Overripe banana fabulousity!

Cafe Society
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If you are anything like me, you dislike bananas that are even a teensy bit overripe. One minute they are firm and tasty, the next they are MUSHY and SUGARY and GROSS. And I hate that!

So you buy another bunch, right? And the same thing happens all over again. Today I had seven black bananas hanging out insolently on my counter. Daring me to do something they were. I’m not making banana bread; I am diabetic dammit and banana bread doesn’t float my boat anyway except for the occasional french toast foray.

So I had been flipping through *Sunday at the Moosewood Restaurant *a few days back. It is interestingly broken up into regions/cuisines, the first being South African for some reason. And there was a recipe for banana chutney.

Banana chutney!?!? I spluttered. (Danny Thomas got nuthin on me.;)) The notes said that it was a favorite spread for toast around the author’s house. And I had just whipped up some coconut dal with kale. (Don’t get the wrong impression, I eat meat almost exclusively. But my wife, see, she doesn’t, and so every once in a while I make her something nicely veggie. This was one of those times.)

So I did this:

Soulbro’s Banana Chutney (adapted with various flourishes from abovementioned Moosewood)

7 black bananas
1 inch piece fresh ginger, grated
two very small lemons, with zest grated and then juiced
big pinch ground ginger
big pinch ground cloves
big pinch ground allspice

Peel bananas into saucepan. Mash up good. Add rest of ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes or so. Pour into clean jar. Will keep a couple-two-three weeks.

I was eating some dal and rice and poured some of the chutney from the pan over it. It was fucking awesome. The spicy smell, the almost-vinegary taste, it just rocked it did.

So I had to tell someone, you know. You guys is it. Give it a try and report back.

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D’oh! Wrong forum. Maestro, please?

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I put a stick in an freeze them. Taste great and there’s not the softness to worry about.

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Put them in the blender with milk, ice, and protein powder, and any other fruit you may have. And maybe some vanilla. YUM!

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No prob. I just happened to be wandering by – did you hit “report this post”? You can report your own posts now.

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Damn, that does sound good. I was just looking at Joy of Cooking chutney recipes today, and they all call for like 14 pounds of tomatoes or some shit. Your recipe looks like the right size.

Problem is, I have a 7-month-old banana fiend of a daughter, and wife who eats a banana smoothie for breakfast every day. Not sure how I can get the bananas to the overripe stage…

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(And when I say “fiend,” I mean it).

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Left Hand of Dorkness, I wish you lived in driving distance. I usually avoid bananas that are ripe, never mind over-ripe, so it’d be nice to have someone to pawn them off on :slight_smile: The recipe in the OP horrifies me a little (because you’d be eating way over-ripe bananas. Ahhhhhhh!), so I sure won’t be getting rid of any bananas that way.

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They make delicious banana bread. You’re missing out. I feel bad for you.

I’ve tried using older bananas in my protein shake and have not once had a satisfying result. It always tastes like rotting banana mush.

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Lefty, what a gorgeous fiend! Grrrrr!

Tarwater, agreed. That acrid overripe taste is just awful to me.

elfkin, the cooking/adding of lemon and spice changes the flavor quite a bit. It totally rocked atop of the Indian food I made. Have yet to try it on toast.

Part of what pleased me so much about all this is that I, cheap Yankee that I am, always get a thrill when I use up something in the kitchen. Meatatarian that I am, my greatest skill is slowly torturing vegetables and such to death and then regretfully throwing them away. So when I can rescue something otherwise destined for compost, my chest swells a tad.