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.
To show you what all you can do with bananas I’ll start with a well known dish, a classic American dessert called the Banana Split. It’s called Banana split because the banana is split in half then a few scoops of ice cream are added, some strawberry and chocolate sauce and maraschino. This banana recipe is quite old and it comes from Pennsylvania.
A very sweet dessert that is already quite different from Banana split because it involves cooking comes from Brazil. They mash the bananas together with some brown sugar and cinnamon and cook them very slow on low heat. Everything melts together and when it cools down you can make tasty 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 you can see that bananas are not only used as a quick snack between tennis breaks. And we are not finished yet – in East Africa bananas are used for brewing beer! Another interesting fact is also that only around 80% of banana recipes use the banana fruit. Others use other parts of the banana tree like leaves. I would like to end this walk through the world of banana recipes with one more point – bananas are not only a very useful thing in cooking but they are also nutritionally rich. So whether it is beer of banana split – they are yummy.
Ben Cook also cooks with bananas in recipes on his banana bread website. If you want to find banana bread recipes, his website is the right right place to find them. You can find many twists to the usual recipe like this healthy banana bread recipes and many others.
