Macheesmo

I’m not really sure why I was so worried about fried bananas which won last week’s poll. I mean, I’ve fried all kinds of crazy stuff before, especially at last year’s annual Macheesmo deep-fry party! (aka best party ever)

But I’d never even thought to make fried bananas… I’m not even sure why I wrote it in the poll and I definitely didn’t think it would win. But alas… that’s life.

Anyway, turns out I was wrong to be worried about fried bananas as they were very simple to make and very delicious to eat!

If I were to make these again I would only change two things. First, I’d make the batter a bit thicker. Mine was kind of runny and that made for flat fritters rather than big fat round ones which is what I was going for. Second, I’d probably either dust these guys with some cinnamon sugar before eating them or, even better, serve them with a chocolate sauce of some sort.

They were good just plain though!

Fried Bananas (Banana Fritters)

by Nick

Serves:

10-12 fritters

Prep Time:

20 mins

Total Time:

45 mins

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Ripe bananas dipped in a simple batter and deep-fried to golden perfection!

Adapted from Rasa Malaysia's Kuih Kodok Recipe.

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas

1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Egg

1 Teaspoon cinnamon (my addition)

"Some water". I'd guess 1/3 - 1/2 of a cup is more than enough.

Oil for frying

Cinnamon Sugar (optional topping)

Chocolate sauce (optional topping)

Instructions

1) Add dry ingredients to a large bowl. Mix in the egg and “some water”. I’d start with 1/3 of a cup. You want a thick batter.

2) Chop up your banana and throw the chunks into the batter.

3) Heat a fry station to 350 degrees. You’ll need at least a quart of oil.

4) Scoop out a tablespoon-sized fritter and carefully drop it in the oil. Cook for 4-5 minutes until golden brown. I recommend doing a test batch before cooking a bunch of them. As they fry, use some tongs or a slotted spoon to make sure they are cooking evenly.

5) When they come out of the fryer, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and serve immediately!

You might want to start by getting your oil heating in your deep-frying pot of choice because the banana fritter batter comes together very quickly and then you’ll just be twiddling your thumbs.

Making the Batter

The only thing I had trouble with for this batter was that the original recipe called for “some water.” That’s pretty hard to measure so I kind of had to wing it and I ended up adding too much water.

Start by adding your dry ingredients to a large bowl, mix in your egg and then finally “some water”. Maybe start with 1/3 of a cup and see where that gets you. You want the batter to be pretty thick. I’d shoot for the consistency of a runny cookie dough.

For the record, this is to runny.

Next, chop up your banana into chunks and throw it into the mix.

Make sure all the banana is well coated and you’re ready to go! At this point I realized how runny my batter was and I tried to fix it by adding some more flour but it never really got the right consistency. Mine still tasted fine, but probably would’ve had a better texture if I would’ve started with less water. Lesson learned!

Test batch!

You want to fry these bad boys at about 350 degrees for 4-5 minutes or until they are golden brown. Depending on the size of your fritters, which depends on how much you scoop into the fryer for each fritter, they might need less time or more time.

That’s why it’s very important with these (and I’d argue with almost everything fried) to do a test batch. Start with one and see how it goes!

My test banana fritter, for example, went horribly! I only cooked it for about 2 minutes and it was way undercooked.

So I knew to cook them for longer. Once you feel comfortable that you’re gonna end up with something edible, you can start adding your batter using large Tablespoon-sized blobs. Be careful to be gentle when adding the fritter batter to the oil people. Hot splashing oil is not a good thing.

You can do as many at once as your pan can comfortably handle. You don’t want the fritters overlapping too much or the oil going below 300 degrees. I had to do mine in two batches.

As these fry, flip them once or twice using tongs or something metal to make sure they cook evenly. When they are golden brown and cooked through, let them drain on a paper towel for a minute or two before eating them. They’ll be way to hot to eat immediately.

Now would be a good time to add that cinnamon sugar if you’re using it!

Here was a good bite:

Turns out that even though I was too lazy to make any sort of sauce or even sprinkle on some cinnamon sugar and I pretty much screwed up the recipe by making the batter too runny, these were still a surprising success! Just goes to show you that if you fry something, it’ll be good.

Oh and because I know someone is thinking it… yes… you could dip the entire banana in the batter and fry it whole. I’ll add that to the menu for next year’s deep fry party.