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Friday, July 29, 2011

Cinnamon Fried Plantain @ Horn Banana - Local Fruits # 3


Have you ever tasted a Ham Chin Peng (咸煎饼Chinese fried “bun”) flavoured fried banana? Haha, this is one.

When I saw a bunch of plantains at a Malay stall, I immediately wanted to buy one. Just this one cost me RM3. It seemed pretty expensive for just 1 banana right? But when I asked Mike’s worker, who owns a banana plantation herself about the plantain I just bought, she said, it’s usually sold at RM5/kg. So, the one I got was worth the price. But she also commented my banana was not mature when picked. She said, the rear end of the fruit should be more enclosed.



Plantains or Pisang Tanduk(horn banana) as called here are not eating bananas. They are meant for cooking. You can’t peel and eat it like that, you’d puke. It’s starchy and floury when raw, but when cooked, it turns soft and sweet. There are other varieties of cooking bananas here, namely pisang raja (king’s banana), pisang abu (ash banana), pisang nipah (palm banana) and lots lots more. The variety of bananas we have here is crazy. A good selection of eating and cooking bananas. The locals will usually fry this foot long banana with batter. Sometimes it’s sliced, sometimes it’s halved. And when it’s fried half, imagine eating a 2inch wide banana. You really have to gag it in. Hahaha!! Crude!

When Mike saw me buying this, he asked me, “What do you want to do with this? You’re not a Ghanaian.” The reason he said this was that, during his few months in Ghana when he WAS still an Oracle Consultant he ate plantains almost every day for every meal except breakfast. Plantains to Ghanaians are equivalent of rice to us. They serve it steamed and fried mostly. He recognized it the moment I bought it. Hahaha! Which was rather unusual to have him knowing his food. LOL. Shhhh..


It took me more than 2 weeks to get the “thang” to ripen. I wrapped the fruit in newspaper and put it on the counter. Mike’s worker said never put it on the floor as it’ll spoil, so I left it on the counter, checking it every 2 days. She has already warned me it’ll be long as mine was immature when picked. Immature is not the same as under ripe. It’s called 不够水,not 不熟. It’s like mangoes if picked when immature, no matter how yellow they turn later, they’d be sour sour sour. But if they were picked when mature but still green, later on they’d turn sweet and yellow.

Initially I wanted to fry the plantain arranged it in a flower pattern, but then I failed. So, in the end I dumped some cinnamon into batter and fried it slice by slice. The result was a Ham Chin Peng flavoured banana fritter. Hahaha!
I tot it won’t be well received as I also fried some in regular batter, but I was wrong. Everybody loved the cinnamon one. Haha, and they said, it was special.

these are the plain ones


Cinnamon Fried Plantain
Recipe source: Wendyywy

1 big plantain / pisang tanduk / horn banana
The batter
100gm rice flour
100gm all purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 egg
150ml water or whatever amount needed

1. Combine all the dry ingredients and make a well in the center.
2. Break egg into a measuring cup and add in water until it reaches 200ml.
3. Pour egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until a smooth batter is achieved.
4. Peel plantain and slice it thinly, about 3mm thick.
5. Dip each slice into batter and fry on medium heat until golden brown.

22 comments:

  1. I want some please, delicious and so crispy. Yummy

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  2. oh dear.... look superb
    mesti sedap... thanks for sharing here

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  3. I have seen this HUGE banana in the market but have never buy or tasted it before. I think this is usually meant for mashing it up and mix in the batter for frying. I think I will try it one day. Something new on this HUGE banana to me.

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  4. I have seen such huge bananas in my neighbourhood store, but had no idea what to do with it. Thanks for sharing this interesting recipe

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  5. Looks delicious, I like the crispiness of the batter, this is the only way my boys eat their bananas, they refuse to touch all my cakes that have bananas in them:S

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  6. Interesting write up. I love bananas but the varieties here v limited.

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  7. Not much people knows how to eat this, especially Chinese. You make quite a great snack!
    May you have a nice weekend.

    Angeline

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  8. This looks good...crispy on the outside and sweet smooth texture on the inside..mmm slurpy ! thanks for the crispy batter. I shall try this out :)

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  9. This looks very yumms!! I must go home and try this. I have just harvested a bunch of pisang rajas.. 7 combs!! Hehehehe.. I will be going banananananass!! Hehehe..

    It is not easy to find pisang tanduk here.. and I have never tried it before. I must go hunt it down and try. And yes, there is a difference between unripe and not matured...

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  10. Oh, I do miss bananas! this just makes it worse ;)

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  11. Amelia,
    Long time gone lor.



    Nur Misnan,
    hehe... thankyou


    Mel,
    U can try mashing it after steamed.


    Fong,
    Just ripen it and fry


    Jeannie,
    Oh.. my MIL also dun like bananas in bakes, shr said got smell.


    Edith,
    I think if you were to venture into the Malay areas you can find this.


    Angeline,
    Yeah. Most only know how to eat but no idea what banana it is


    Elin,
    Hope u like this


    Food so delicious,
    wah, so many! How to finish up?


    daphne,
    Oh, sorry:(

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  12. I never knew pisang tanduk is plantains. Over here Latin people eats a lot of plantains especially the Cuban and Puerto Ricans. I actually like them really ripe (super soft). Slice them and pan fried with a little bit of butter.

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  13. i'm not very sure abt this banana..why get the green ones and wait? is it very difficult to get the yellow ones?

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  14. Oh, cinnamon in fried banana sounds so special, I think I will love this! I like fried bananas but don't dare to take too often, very heaty :)

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  15. Wah, pisang tanduk...eat already lots of wind in stomach leh......lol!

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  16. Wow! That's a huge banana. The Ham Chi Pang looks really mouth watering! I have never had Ham Chi Pang with banana inside ... only red bean paste.

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  17. Gert,
    oo.. I'll try that next time.


    lena,
    It's hard to even get the green ones.
    Rarely seen to be sold


    Min,
    Yeah, heaty. If eat when cold liao, not so nice, but then not so heaty


    Pete,
    Haha.. then fart more lor



    Shirley,
    It's not ham chim peng, but ham chim peng flavoured fried banana. LOL.

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  18. Wendy if cant get the pisang tanduk, use raja also can right?

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  19. Quay Po,
    Any banana will do.
    I just wanted to introduce this banana to my readers :)

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  20. I've seen plantains before, and always thought they were just very large, underripe bananas! when cooked, do they become sweet too? thanks for the intro to this special fruit! (:

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  21. Shu Han,
    First of all, they must be ripe when they are cooked, if not they will never be sweet. You can't even peel it if it's underripe. The skin sticks to the flesh.
    How sweet they turn out when cooked depends on how mature they were before they were picked.
    Basically, if you get yourself a ripe mature fruit, and cook it well, it will be soft and sweet.

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  22. Just made it and it tastes great!

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