Fried Bananas

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reissue

New member
This is a tasty dessert or snack that is surprisingly low cal if you use peanut oil and sub Splenda and skim milk for the real stuff. I put just enough oil in the pan to flip the banana and if the oil is hot the banana isn't in the oil very long, it browns to a crisp in about 40 seconds. I use Splenda brown sugar instead of sugar. Like the recipe says frim bananas work best, even ones that are still a little green taste fine after frying.

6 tablespoons sweet rice flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup skim milk
1 pinch salt
4 medium bananas (the firmer they are, the better)
peanut oil (for frying)

Mix together the flour, sugar, egg, milk and salt to make a smooth, paste-like batter.

Leave to rest for one hour.

Peel the bananas and slice each one in half lengthwise, then across into chunks about three inches long.

Dip the banana pieces into the batter and shallow fry in hot oil for a few minutes or until golden brown all over.

Drain quickly on a wire rack or paper towel, and serve warm.

If you like, serve them with real maple syrup, powdered sugar, or honey, for extra sweetness. I use a little honey and it tastes great. The batter works for any firm fruit or vegi that you want to fry, I've done jalapenos and avocado with this batter too.
 
that would work well with platains as well... :D

Just curious - the last time i looked at labels -there was honestly no difference at all calorie wise between brown sugar and splenda brown sugar... is there a reason why you went with splenda?
 
maleficent said:
that would work well with platains as well... :D

Just curious - the last time i looked at labels -there was honestly no difference at all calorie wise between brown sugar and splenda brown sugar... is there a reason why you went with splenda?
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Yep, the Spenda isn't quite as goopy and disolves a little better. I use it for a few different Asian sauces I make.
 
reissue said:
This is a tasty dessert or snack that is surprisingly low cal if you use peanut oil
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How much fat are you guessing is absorbed? (Standard on battered items seems to be in the vicinity of 25% of total finished weight.) Even assuming 15% of batter weight (so not counting the bananas at all), I'm coming up with 260 calories per, and 9g fat.
 
Yeah, that's the calculation without any absorbed fat. (Recipezaar's policy is "ingredients without discrete measurements are not included in the nutritional information" so they don't add anything for the unmeasured frying oil.) Since you'd mentioned using peanut oil (because of the high smoke point, I assume) and short frying time, I didn't know if you'd estimated how much oil would be absorbed.
 
I wish I knew but I haven't dug that deep. I will say this the batter browns to a crisp in hurry and the banana isn't in the oil for very long. Subsequently when I'm finished frying most of the oil appears to still be in the pan. How would I measure how much is absorbed? Now you have me curious.
 
reissue said:
How would I measure how much is absorbed?
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Hmmm. If you had a very, very precise (need not be accurate, because all we want is the change) scale, you could:

- Weigh your oil, pot, screen for draining, and whatever you use to lift the bananas out at the beginning.
- Cook the bananas and leave them to drain on a screen above the pot, so the excess oil goes back in.
- Weigh the oil, pot, screen, and lifting utensil once everything has cooled.

Figure the batter bits left in the oil offset any oil that migrated out of the weighed items (was aerosolized into the air, for instance), and the change in weight is the oil retained in the batter.

For me, I'd guesstimate based on the published literature, which says between 7 and 50% of finished weight, depending on the item, is absorbed fat. And that's a heck of a lot of fat.
 
if someone is deep frying properly -that is the pan is large enough to hold the volume of food that will be in it.. so that the temp of the oil doesn't drop dramatically (this is where a thermometer in the oil comes in handy) then very very little oil gets absorbed.

(cooking as science fascinates me :D and i've done these experiments - where i'll fry something in a smaller pan - and use less oil -and more oil is absorbed because the temp of the oil drops too much that it doesn't cook the food fast enough)
 
Hi. I just went to the store and I tried to find "sweet rice flour", but I couldn't find it. I also went to Trader Joes, since they have specialty items, and I couldn't find it there either. Where can I find this? And/or can I substitute regular flour for it? Thanks.

Jennifer
 
IIRC, the original recipe calls for regular wheat flour. You can get sweet rice flour in an Asian market - it comes in a box about the same size as a box of cornstarch, but white with a blue star on it.
 
Thanks ally... :)
 
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