BANANAS IN COOKING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 116, 12 September 1941, Page 45

BANANAS IN COOKING

UCH a _ useful fruit, the banana, as well as being nourishing! It can be used in puddings and trifles and cakes, and even in savouries, besides being one of the very best and easiest things to eat if you have to postpone a meal, and want to stay the pangs of hunger. Bananas contain glucose, which is good for health and energy; and they are a great help in varying the menu. Banana Blancmange Make a cornflour blancmange in the ordinary way, flavouring it with grated lemon rind. Then, just before pouring it, into the wetted mould, stir in some

thinly sliced bananas, and leave it to set. This is really very nice indeed, especially if served with cream, and very nourishing. Banana Toast Five ounces of cheese, a small teacup of banana pulp, 3 ozs. butter, 1 egg yolk, some chopped parsley and some rounds of bread. Toast the bread, spread’ with butter and keep hot. Grate the cheese finely and peel and mash up sufficient bananas to make the pulp. Melt an ounce of butter in a saucepan, add the grated cheese and the banana pulp, and stir over a low heat until creamy. Draw away from fire, and stir in the egg yolk. Cook gently for a few minutes, season with a little mixed mustard, pepper and salt, spread the mixture generously on the. buttered toast, and garnish with finely chopped parsley. Banana Pastry Six ounces of flour, 314 ozs. butter, VY, spoon baking powder, a pinch of salt}\l oz. castor sugar, 1 mashed banana and a very small egg yolk (or half an egg yolk). Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl, and rub the butter in lightly with the tips of the fingers. Work

in the banana, well mashed, and mix to a pliable dough with the yolk of egg. This pastry is very nice for open tarts, Banana Coconut Tart Half a pound of flour, 4% cup sugar, "Y4lb. butter, 1 cup desiccated coconut, 1 egg, and a little milk to bind. Make the coconut pastry with the above ingredients, roll it out and line a tin or plate with it. Bake it a very light brown, and spread with raspberry jam. Slice three bananas on to this, and add the juice and grated rind of a lemon. Pour over this a custard made with one egg to a breakfast cup of milk, a dessertspoon of sugar, a pinch of salt, and a grating of nutmeg and bake until the custard sets. This is excellent served with cream. One Egg Banana Cake This is described, by the Wanganui lady who sent it, as a "very light and spongy mixture, and beautifully moist when cooked." She also says that she does not think it could be improved upon! So here it is: 2 tablespoons butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, 112 cups flour, 2 or 3 mashed bananas, according to size, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and the same quantity of carbonate of soda in 2 tablespoons of milk. Cream the butter and sugar, and add the mashed bananas and the egg well beaten. Next add the flour sifted with the baking powder, and, lastly, the soda, dissolved in the milk. Bake about half an hour in a moderate oven, ice with vanilla or bananaflavoured icing, and decorate with walnuts, Bananas and Rice Boil half a pound of rice in sufficient stock or water to be absorbed when the rice is tender. A small bunch of herbs and a piece of onion are tied in a piece of muslin and boiled with the rice to flavour it, and this bag is afterwards removed. Pack the cooked rice in a small cake tin to set; turn it out on a hot dish, and place fried eggs on top, and arrange fried bananas and rolls of grilled bacon around it. Serve hot for breakfast or lunch. To fry the bananas, cut them in halves lengthwise, and dip in flour, then in beaten egg, and again in flour, and fry in hot butter. Steamed Banana Pudding This is very good indeed, served with cream, and quite substantial. Six ounces of breadcrumbs, 3 ozs. shredded suet, 2 ozs. sugar, 3 or 4 ripe bananas, 1 egg, and the juice and rind of either a lemon or an orange. Slice the bananas thinly, and mix with the other ingredients; add the egg well beaten. Pour into a greased basin, and steam for two and a-half hours, or make it without suet, just mashing 6 bananas and stirring into them 6 tablespoons of sugar, 40zs. breadcrumbs, the juice and grated rind of a lemon, and 2 well beaten eggs. Steam this for about two hours in a buttered basin,

Banana Mock Cream Beat together the whites of 2 eggs, and one sliced banana. Beat until very stiff. It will be found that the banana will dissolve -and help to form cream. Banana Sponge One teacup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk, %lb. butter, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 small teaspoon baking soda, 1 egg well beaten, 3 firm mashed bananas, and 14 cups flour. Cream butter and sugar, add egg, then flour, baking powder and bananas. Dissolve soda in milk, and add to above. Bake about 42-hour in a moderate oven. This sponge can be either baked in sandwich tins and mock cream filling put between, or in a flat baking tin, with whipped cream on top. Banana Cake (Sent by Poppy). Cream %lb. butter and 1 teacup of sugar. Add 2 well beaten eggs, then 3 (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) bananas, mashed to pulp, Add 114 breakfast cups of flour in which has been sifted 1144 teaspoons of baking powder. Then add % teaspoon soda dissolved in’ 2 tablespoons of milk, lastly, 14 teaspoon vanilla essence. Bake in a moderate oven in a flat tin for half an hour, or thereabouts, or approximately 15 minutes in little patty cases, Ice with 2 tablespoons of melted butter and enough icing sugar to set, adding vanilla essence to taste. Banana Sponge Cake This is a little more expensive than the other banana sponge, as it has more eggs. Half a pound of flour, 5 ozs. castor sugar, 5 bananas, 4% teaspoon vanilla essence, 3 eggs, the grated rind of half a lemon, 2 teaspoons of baking powder,

and %lb, butter. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream in a basin, Peel, mash and put the bananas through a sieve, then add to the well beaten eggs. Add flour, sifted with baking powder, eggs and mashed bananas, alternately, to the butter and sugar. Stir in vanilla and grated lemon rind. Bake in a shallow well-buttered baking tin in a moderate oven, for about 34-hour. When cold, cut in squares, ice with lemon icing. Baked Banana Custard Two bananas, ¥2 pint milk, grated rind of half a lemon, 1 oz. castor sugar, 1 cup of stale breadcrumbs, grated rind of half an orange, and 1 level tablespoon of custard powder, Butter a pie-dish well. Line it with breadcrumbs. Arrange thin slices of banana on top and sprinkle with a little grated fruit rind. Cover with

another layer of breadcrumbs, bananas and fruit rind, then top with breadcrumbs and slicdd banana. Make the custard with the milk, custard powder and sugar. Pour over the pudding. Sprinkle with a little grated nutmeg. Bake in a moderate oven for about 45 minutes. This is enough for two or three persons, Banana Pudding Six bananas, 6 tablespoons sugar, 2 eggs, 4 ozs. of grated breadcrumbs. Stir the mashed bananas into the sugar, the well beaten eggs, and the juice and rind of one lemon, Mix this thoroughly. Pour into a buttered basin and steam for about 2 hours,