Banana Fritters or Pisang Goreng (炸香蕉）

INTRODUCTION

“Pisang goreng alt. Goreng pisang (fried banana in Indonesian/Malay) is a snack food made of banana or plantain being deep fried in hot cooking oil, mostly found throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines. The banana is battered and then deep fried. Most street vendors will then sell it as is. Restaurants that serve pisang goreng are more sophisticated and present it in various ways, such as with cheese, jam, condensed milk, or chocolate.” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisang_goreng)

Pisang Goreng or banana fritters is so common in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and I believed all household will have its very own unique recipe to deep fry bananas.. It is nothing difficult, just flour and water and some added eggs to it. However, most household will try to use a batter that creates a crispy crust and maintained its crispiness as long as possible.

That is the challenge of preparing deep fried banana fritters that stay crispy for a long time… Hawkers also have a secret recipe that make the banana fritters  stay crispy for a longer period of time… Some rumoured that “plastic bottle” were added to the hot oil such that the melted plastic coated the fritters and making the fritters stay crispy as long as they want. Goggling “ pisang goreng plastic bottle “ will show you much have been talked about in the internet but I have to qualify that this is rumour without any evidence to substantiate the claims..

Crispiness is the key word..Everybody aims to make the fritters crispy.  Every household will tell you different “secret” recipes of theirs and I will tell you mine.. Wait, but I am not telling  you that mine is the crispiest, but it is very crispy for at least for the first few hours..

Among the method that were used for crispier crust are:

• Use of icy cold water
• Use of rice flour
• Addition of corn flour
• Addition of some slaked lime (kapur)
• Adding some hot oil into the batter before deep frying
• Adding of margarine to the batter
• Avoid using eggs in the batter
• Twice frying the fritters
• Deep fried at 185 degree Celsius

I have prepared two batches.. The first batch is using pisang tanduk (round shape) and applying the normal deep frying method followed by refrying to make it crispier. However, such crispiness cannot be compared to the second batch (long shape) where hot oil and ammonia bicarbonate were added prior to deep frying. That crispy fritter is very much similar to those sell in the hawker stalls.

Whether or not you are game to use ammonia bicarbonate, i will leave it to the reader to decide. If you want, you can get it in the local bakery shop.  As a matter of fact, ammonia bicarbonate is still commonly found in the food that we ate such as : You Tiao (chinese crullers), Hong Kong smiling pao, deep fried taro balls etc.) .As per Wikipedia:

“Ammonium bicarbonate is used in the food industry as a raising agent for flat baked goods, such as cookies and crackers, and in China in steamed buns and Chinese almond cookies. It was commonly used in the home before modern day baking powder was made available. In China it is called edible or food-grade “smelly powder”. Many baking cookbooks (especially from Scandinavian countries) may still refer to it as hartshorn or hornsal”

As for the type of bananas, personally, I prefer pisang abu . However, pisang tanduk and pisang raja can also be used. In Malaysia, most will only deep fried banana that cannot be eaten raw. It does make sense since if banana can be eaten raw, why is there a need to deep fry it.. But for readers who have less choices of banana, any type of banana can also be used for deep frying. If you are unsure of the type of banana, image search using Google for “Pisang raja, Pisang abu and Pisang tanduk” will give you an idea. In Singapore, all these 3 types of bananas can be easily obtained from Geylang Serai Wet Market.

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 WHAT IS REQUIRED

• Some banana of your choice (1 medium size pisang tanduk was used for this illustration)
• one egg
• 100 grams of rice flour
• 50 grams of self raising flour
• 20 grams of custard powder
• 20 grams of corn flour (optional)
• 120 grams of icy cold water

Just before deep frying

• 1/2 teaspoon of ammonia bicarbonate
• 1 tablespoon of hot cooking oil or margarine

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Mix all the ingredients (except ammonia bicarbonate and hot cooking oil) until well combined.  If you want to make the batter looked yellowish, you can add pinches of turmeric powder.

• Heat up a pot of hot oil. The oil is consider as hot enough when a chopstick inserted into the hot oil, bubbles start to emit. Once the oil is ready, put one tablespoon of hot oil into the batter and 1/2 teaspoon of ammonia bicarbonate, quickly stir until well mixed. Coat the banana with the batter and deep fry the banana fritters until light golden brown.

• Drain and set aside to cool for at least 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, transfer the banana fritters back to the hot oil, deep fried again until the banana is golden brown. The main purpose is to let the moisture in the deep fried banana escaped via refrying and  hence become crispier.

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CONCLUSION

Do give this recipe a try. It is very crispy and stay longer than my usual way of deep frying. I hope my picture can convince readers to try. If your banana fritter becomes less crispy, you can re-bake at 200 degree Celsius in the oven until your desired crispiness.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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