Best Cooking Banana?
 

I have heard a lot about the best dessert type bananas but would like to know the best cooking-type banana. Is there a difference between them?

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

Sorry I mean is there a difference among cooking type bananas.
On another subject, I saw four different types of bananas in our grocery store today. The regular, a yellow finger type, a red finger type and a plantain. I think this shows that they are definitely trying new types in the marketplace lately. Never saw a red type until today.

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

There is a difference in cooking bananas. Some have a lot more starch in them. Hua Moa gets my vote as the best cooking banana - not too much starch. Definitely my favorite. It makes great tostones!

Our local grocery stores have been carrying different bananas also. I have seen red bananas and little tiny bananas labeled as "baby bananas". I've been buying the red ones instead of the yellow ones lately. Love the color of the skins and the taste of the reds.

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

Jeff-I agree with you about Hua Moa for tostones. I was in Atlanta earlier today and picked up some at the market. I just finished frying them up and eating a big plate full of them. Wow, they are excellent.

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

GATrops. you are lucky to find them in the market in Atlanta. I have seen them in the gorcery stores in Miami but unfortunately not in Tampa. They are definitely my favorite cooking banana! You're making me hungry for some good tostones!!

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

Jeff-There is a market on the east side of Atlanta that has a great selection of fruit and produce. I have even bought Durian's there in the past. Yesterday I was able to find Mamey Sapotes, Kent Mangoes, catcus pears and the Hua Moa's. (The prices are really good also.) I have seen the Hua Moa's in the Keys when I have been down there in the past. We never see them around Savannah unless we "import" them ourselves.

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

OK guys, please tell me how to make those. I have a Saba and a Hua Moa that will have fruit and I need to know what to do with them.
I feel ashamed that I live in S FL and don't know how to cook bananas.
ANY recipies appreciated.

Terry

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

for me i take the yellow but not ripe dwarf orinoco and cut into quarters.

cover with sugar and put in frying pan with butter till golden brown..
then i coat with brown sugar and cook till it carmelizes.

some have tasted like french toast... good treat..

i've also taken green d.o. and fried in butter.. they tasted like a potato..

joe posted a cool cooking link "Banana Recipes .. explains a lot better than i..

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

Terry- I pretty much follow the directions for "Deep-Fried Plantain" in the link Southern-Grower mentioned above from JoeReal. The only change I make is that I do not fry them to as golden a color when they are in the oil for the first time. If you want to get them crunchy make sure you do not crowd them in the pan and the oil is not too hot during the second frying. I also recommend a little garlic powder (or any of the "Badia" brand spice mixes) in addition to salt and pepper. They are also out of this world with guacamole and/or salsa.

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

A semi-ripe saba fruit (green with about 15%-25% yellow color) are the most versatile to use. It is firm and yet sweet, in the proper mix. My late grandparents have endless variations of how they are cooked. But when saba is ripe or green, they have very limited cooking choices.

Whatever type of plantain I could get my hands on, as long as they are semi-ripe, I just place a slit-cut through the length of the skin, then pop them in the microwave for 3-4 minutes, then enjoy plainly. I can live with this kind of meal for a year three times a day by just accompanying it with wine or milk, a small salad, and or small portions of cooked meat or fish. The semi-ripe saba bananas are very hard to come by. They are always ripe when they hit the grocery stores. The regular plantain are usually sold as semi-ripe but these are more expensive.

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

Thanks Joe, I tried that last night with some store bought plantains. They were just starting to get some yellow color. I slit one side, wrapped in wax paper and nuked them. I probably over cooked them as they were pretty firm. Wasn't sure if they needed less or more nuke time to get softer. I used 5 minutes.

Explain semi-ripe please.

Terry

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

Joe-I just tried your "3 minute microwave plantain". The result: Excellent! You are correct about being able to eat those 3 times a day for a year. I gave my wife a taste of it and she thought it may be as good as the tostones (and certainly less calories). Thanks again for sharing this one.

