Friday, February 03, 2012

Banana Possibilities.


I am taking a shortcut today. Life is busy so the post will be short. I give you, in its slightly edited glory, some highlights in the form of banana recipes from an article from the Times of India of March 2, 1914.

Banana Porridge.
Mix one tablespoonful of cornflour with a little cold milk, then pour over it one pint of boiling milk and stir in six mashed bananas. Pour into a lined saucepan, add sugar to taste, and boil for five minutes stirring all the time. Turn into porridge plates and serve very hot.

Curried Bananas. – Soak one teacupful of fresh or desiccated coco-nut in the same measure of milk for one hour. Peel and cut into large cubes five fine bananas, fry these in butter; sprinkle with curry powder, and remove on to a hot plate. Put thee soaked coconut and any milk that has not been absorbed into the frying-pan, add a dash of cayenne pepper and anchovy sauce, a teaspoonful of meat sauce, and mix well. Beat an egg, stir it into the sauce, lay the curried bananas in the pan and cook until they are thoroughly hot. The contents of the pan must not boil after the egg has been added. Serve with the usual curry accompaniments of boiled Patna rice and chutney.

Spinach and Bananas. – Wash two pounds of spinach and cook for twenty minutes; then pass through a sieve. Add one ounce of butter, season with pepper and salt, and pile in centre of an entree dish. Peel four bananas, divide them into quarters, dip each piece in beaten egg, then roll in fine breadcrumbs, flavoured with coralline pepper. Fry in deep boiling fat and and arrange the golden brown fritters round the spinach and serve.

Quotation for the Day.

I think nothing is more exquisite than beef in Kummel, garnished with slices of banana stuffed with Gruyere or pureed sardines with Camembert or whipped cream with tomato sprinkled with brandy or a chicken with lily of the valley.
Chef Jules Maincave (1910)

4 comments:

Auntie Kate said...

Two questions. What exactly is "meat sauce"? I can't imagine they mean beef soup base, or sauce bolognese. Worcestershire sauce isn't exactly meaty either. The other question is, I was raised to believe lily of the valley is a poisonous plant. Does the quote actually mean the spring flower, or something else?

Anne said...

My favourite banana recipe is from our camping days as kids. We would slice a banana lengthwise and stick squares of chocolate in the gap then wrap the banana in foil and bake it in the ashes of the camp fire. When it was done, you unwrapped the foil which served as a plate for a mouth watering dessert of heavenly baked banana pickled in chocolate. You can only cook this dish on the ashes. It never melts the same or tastes the same if cooked in an oven.

Shay said...

I'm going to have to go look for it, but I have a cooking institute cookbook from Chicago in the earl 1950's that offers a dish of bananas broiled with grated cheese.

(ick).

The Old Foodie said...

Thanks Shay, and sorry for the late response - I hereby resolve to try to respond to comments the same day ... Anyway, if you find that recipe, I would be most interested in seeing it (but not in cooking it!)