Bananas: delicious, but hard to type
Mar. 14th, 2006 09:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyI can think of a number of ways to enjoy the goodness of a slippery-skinned, potassium-filled banana: one could simply peel it and eat, slice it and put it on cereal or in fruit salad or perhaps dry the slices into chips, make a pie, a loaf or a banana split, fry it as a fritter or mash it with chocolate and wrap it in foil and place it in a campfire. I'm sure there's more.
One way that I've never thought of is to have them pickled. And yet, poking through my preserves cookbook for interesting things to do with the surfeit of tomatoes my garden has provided, there is the pickled banana recipe, right next to that for pickled grapes (hmmm). I can't even say, "Oh, didn't they eat odd things way back when? It would have gone well with that potted vole", because the cookbook dates from the decidedly not-ancient year 1990.
Perhaps I'm behind the culinary times. Perhaps you're all merrily pickling sliced bananas in white vinegar and spreading them on crusty bread for breakfast. For me, though: ergh!
Pickled Bananas
¾ cup white vinegar
1½ cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1½ teaspoons grated lemon rind
8 cloves
3 cardamon pods, bruised
½ teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
pinch saffron powder
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
13 medium (2kg) firm bananas
Combine vinegar, sugar, rind, cloves, cardamon, peppercorns, saffron and nutmeg in a large saucepan. Stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil, boil, uncovered, for 5 minutes; simmer, covered, further 5 minutes. Peel and slice bananas, pack into hot sterilised jar. Strain hot liquid into jar to cover bananas completely; seal when cold.
From The Australian Women's Weekly Home Library: The Book of Preserves (sequel to The Australian Women's Weekly Home Library: The Curse of the Black Pearl).
One way that I've never thought of is to have them pickled. And yet, poking through my preserves cookbook for interesting things to do with the surfeit of tomatoes my garden has provided, there is the pickled banana recipe, right next to that for pickled grapes (hmmm). I can't even say, "Oh, didn't they eat odd things way back when? It would have gone well with that potted vole", because the cookbook dates from the decidedly not-ancient year 1990.
Perhaps I'm behind the culinary times. Perhaps you're all merrily pickling sliced bananas in white vinegar and spreading them on crusty bread for breakfast. For me, though: ergh!
Pickled Bananas
¾ cup white vinegar
1½ cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1½ teaspoons grated lemon rind
8 cloves
3 cardamon pods, bruised
½ teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
pinch saffron powder
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
13 medium (2kg) firm bananas
Combine vinegar, sugar, rind, cloves, cardamon, peppercorns, saffron and nutmeg in a large saucepan. Stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil, boil, uncovered, for 5 minutes; simmer, covered, further 5 minutes. Peel and slice bananas, pack into hot sterilised jar. Strain hot liquid into jar to cover bananas completely; seal when cold.
From The Australian Women's Weekly Home Library: The Book of Preserves (sequel to The Australian Women's Weekly Home Library: The Curse of the Black Pearl).
