You’ve bought a bunch of bananas… now what?

INGREDIENTS 101

The banana is often touted to be the world’s healthiest food. The is so much information about the health benefits of the fruit – from being rich in potassium and low in salt, to being a natural mood enhancer and energy improver, and even having the ability to both ease constipation and stop the runs – that they seem to be a cure-all for every ailment!

One of the stories I like, however, is the speculation that bananas may have originated in the area that is now Malaysia around 4,000 years ago.

All that aside, the fact is that bananas taste good. So to answer the question posed in the title, you could just eat the fruit. But sometimes you find that the bunch you’ve bought is too big and you cannot finish all the bananas before they become overripe. So for those times when you have too many bananas, here are a few snacks to make that will help use them up. Or you just get a bunch of bananas for the sole purpose of making them…

Oven-dried Banana Chips

First up, chips. The only hands-on work that you need to do to make these is to slice up the bananas into thin discs. Then arrange the slices on a parchment-lined baking tray – the discs can almost touch each other – and bake in a low oven (120ºC). Flip the slices once the top is brown and has firmed up, and continue cooking until the discs turn crisp. This process could take two to three hours and you may need to keep an eye on the oven to see that the chips don’t burn. So all this can be a little tiresome. But I find the most difficult part of all is stopping myself from eating all these chips at one go because they are delicious!

Pengat Pisang
(Bananas in sweet coconut sauce)

This is a traditional sweet dish with three components that scream Southeast Asia – bananas, coconut milk and gula Melaka. An unusual ingredient in this dish is the sesame oil – add just a tiny, tiny amount for a boost of flavour, but leave it out if you like. A nice addition is some cooked sago (the transparent white pearls in the picture).

Serves 2

2 ripe bananas
1½ tbsp palm sugar
Pinch of salt
1½ tbsp water
4-5 tbsp coconut milk
Few drops of sesame oil
Toasted sesame seeds, to garnish

Peel and slice banana into 2.5cm-thick slices on the diagonal. Place palm sugar, salt and water in a saucepan; cook over high heat until the sugar has melted and the mixture has thicken slightly. Lower the heat, add coconut milk, a few drops of sesame oil and the sliced bananas; cook for another 3-5 minutes. Dish out and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Banana-Walnut Cake

This a good snacking cake for people who like banana and nuts. It’s a good standby for teatime or breakfast – despite the butter and sugar in it, it’s probably not as unhealthy as some banana cakes out there. It’s not as light, though, and may remind some of you of bread. Click for the recipe (includes a video).

Pulut Dakap

Pulut dakap is a glutinous rice and banana snack wrapped in banana leaf, which gets its name from being cooked in pairs – like lovers in an embrace (“dakap” in Malay). It’s the name that’s used in the north of Peninsular Malaysia, although this kuih is available elsewhere but known as lepat pisang or pulut pisang.

Cooks who make traditional pulut dakap stress the importance of using the right bananas. They must be a sweet eating variety, preferably indigenous to Malaysia such as pisang awak or pisang nipah. At a pinch, pisang raja can be used.

This is an involved recipe but the hardest thing about it is probably the wrapping process (instructions are in the video which comes with the recipe). Click for the recipe.

Banana-Pecan Biscotti

Besides the banana, these biscotti are also flavoured with mixed spice – a typical mixture of spices is allspice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mace, cloves and coriander. You can, of course, get mixed spice in bottles or mix your own with your personal preference. The aroma from the oven while these biscotti are baking is heavenly – full of sweet banana and spices.