Banana lovers rejoice! Here is a feast of mouth-watering recipes for your favorite fruit, from breakfast to main dishes to desserts: Crisp-fried plantain chips dipped in fiery pepper sauce. Sea bass fillets grilled in aromatic banana leaves. Caramelized banana cream pie. Healthful smoothies, hearty vegetarian meals, cool banana cocktails, and, yes, the ultimate banana bread, studded with chunks of dark chocolate.
For the best results when using bananas in a recipe, make sure that you use fruit at the proper stage of ripeness. For instance, to get the most banana flavor when you bake with bananas you want ripe, but not overripe, fruit. Bananas that have a lot of spots and are totally brown (even with a few fruit flies flying around) are what is meant by "yen' ripe" in tile recipes. If tile flesh seems watery and has a fermented odor when you remove the peel, the banana is overripe and past its prime. If you want to hold on to your bananas and prevent them from further ripening, you can refrigerate them, but only for a few days. (Do not refrigerate green bananas--the cold will interrupt the ripening process.) Also, be sure to keep your other refrigerated fruits and vegetables away from the bananas as the ethylene gas the bananas emit will affect their flavor and freshness.
Banana puree is used in many of the recipes in this book. Since bananas can vary in size and their yield tends to shrink as they ripen, many of the baking recipes call for cup measurements of puree. (For small amounts yon may also want to try varieties that are smaller than standard bananas.) In the recipes I have given both the measurement and the number of bananas required, but here are some guidelines:
1 medium banana = about 1/3 cup puree
1 1/4 bananas = about 1/2 cup puree
3 medium bananas = about 1 cup puree
You can freeze ripe-banana puree by mixing in a tablespoon of lemon juice per cup and placing small amounts of puree in plastic freezer containers (measure the banana puree before freezing it and label accordingly).
To freeze whole fruit, peel the ripe banana and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap to keep out any air. Frozen whole bananas will keep for several weeks. If you plan on using the bananas within a few days, peel a few at a time and place them in a self-sealing freezer bag--they may stick together, but they come apart fairly easily.
For savory dishes, a less sweet flavor is usually desired. Choose bananas that still have a little green on the tips or ones that have just turned fully yellow with no spots (unless the recipe specifies green bananas, in which case you'll want to use the greenest you can find).
For dessert recipes that call for sauteing or cooking bananas, use bananas that are just ripe so that they will hold up better in the recipe and not turn into mush. For fresh-fruit recipes, sprinkle the bananas or brush them lightly with lemon, lime, orange, or pineapple juice to keep them from turning brown.
