Green Banana Flour

Green Banana Flour

Preparation of banana

• -          Wash green bananas in water with a little vinegar (or lime) added. This helps to prevent bananas from getting extra brown (oxidized) when peeled.

• -          Peel green bananas and slice them thinly lengthwise (easier to handle this way).

• -          Put sliced bananas into clean water with a little vinegar or lime added.

Drying of banana

• Remove sliced bananas from water. Grain off some of the water.
• -          Spread sliced bananas onto a sheet of zinc and place in full sunlight. A plastic container can also work if you do not have a large metal surface to put the bananas on for drying.

• -          When you see that they have begun to dry on one side, turn them on the other side.

• -         Make sure you do not leave the bananas out until late evening (doing this can dampen them and make them prone to mold/mildew).  

• -          Store overnight in a tightly closed container (or in cloth)

• -          As soon as the sun rises high, put the bananas out again and make sure to take them in before the sun goes down and dew falls.

• -          Do this for three to four days (or until banana is perfectly dried - banana will break/snap easily when pressure is applied to it)

Sun dried green bananas

Courtesy of Ellis Guzman (DUF member)

Making into flour

• -          If you have a mortar and pestle, you can pound it until it breaks into fine pieces (same process when beating hudut). Strain/sieve to get the powder. Continue beating the large pieces until you are satisfied that you have enough powder.

• -          You can also use a blender, a food processer or a magic/ninja bullet to get the powder. This process is faster and easier. You may not need to sieve the product when using this. Most can give fine powders.

Put dried bananas in a plastic bag or a piece of cloth and pound to make smaller pieces before putting into magic bullet container.

Let this blend for 30 seconds, stop, and repeat process until banana is finely powdered

Powdered green banana

Storage

• -          Store in a sealed plastic bag or a container with tight lid.

Banana powder placed into two plastic bags and tied

(to be used to make banana porridge, banana shake, and pancakes/waffles)

Making banana waffle or pancake by Kaydoc

Ingredients

1 cup plain banana flour (no other flour added)

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

Pinch of salt

2 - 3 eggs

2 tablespoons coconut oil

3/4  or 1 cup cups milk

 

Mix ingredients until you get a smooth consistency. See below.

Heat up your waffle iron or pancake maker and spoon in the batter based on the capacity of your appliance. 

I use 1 1/2 spoons of batter.

You can add toppings to your waffle/pancake based on your preference. 

I added chocolate syrup to one and honey to  the other and sprinkled them with pecans. 

Just be creative folks. 

You can use other syrups, powdered sugar, whipped cream, other nuts, fruits (fresh/dried), seeds, etc.

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Interestingly, you can make flour out of any commonly found starchy foods - yam, coco, dasheen, breadfruit, potatoes, sweet potato, cassava, rice, corn, plantain, blogo, etc.

(added benefit - all these are gluten free)

The ingredients needed to make these into commonly used foods remain the same or similar to what we are used to with ordinary white or wheat flour.

Each will provide a unique texture or taste. 

Keep an open mind and continue to eat healthy and local.

*Cassava will take in more water than the other flour types due to its water absorbing property. Be mindful of this when using the flour in recipes. That is, you may need more liquids in the recipes.

Let us NOT waste food. 

If you do not have a food dehydrator, do dry your food using the Belizean sun. 

The weather is perfect for this.