It's probably best to get the jokes out ofthe way early on. While I am, of course, very pleased to see you, Ido also have a banana in my pocket. And in the other pocket, Ihave a plantain! Watch (in your mind's eye) while I perform aquick John Wayne-esque, double-handed, shoot-from-the-hip, pow-pow manoeuvre, before laying my weapons on the table. Hilarious, no?
Both these intriguingly shaped and, let's face it, inherently comical fruits are on my shopping list at the moment. Actually, bananas are always on my shopping list – I really don't think I could live without them. Meanwhile, their sort-of-savoury brethren, the plantains, are a more occasional purchase – I tend to pick them up from an African grocer on the outskirts of Exeter after a visit to a nearby gun shop with my elder son, to stock up on ammunition so he can continue his campaign against our local grey squirrel population… As Iwrite that, I'm thinking I must put squirrels and plantains together in adish – they are both so delicious – but I won't foist that on you today.
Botanically speaking, bananas and plantains are almost the same thing – just slightly different cultivars of the same plant – but when it comes to cooking and eating, they're quite distinct. Bananas, as we all know, have tender, silky flesh and are irresistibly sweet and slightly floral – so good that we eat them raw without a second thought. We cook them only rarely (and should probably do so more). Plantains are much more starchy, much less sweet, and not at all nice raw. When cooked, however, their subtle sugars and delicately granular texture become very appealing, particularly if you season them with salt, pepper and abit of spice. If you like sweet potatoes and parsnips, plantains will probably float your boat. You can find them in some supermarkets, but shops that cater to African, Asian, West Indian and South American cooks are your best bet. My guidelines may not apply to all the different types; astallholder who sells plantains is the best person to further your education.
We all know that ripeness is the key to maximising banana pleasure. Their sweetness intensifies and their aroma deepens as they move through the spectrum of green to yellow to speckled to brown to black. I'd say that journey takes about 10 days in awarm kitchen. You'll know at what point you like to intercept that transformation. For me, it's ashortish window of nicely yellow and slightly speckled for eating raw. My wife, on other hand, eats them tinged with green. (She likes her pears crunchy, too. Weird.) The joy of bananas is that whatever stage of ripeness they're at, there's always something you can do with them. Inthe kitchen, I mean.
Plantains ripen more slowly (very slowly if kept in the fridge). They can be used green, but need plenty of cooking. Ilike to bake green or just-yellow plantains whole, in their skins, at 200C/390F/gas mark 6 for about an hour, until black and tender, then open the skins and serve the hot, crumbly flesh with plenty of salt, pepper and butter, rather like a baked potato. Fried plantain is another favourite and for this you want them reasonably ripe, with the skin yellowish and well-blotched with black. By this point, the flesh is nicely tender and the flavour delicately sweet.
Once a plantain has developed an almost orange-ish hue overlaid with lots of black, it's heading for over-ripeness and may even have patches of mould at the stalk end. Peel, slice and fry without delay – itwill be sweet and delicious. But whatever stage of ripeness they're at, slice off the tip and tail, because the flesh there can be tough. If the plantain is ripe, you'll be able to remove it fairly easily with your hands. With under-ripe ones, just slice the peel away.
A green banana can be cooked rather like a plantain – fried and spiced is good; I've also added them sliced to a piece of fish in afoil parcel, doused in coconut milk and spiked with tamarind and chilli. Anover-ripe example, meanwhile, isperfect for mashing and adding tocakes, ice-creams or smoothies. In fact, the riper the banana, the more flavour and sweetness it will give to a mixture. It's only when they're wholly black, and very mushy, that they need to hit the compost – by then, they'll have developed a slightly over-the-top, fermented taint.
A perfectly ripe banana needs little adornment, but there are a few very easy tricks to turn it into even more of a treat. One of my dad's favourite things is a ridiculously simple banana split: a ripe banana, cut lengthwise down the middle, slathered with raspberry jam and topped with a blob of cream. As for myself, I like a quick banana flambé: a split, just-ripe banana baked for 10minutes, sprinkled with sugar and warmed rum, and set afire...
A fruit that will always make you smile – to look at, to handle, to cook, to eat – has got to be a keeper.
Fried, sliced, spiced plantain (or banana)
You'll need medium-ripe plantains with yellowish skins patched with black: if they're too ripe, they'll go mushy and absorb a lot of oil. This easy dish – the perfect introduction to plantains, though it also works well with a green or slightly underripe banana – is delicious alongside chicken or fish. Serves four.
Around 750g fairly ripe plantains
Sunflower oil
Butter
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
Chilli flakes or cayenne pepper
Sea salt and freshly ground blackpepper
Lemon juice (optional)
Peel and slice the plantains on the diagonal about 7-8mm thick. Heat atablespoon of oil and a knob of butter in a wide frying pan over amedium heat. Fry a batch of plantain slices in a single layer for three to four minutes, until golden brown. Watch them carefully and turn often, because they burn easily. Transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper, then fry the rest. Return all the plantain to the pan with another knob of butter, the garlic, some chilli flakes or cayenne and plenty of salt and pepper. Cook for a minute or two, tossing the lot together, and serve hot, with asqueeze of lemon, if you like.
Easy banana ice-cream
This amazingly simple pud, which has a deliciously light texture somewhere between an ice-cream and a sorbet, is one of my favourite ways of dealing with slightly over-ripe bananas. Serves three to four.
2 or 3 largeish and very ripe bananas – you need 250-275g flesh
200g creme fraiche
Juice of 1 medium lemon, plus zest of ½ lemon
Up to 4 tbsp caster sugar
Peel the bananas, break the flesh into rough chunks and put in a blender with the creme fraiche, lemon juice and zest, and two tablespoons of sugar. Blitz together, taste and add more sugar if needed – you want it fractionally over-sweet, because it will seem less sweet when frozen.
Churn in an ice-cream machine until soft-set, then transfer to afreezer container and freeze until solid. Alternatively, pour into aTupperware-type container and freeze for an hour, until the sides start to go solid. Mash with a fork, mixing the frozen sides into the soft centre, and freeze for another hour. Repeat twice more at hourly intervals, then leave to set solid.
Whichever way you've made your ice-cream, transfer it to the fridge 30 minutes before serving, to soften.
Roasted bananas
Roasting intensifies the sweetness of bananas to a delectable degree. Add a little butter and sugar, and you create an easy banoffee pud with almost no effort at all. Serves four.
6 large bananas, still quite firm
A knob of butter
1 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tbsp soft brown sugar
50g pecans
Heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5. Peel the bananas, cut them in half lengthways and again into 2-3cm chunks, and put into a large oven dish. Add the butter to the dish, then the oil (which will stop the butter burning), and roast for 10minutes. Take out, give the bananas a gentle stir to distribute the butter over all the fruit, and return to the oven for 10 minutes more. Sprinkle over the sugar, stirgently and return to the oven fora further 10 minutes, until the fruit is soft and the buttery, sugary juices are starting to caramelise.
While the bananas are roasting, put the pecans in a small oven dishand roast alongside the bananasfor five to 10 minutes, to toast them lightly. Chop them roughly or just break them up withyour hands.
Serve the hot, toffee-ish bananas straight away with plain yoghurt, cream or ice-cream, and with the toasted nuts sprinkled on top.