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

This is how I make tostones: I cut the plantains into about 1" - 1.5" thick slices and fry in about 1/2" of oil on both sides until lightly browned. Then I take them out of the oil and use a coffee mug to smash them unti they are flattened out and very thin and then return them to the oil and cook until they are golden brown. Take them out and drain on paper towels and season with some course salt or garlic salt while they are still hot.

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

Some plantains from the store are really unripe even if they are yellow and those are hard when overcooked in the microwave. What I'd do for those plantains is to wait until they are a little bit soft. It is quite different with saba which is edible raw even if it has just about 15-25% yellow. A semi-ripe for me is at least palatable and firm when eaten raw, and the middle of the fruit has a slight hint of yellow or orange.

Joe.

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

I'll have to go with Hua Moa...



...these started fruiting this past February. Had a couple of good cold spells that caused a little fruitus interruptus...somewhat stunted, but still had a couple that made it to almost 6 inches long and 2 inches in diameter.

...cut in 1 to 2 inch chunks...into the baking dish...mix brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, orange marmalade, a little butter and a couple of glugs of Myers dark rum...pour on top...bake until done...mighty tasty...Z

Re: Best Cooking Banana?
 

Thanks to Nicolas!

Check out what a South Florida Chef thinks of these bananas:

http://www.bananas.org/f2/hua-moas-m...tml#post144699



Rare Hua Moa Banana-Plantain in the House
Posted on August 27, 2010 by the genuine kitchen| 3 Comments

A ripe Hua Moa (naked and mashed above) is custard-like. Michael and Hedy say it tastes like banana cream pie.
Perched on the food bar today is a stalk of Hua Moa, a rare banana-plantain cross brought to South Florida from the Pacific Islands in 1960 by William F. Whitman Jr., a self-taught horticulturist who became renowned for collecting rare tropical fruits from around the world and popularizing them in the United States. The sample is courtesy of Slow Food Miami’s Donna Reno and Noel Ramos, who hooked us up with Larry Siegel, a Brooklyn-born fruit tree grower in Davie, FL.
“I lived in Brazil for a while and liked exotic fruits,” he explains. “I started with lychee, cherimoyas, longans, avocados… They took a big hit during hurricanes Irene and Wilma. Coconut, papaya, and bananas always hang on!”
Siegel’s been at it since 1996, and his 35 acres are divided into rows that intermix the different tree varieties, alternating coconut, then banana, then coconut, etc. It’s a technique that benefits both, promoting good growth and taste.
Hua Moa was originally from southeast Asia but was carried to the South Pacific in canoes and rafts to the Marquesas Islands and then on to Hawaii. It’s now cultivated in South Dade by a handful of small growers like Siegel. It is the only place in the continental United States where they are found. Slow Food Miami is co-nominating the Hua Moa with Slow Food Hawaii for Slow Food USA’s Ark of Taste, a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. Read more about the Hua Moa below, and the Ark of Taste here.
* This unusual plantain is a culinary favorite in Cuban, Caribbean and Central and South American communities
* Its name comes from the Polynesian word for “Chicken Egg” as the fruit is egg-shaped; it’s also called Hawaiiano
* The fruit can be eaten fresh or cooked, when the skin is either green (under ripe) or dark brown (ripe)
* Hua Moa has poor cold tolerance, and requires intensive care; it’s recommended only for planting with disease-free material in warm, protected sites free of Panama disease
* Hua Moa grows 10 to 12 ft. and is produced commercially on the east coast of Florida; the elongated melon-shaped fruits are 6 to 11 inches long and 3 inches or more in diameter
* The fruit is sour in taste, sometimes sweet, typically eaten baked with cinnamon and sugar, smashed and fried green (tostones,) or in meat soup (Colombian)
Information from Slow Food Hawaii’s Ken Love on Hawaiian bananas:
* Hawaiian bananas are all endangered and all more susceptible to disease than other bananas
* Most are critically endangered in Hawaii with many varieties having fewer than 600 stands left in the US
* A dozen or more types of bananas have been lost to disease and various critters. Its essential that we protect what’s left regardless of where it is grown now
Rare Hua Moa Banana-Plantain in the House | the genuine kitchen




