I have flipped past 14-18: Fried Bananas many times as I’ve gone through these books over the years, and it’s finally time to make it since I live with someone who will actually eat it.
My dad likes fried bananas a lot too–I thought our favorite Chinese food restaurant from when I was a kid served them, but I don’t see them on the menu any longer. I could have sworn I remember him eating them there.
When I searched “fried bananas Chinese restaurant”, it appears it was a 1980s thing in general. Given that both this book and I are from the 1980s, this all makes a lot more sense now.
Pay attention to both the “Good served with” and TIPS sections–both are important to this recipe.
Ingredients. I’m only making this for one person, so I’m only using one banana. I don’t know how best to scale the batter for just one banana though, so I’m gonna just make the whole thing when it comes to that part.
I plan to serve this with some vanilla ice cream, honey (courtesy of my parents’ neighbor in TN), and lime wedges, as shown/suggested.
Making the batter.
After adding the egg and whisking. Notice I still use the real cards when I make these recipes.
Starting up the oil. If I were making the full set of bananas this would probably be enough oil, but it ended up being too much for just one banana.
I also made the choice to slice the banana thinly–probably should have gone with the chunkier cut like they show.
Soaking the banana pieces in the batter.
Still waiting for the oil to come up to temperature–I set up my “line” while it heats. I need to go find my thermometer.
Found it–it even clips onto the pot. We’re just about there–if you look closely, you can see it’s right at the “deep fry” line.
I drop the first banana piece in, and the oil starts to bubble. This is going to get messy…
SO SO messy. I HATE deep-frying, it’s always a disaster.
Now that my kitchen is covered in oil, I produce my fried banana pieces.
Final plating, complete with honey, ice cream, and lime. I was told it was good, but a little soft and mushy. I think bigger pieces and perhaps pre-freezing the banana pieces could resolve that, but otherwise, it’s fried bananas.
The ice cream with honey (sans bananas) that I had was lovely though.
Grade: B–
