Bananas
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Care and feeding of your banana
The bananas that are shipped to the United States (from Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Mexico, and Nicaragua) are picked green from the plant, and kept from ripening until they reach the grocery. As the banana ripens, all that mealy, squishy starch is supposed to turn into sugar. Unfortunately, if the bananas are refrigerated at any time between being picked and being eaten, they will not ripen properly. So don’t stick them in the fridge! Get a paper bag and store them somewhere at room temperature. If you can find a way to hang the bananas from a hook, you’ll avoid bruising the bottoms. When they look ripe enough, stick them in a fridge (again, in a container that’ll protect the bottoms.) The skin will blacken, but the fruit will remain at the same ripeness.
Different kinds of bananas...
The yellow bananas found in the supermarket are the Cavendish or the Ecuadorean dwarf variety. Other varieties include babies,2 so called because they look like a small hand, and red bananas3 which taste sweet with a hint of tartness and turn purplish red when ripe. Plaintains, which resemble bananas, cannot be eaten raw, but are used as a source of starch.
So when do I eat this banana?
• Green — Unripe. Best used in soups and stews. Unripe bananas can be eaten, but it will irritate the digestive system. When the banana is green, it's full of starch, but as it ripens, the starch converts to natural sugars.
• Yellow with green tips — Partially ripe. Use these for broiling, baking or frying.
• All Yellow — Ripe. Can be eaten raw, or used in desserts and breakfast dishes.
• Yellow with brown freckles — Completely ripe. Should not be cooked at this point.
• All Brown — Overripe. If the banana is still firm, it can still be eaten. The overripe bananas are best in mixed drinks, like daiquiris, or for making a banana liquor (see recipe below).
• Blackened areas — Inedible.
Where do bananas come from?
Oddly enough, the banana is neither a fruit nor a vegetable, but a member of the herb family - the Musacae. They're a cousin of the orchid. Bananas are probably native to tropical Asia, but are widely cultivated. Bananas don't grow on trees; the plants have a palmlike aspect and large leaves, the overlapping bases of which form the false trunk. Only female flowers develop into the banana fruit (botanically, a berry), each plant bearing fruit only once. The seeds are sterile; propagation is through shoots from the rhizomes. With stalks 25 feet high, they're the largest plant on earth without a woody stem.4 Portugese slavers brought us the word banana, which comes from the name of a port in the Congo.5
Banana Recipes
Banana Daiquiri
Recipe By Joe Robertson
Ingredients:
1/2 Banana
1/2 oz Heavy cream
1 oz Banana liqueur (See recipe below)
1/2 oz Lime juice
1 1/2 oz Light rum
1/2 cup Crushed ice
1 tbsp Triple sec
Directions: Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend at high speed until smooth. Pour into a sour, champagne, or cocktail glass. Drink. Make loud, disgusting smacking sound with lips. Repeat.
Banana Liqueur
Ingredients:
1 cup Karo syrup or sugar syrup6
3 cups Vodka
1 tsp Vanilla extract
2 medium bananas
Directions: The tastiest bananas will have a bright yellow peel and no discoloured areas which indicate a bruise. Never refrigerate bananas. Mash peeled bananas and add to vodka, cooled sugar syrup, and vanilla extract. Shake gently and let sit one week. Strain and filter. Let sit longer for additional flavoring, but may be used now. Experiment with substitutions - Malibu Rum or Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum instead of vodka. Serves 1.
Banana Donuts
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon soda
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 eggs, well beaten
• 3/4 cup mashed bananas (about 2 good-sized bananas)
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup flour for rolling
• Deep oil for frying
1. Sift flour, measure and resift 3 times with baking powder, soda, salt, and nutmeg. Cream shortening, blend in sugar, add vanilla, and eggs, and beat until light and fluffy. Add combined bananas and buttermilk, and stir until well mixed. Add flour mixture in 3 or 4 portions, stirring thoroughly after each addition.
2. Chill before rolling. Remove 1/4 of dough from refrigerator at a time, knead it lightly 4 or 5 times, roll to 3/8 inch thickness, and cut with floured 2-1/2 inch doughnut cutter.
3. Fry in deep oil heated to 375 deg F. until golden brown, then lift out and drain on absorbent paper. If desired, the dough may be covered tightly and kept in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days, to be fried as needed. Yield: about 3-1/2 dozen
Cinnamon Fried Banana
Thanks to: Mercia Balona, Gauteng, South Africa
• A large, slightly green banana
• 2 level tablespoons cinnamon and sugar (mixed)
• Butter
• ice-cream or cream(if desired)
Slice the banana into equal slices length wise. Fry it in a pan on both sides of each slice until slightly brown. Smother butter thinly on banana. Fry further for a few minutes. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on while being fried. Serve when butter has been cooked in, with ice cream or cream.
Jamaica Banana Jam
Thanks to: Elizabeth Barcelo, Kershaw, SC
• 1/4 cup FRESH lime juice (about one medium lime)
• 3 1/2 cups diced firm ripe bananas
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup water
Place lime juice in a one quart measure. Peel bananas and dice directly into lime juice. Stir with a WOODEN spoon. Keep stirring as you dice each banana into the lime juice to prevent darkening. Measure sugar and water into a wide 2 1/2 quart saucepan, and stir to dissolve sugar as you bring syrup to a boil. Cover tightly for the first 2 minutes (so the steam will wash sugar crystals from side of saucepan) then uncover, add bananas (with lime) and boil over low heat for about 30 minutes or until thick. Stir often to prevent sticking, especially during last 10 minutes. Jam is done when a spoon scraped across bottom of pan leaves a track that closes slowly, or when jam mounds while stirring. Spoon at once into hot sterilized jars and seal. Do not use paraffin with this jam. Makes 4 Cups. If you like Banana and Peanut-butter sandwiches, you'll love this jam and peanut-butter on a sandwich!
Mexican Bananas
• 6 firm bananas
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 12 flour tortillas
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk
Mix together spices and sugar. Peel bananas and cut in half lengthwise, brush with lemon juice. Plane each banana half at end of tortilla, sprinkle with sugar mixture. Roll tortillas and again sprinkle top with sugar mixture after brushing the top and sides with evaporated milk.
Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 15 minutes on a well greased cookie sheet. Remove from pan immediately and serve with hot fudge or chocolate sauce. 7
After reading this article, if you still think you hate bananas, pay a visit to the Anti-Banana Society
If you've decided you just love bananas, visit the International Banana Club. Yes, there is such a place!
1For extensive info on bananas, and some yummy recipes, check out Wayne Hilburn’s website: http://wayne.hilburn.tripod.com//bananas.html 2Also known as manzano, lady fingers or oritos3,Also known as Makabu or Morado4The official word on bananas: http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/01071.html5Banana: port on the Atlantic coast in far southwestern Congo (Kinshasa), central Africa, at the mouth of the Congo River. One of the nation's older towns, it was known as a trading centre in the 19th century, mainly during the slaving period. In the 1970s and 1980s its port was developed to increase its facilities as a deepwater port, and a rail line was built to link Banana with Boma and Kinshasa, the national capital. Banana lies in deltaic mangrove forests, but northward along the coast lie some beaches, near which is Moanda, an offshore oil centre. Pop. (1991 est.) 3,165.6To make sugar syrup, heat a cup of water on the stove in a pan, then add sugar to the pan until it's the consistency of thin oil. 7For more great recipes, check out this website: http://www.alve.com/fun/bananas/recipes.html
