Thursday, May 18, 2006

Caramel deep-fried banana

Deep-fried banana is one of the easiest dessert to make. It can go a bit elaborated to please the party crowd, but it's still very delicious as it is.

Ingredients (for 4 persons):

2 banana, ripe but not soft, peeled, cut into 1 inch thick

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup plain flour minus 2 Tbps

2 Tbps rice flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

optional: caramel or honey or maltose

optional: chopped nut

Steps:

1. To prepare batter: mix flour, rice flour, salt, baking powder and buttermilk.

2. Dip the cut banana in batter and deep-fry it in medium/medium-high heat until it turns golden.

3. Drizzle with honey/ maltose and sprinkle some nuts.

In Hongkong some restaurants like to dip the deep-fried banana into hot caramel, then drop it in cold water right away, drain immediately. This way each deep-fried banana is coated with crunchy caramel. It is fun to eat and fun to watch. But in a home-kitchen to complete the whole task the timing is a bit tricky, especially when there's a party going on. Therefore, I prepared this caramel "basket handle" beforehand, later I used it to garnish this banana dessert.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

It's me again *what a pain right?* Having a hard time catching up with your posts these few days ;p. Looks like you've been busy as a bee in your kitchen.

Your banana dessert is simply breath-taking. Are you talking about 'Ba-Si', where all the bananas(or apples) are caramelized and you use a pair of chopsticks to pull each piece, resulting in long strands of caramel.

Anonymous said...

Looks fantastic! The baskets make a really fun looking presentation.

Gattina Cheung said...

Angie,
right "ba-si" (pulled sugar threads). It's always served at Shanghai restaurants in Hk, but camarel on banana is too sweet for me, so I used maltose and nuts instead.

surfindaave,
oh thanks! I found it's so much fun to make the camarel. Next time will "play" with another shape...

archana said...

Gattina,
How do u do this ??? Oh my !!!!
Caramel cage looks fabuluous, i have made this once before, using a fork to pull sugar. Never knew anything about ba-si, thank you for the new info. I visit your blog almost everyday, and you never fails to impress me. You really seem to have every artistic inclinations in just the right proportions. WOW !!!
Archana

Gattina Cheung said...

archanat,
You have a surperb skill in cake decoration, I believe your camarel will look better than mine :D This one I made not by pulling, just drizzled it on parchment paper.

zlamushka said...

I came here throgh google and I must say : 'I am glad to have searched a recipe for Chinese deep-fried bananas'. You have a beautiful blog full of stunning pictures.

Thanks

Gattina Cheung said...

zlamushka, thanks for your visit :) The rice flour used here will yield a crunkier crust, hope you'd like it as much as I do. Zla, I see your blog just wonderful, and drool over quite many dishes you made! After I settle down (moving to a new flat now), surely pay you more visit!!