http://www.slowfoodmiami.com/wp-cont...eb_revised.jpg



Oct. 26: Ark of Taste Dinner


Recipe: Hua Moa Tostones
Posted on October 1, 2010 by the genuine kitchen| Leave a comment
In Miami, we’re spoiled by tostones. They’re everywhere! So when we received our first samples of the rare Hua Moa plantain, and they were green, we immediately thought of frying them up.
These revelatory tostones, which you can now make at home with Michael’s original recipe below, are just the jumping-off point. Michael, Hedy, and Bradley have all been planning our menu for Slow Food Miami’s October 26 feast, er, event to celebrate Hua Moa’s nomination into the Ark of Taste. As the not-so-secret ingredient, it will appear in no less than 11 items! There is a heritage pig from Palmetto Creek Farms involved, and of course, Hedy has brought the funk in Hua Moa desserts. More details to come on Slow Food Miami’s website. For the record, we warned you tickets would move quickly!
Hua Moa Tostones
Yields 12 to 16 tostones
Step by step Flickr set here
I’ve had some good tostones, but never anything like this. What happens when the rare Hua Moa plantain hits hot oil is a thing of greatness. Crispy on the outside and creamy sweet on the inside. It elevates pedestrian tostones – which can be very good – to a whole new level. After testing a few different methods in the kitchen, here’s what we found to make the best. There are few ingredients, but not without specific steps to follow in order for these to come out just right.
Ingredient note: The skin of the unripe fruit is easy to remove with a quick blanch. Make one shallow slit lengthwise, just through the skin. Blanch the slit plantains in boiling water for about 1 minute or until the skin turns brown. Remove them and place in an ice bath. The skin will now be easy to peel and remove.
Hua Moa plantains are originally from southeast Asia and were carried to the South Pacific in canoes and rafts to the Marquesas Islands and then on to Hawaii. The fruit, an elongated, fat version of the common variety, grows about 6 to 11 inches in length and 3 inches or more in diameter, in bunches on 10 to 12 foot plants. It’s now cultivated by Larry Siegel in Davie, one of a handful of small growers in South Dade – the only place in the continental United States where they are found. Larry can ship his Hua Moas directly to any customers in the U.S. via his website or by phone (954.297.6677.) Also some of the Cuban fruit stands in Miami occasionally carry Hua Moas which are known to them as Platanos Hawayano. Try Palacio de los Jugos, but call first (305.264.4557.)
4 unripe (green) Hua Moa plantains, peeled and sliced into 1 ½ inch rounds
Vegetable oil for frying
Kosher salt for seasoning
Heat 4 inches of oil to 350 ºF in a countertop electric fryer or deep pot. If you don’t have a deep-fry thermometer, a good way to test if the oil is hot enough is to stick the end of a wooden spoon or chopstick in it. If bubbles circle around the end, then you’re good to go.
Fry plantain rounds all together for about 1½ minutes or just before they start to turn golden. Remove from the fryer with a slotted spoon and transfer to an aluminum bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rounds sit for 5 minutes. Leave the oil at temperature on the stovetop.
Place one round at a time, cut side up, on the center of a lightly-oiled wooden cutting board. Using both hands on each side, take another small oiled board or flat surface and press down evenly to flatten the disc to ½ inch thick. Carefully lift the board. The plantain disc will now be about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. To remove, carefully slide a chef knife under the disc to transfer to a plate. Repeat, layering with squares of parchment paper.
Fry the discs, this time in batches of 3 or 4, without crowding, for about 2 to 3 minutes more or until golden brown. With tongs transfer plantains as fried to paper towels to drain. Season generously with salt and serve immediately, straight up.
Recipe: Hua Moa Tostones | the genuine kitchen