
Next country that has some banana recipes to share and is big on bananas is India. They have quite a few recipes that include bananas so lets mention a few of them. I am sure that you have heard of Lassi, a traditional Indian drink. Of course there is a banana version of it that is called Sweet banana lassi and is made out of (no surprise) bananas and yogurt. Then there is a dessert called Panchamrutham that is made out of bananas, spices and honey and plenty of other recipes.
In South Asian countries such as Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, there are hundreds, and probably thousands of cuisines made of bananas. This is doubtless due to the fact that these are some of the countries that are known to grow bananas. They strip off the outer leaves of the banana heart, commonly known as banana flower, then slice into desirable size. The slices can be added to salads, or can be used to cook curry dishes which are very common in the regions. Similarly, you can add the slices in coconut milk. The most outstanding use of the slices that bring out mouth watering delicacies is adding them in different vegetable stews. It is agreeable that there are over 100 different types of vegetable stews in the regions, but what makes them really different is the aroma produced by adding banana slices.
So far we have eaten bananas raw, cooked and fried, now it is time to drink them. To do this we need to go to East Africa where they use them to brew beer! and if you are still not convinced how useful and widespread bananas are in cooking – of all the meals prepared with bananas only 80% are prepared with the fruit itself, all others use other parts of the banana plant, like leaves for instance.
