BANANArama

Here are two simple banana recipes for those who have missed eating Pinoy street food. Before, I thought that the only way I can enjoy the saba bananas or plantains would be to buy it's canned version until a colleague at work told me that there are in fact fresh plantains available in the UK. I told her I never found any when I went to some local stores so she said she'll give me some. We had one of our office Christmas parties last year and her mum prepared banana chips which led to our conversation on how they were prepared. She said her mum made from fresh plantains. After a few days, she gave me the bananas (bless her) but I was a bit surprised that they looked different. Yes, larger and longer compared to our short, fat saba bananas. But when I tried it, the taste is the same and it definitely has the same results in cooking some of the dishes made from saba. I have posted a picture below. I guess, I have seen them before but I just didn't know that they were the South American version of our saba (see pic below), in case you encounter them whilst shopping. They are however not available in the supermarket, so you have to go to your local Filipino store or African/Carribean/Indian stores in your area.

Luckily, a Filipino store opened from where we live so I was able to get some more which I made this summer. I also tried making turon using the bananas here (yes, there is only one type of banana here that is sold in supermarkets) which I think we call the 'lakatan' variety back home and they tasted exactly the same. I haven't tried the bananacue though so I'm not exactly sure if it would be the same results. Just watch this space in case I may try that in the future. For those who are not Filipinos, we call this bananacue or bananaque even if it is not grilled or barbecued because of the way it is presented - in a stick or skewer. Turon, on the other hand is similar to a spring roll except that it is filled with banana and sugar. Other recipes would add jackfruit or langka/nangka. The bananacue and turon  are popular street foods and are usually sold outside schools or offices where they are eaten as snacks or merienda. I have also added the plantains when I cooked the Ilonggo version of the pochero. Our own version doesn't have the tomato sauce and tastes sweet because of the banana. 

Ingredients:

saba bananas or plantains (since the plantains were bigger, I sliced them in half)

1/4 cup soft brown sugar or muscovado sugar (whichever you prefer)

vegetable oil (enough for deep frying)

barbeque sticks or skewers

Heat oil in a pan or wok. Deep fry bananas until golden brown. Add brown sugar and cook until sugar has melted. Stir the bananas and make sure that they are coated with sugar. Once bananas are cooked and coated with sugar, remove from heat then drain. Put bananas in skewers then serve. 

*I tried using paper towels to drain the excess oil but because there is sugar, it sticks to the paper towels so it's better draining with a strainer or spider web (used in Chinese cooking). As you can see in the picture, it is not a perfect bananacue by the way it's coated so I still need more improvement in that area. Nevertheless, it tasted really good which definitely satisfied our craving for the bananacue back home. 

Ingredients: 

saba bananas or plantains, sliced 

spring roll wrappers

vegetable oil for deep frying

brown sugar 

Dip the sliced bananas in sugar then wrap in spring roll. In wrapping the turon, I used the same technique with lumpia which is putting the filling (this time the banana) on one side of the wrapper then folding the two ends first. Next you fold the side closest to the filling then roll to the other side. Seal the wrapper using water (others use egg wash, egg or egg white but for me, water just seals perfectly). You can watch some you tube videos if my explanation on how to wrap the turon is a bit unclear. 

Heat the oil in a pan or wok. Deep fry turon until golden brown or when you can see the sugar starting to caramelize. Others sprinkle brown sugar but seeing that some of the sugar from the inside has seeped out, I don't see any point in adding more sugar on the outside. Once done, drain the rolls. Again don't use kitchen towels as the sugar would again stick to the towels. Serve and eat turon whilst still hot and crunchy.