Sometimes the 'Google' can drive you crazy! Fried Banana help.

[Paper Roses]

Need to find a simple recipe for a fried banana.

In small hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant just outside DC (years ago), we were served the best simple dessert imaginable. I have searched for this deep fried banana time and time again and keep finding other things. I used croquette, balls, other key works and never found the right one.

About 1"-2" chunk of banana, coated with some kind of sweetened flour, deep fried and served hot with a dusting of confectioners sugar. The banana was whole, not mashed.

I would love to know what the coating is made of. One for each included in the price of your dinner. We each ordered another one for good measure. Can't have enough of a good thing.

Any ideas?

[Tesha]

1. Like this?

Goreng Pisang (Chinese Fried Bananas)

Ingredients
8 each bananas peeled
1/2 cup flour, self-rising
1/2 cup rice flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons brown sugar fine
1 x vegetable oil for deep frying
Directions
Slice each banana lengthwise.

Sift flours and add to water. Stir until consistency of cream.

Add salt. Heat oil and, when smoking, dip each piece of banana in batter.

Shake off excess and lower into hot oil. Fry until golden brown and roll in brown sugar.

on edit... another recipe calls for cinnamon and lemon as well

[Paper Roses]

2. Sounds good but that is not it.

These turn out to be round balls about 2" diameter. When they were served hot, they were sprinkled with the powdered sugar.

I could imagine the flours and cornstarch along with the cooking method. The coating, however is lightly sweet but not a brown sugar taste.

[The empressof all]

3. Was it a breading or a batter coating?

If the end product was ball like I'd guess it was a batter. Was it light or dense. Did it remind you of a donut? I'm thinking it might be a beignet or a fritter batter.

Now I really want to make these

http://www.malaysiabest.net/2008/04/23/pisang-goreng-banana-fritters/

[Paper Roses]

5. Batter fried. The banana was cut across, not lengthwise.

The texture of the coating was lightly crisp on the outside, with a thin layer of cooked batter between the outside coating and the banana.

More like a beignet, very light, not as hard and crunchy as a fritter. No evidence of coconut or other flavor.

Looking at them, it brings to mind a chicken croquette, at least the type I make.

[Warpy]

4. Google really is your friend

Here are video instructions. http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Make-Fried-Bananas-36701199

It's a Thai dessert, not Chinese.

Yours probably left out the coconut or whizzed it in a blender to make it finer.

Until I read the description, I though it was bananas Foster, all over the place and great with stuff like ice cream.

[Arkansas Granny]

6. Those look great. I'll have to try them on the family the next time we all get together.

[Warpy]

7. I want to try them too

Tapioca flour is wonderful stuff. I've made Chinese dumpling wrappers out of it using a tortilla press. It's rubbery when raw and nearly transparent when cooked, making shrimp and cabbage dumplings especially beautiful to look at.

The recipe looks really intriguing to me, but I really think one would have to buzz supermarket shredded coconut into nearly a powder to get the texture right.

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's coconut stuck in my teeth.

[Arkansas Granny]

8. I've never used tapioca flour before, but there is an Asian market across the street

from where I work. I'll bet I could find it there.