MENA Cooking Club: Djiboutian Banana Fritters

Djibouti was the country assigned for this months MENA Cooking Club challenge.

Djibouti is a small country located in the horn of Africa. The majority of people are Muslims and the official languages are Arabic & French although both afro-asiatic languages of the largest ethnic groups, the Somali & Afar are recognised national languages.
No surprise then that the Djiboutian cuisine consists of a beautiful exotic mixture of Somali, Afar, Yemeni & French dishes.

Hosting this month, Amira from Arabian Mama she gave us 2 savoury choices Skoudehkaris (a meat and rice dish) or Maraq Fahfah (a hearty meat and veg soup with somali origins) and the sweet option being these Banana Fritters.

I wasn't aware we had 2 savoury options until I began to write this post. I didn't want to cook yet another meat and rice dish so i went with the banana fritters, even though i'm not a fan of cooked banana like the kind found in banana bread, banoffee pie etc... they do nothing for my sweet tooth, these fritters have changed my mind, some what.

First off I ripened my bananas in the oven after seeing meriem post this instagram pic of her oven ripened bananas a few days previous. I thought that was the way to go to get the maximum sweetness out of the banana and I convinced myself all would be good.
After being too impatient to wait for her to respond to my question on how she oven ripened said bananas I went to google, was given the temp 300F (about 150C) by wikihow  and time? anything upto an hour!

No more than 20 minutes before my bananas also known as moos were completely black, ooops i thought, they don't look like Meriem's!......

Alhamdu'lillah they happened to be beautifully soft and squidgy, perfect consistency for easily mashing with a fork.

It was then a simple job of dissolving some sugar in water and measuring some flour and cinnamon.

Mix them all together, voila!

Melt butter in a  frying pan and cook fritters until golden on each side, cook for slightly longer than you would regular pancakes as bananas are known for bringing moisture in the bucket loads hence why they are a good replacement for eggs in some baking recipes especially those that cater to the vegan diet.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon with more stress than was necessary making and photographing these simple banana fritters and although it wasn't my greatest triumph in the kitchen it was worth it, they put a smile on my face maybe for no other reasons than that they were soaked with butter and drowned in syrup. Well at least I've learnt how to almost enjoy cooked banana, yes almost.

Check out how other members got on with this months challenge here

Banana Fritters

Source: adapted from healthy-life

Skill Level: Easy

Preparation Time: 5 minutes (not including oven ripening of bananas, see post for details/link)

Cooking Time: 5-10 minutes 

Makes: 8 fritters (2 tablespoon batter per fritter)

Ingredients

3 medium-large well ripened bananas 

57 grams / 2 oz wheat flour ( i used self raising)

28 grams / 1 oz / sugar (i used golden) dissolved in 2 tablespoon hot water

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

butter for frying

syrup / honey to serve

Method

1. Mash bananas with fork to make a pulp, add the flour, cinnamon and sugar dissolved in water stir until you get a batter consistency.
2. In a frying pan over medium heat melt butter. Once butter begins to sizzle add 2 tablespoons of batter per fritter into the pan and fry until they are golden on each side, serve stacked and drizzled in your favourite syrup / honey.