Banana Que

Saging na Saba (Cardava Bananas) trees are common in the backyards of Filipino homes especially in provinces. I grew up with saging na saba as my frequent afternoon snack either in the form of turon (Banana Rolls) or  Banana Que, and sometimes, inihaw (Grilled Banana). These are all popular street food, so even during times when we didn't have saging na saba from our backyard, they were always readily available. My favorite is Banana Que which is deep fried saba with caramelized sugar coating in bamboo skewer. It is called such because like the Filipino Barbeque, it is on a bamboo skewer. But it is not grilled. The skewer is just for ease of handling and eating.

Just like me, Clarise and Cherlin love banana que...and we all like it with crispy sugar coating. So unlike my mother who used to add a little water on the caramelized sugar, I don't. Her way of cooking banana que results in a soft and smooth sugar coating. Mine has a crunchy texture.

I'm also sharing this on  Food Trip Friday, Foodie Friday, Fat Camp Friday, Friday Potluck@EKat's Kitchen,  Feed Me Tweet Me Follow Me Home.

Ingredients:

• 4 Large Cardava Banana (not over ripe)
• 1/2 cup sugar in the raw (this gives a better crunchy texture compared to regular brown sugar)
• Vegetable oil
• 3 bamboo skewers 

Procedure:

1. Trim both ends of each Cardava banana and peel off the skin. Bias slice one of the bananas into 3.

2. In a frying pan, heat just enough vegetable oil to go half way up the bananas. When the oil is really hot, fry the bananas just until both sides turn brown.

3. When the bananas have browned, removed from pan. Remove half of the oil and sprinkle sugar in remaining oil. Add the bananas when sugar starts to caramelized. Toss the bananas until completely covered with sugar.

4. Remove bananas from the frying pan and insert in skewers. Serve warm. 

*This is how the banana cue I used to buy when I was in grade school looked like. One small piece at the bottom and a whole banana on top. Just enough to fill my hungry stomach! :)
Using bamboo skewer is optional, if you wish to sell banana que then you need to have this. But if it's just for home snack, you can just eat it using fork.