It is a startling and yet cast-iron fact that around 7 billion bananas are consumed each year on planet Earth – this isn't bad going for a place made up of just slightly more people. Coupled with the reality that the little yellow boomerangs only grow around the tropics, it would appear that we can't get enough of them.
Bananas and plantains (a coarser and starchier variation of the sweet banana we know and love) constitute a major staple food crop for zillions of people in developing countries. In most tropical countries, green (unripe) bananas or plantains are utilised for cooking and are very similar to potatoes in how they are consumed. Both can be fried, boiled, baked, mashed or chipped and have similar taste and texture when served – mashed plantains are particularly excellent with butter and salt. In addition, one green cooking banana has about the same calorie content as one potato. Somehow, I can't imagine Tyrone people changing to bananas, bacon and cabbage.
In the global market, by far the most important of these banana types is 'Cavendish', which accounts for the vast bulk of bananas exported from the tropics. However, the most important properties making 'Cavendish' the main export banana are related to transport and shelf life rather than taste. Yes, bananas can be even tastier.
If I'm being brutally honest – which I am – I'm not a massive fan of bananas, although they certainly make a great on-the-run snack, especially for breakfast. I would even rather eat Banoffee Pie without the bananas. Sometimes it's such a distinctive taste, it overpowers everything within a 10-mile radius. Plantains on the other hand, I could eat until the sun goes down, although I've yet to see them on a menu this side of the Atlantic. Extra subtle and with infinitely more texture, these little lads are worth looking out for.
Like other fruit, bananas are mainly made up of water but the dry matter is also packed with goodness. They contain varying proportions of sugars and starch (carbs) depending on their ripeness; greener bananas contain more starch while yellow bananas contain more sugar. The sugars give the sweet taste and are a rapid source of energy, making bananas popular with athletes and tennis player in particular. Bananas also contain plenty of dietary fibre that will make you feel full for longer.
Slightly green bananas have the added benefit of starch that resists digestion by the gut's enzymes and ends up fermented in the lower intestines, which also good for colonic health.
Rich in vitamin C, which is essential for healthy skin and gums and for fighting off damaging free radicals that threaten our cells and arteries, bananas also have good levels of vitamin B6, which is important for the formation of red and white blood cells and the synthesis and breakdown of amino acids. Bananas also supply you with potassium, a mineral that affects the balance of fluids in the body's cells.
OK, so they're good for us but apart from eating them as they are or putting them on toast or into Banoffee pies, what can we do with them.
Well, one of the only ways I cook with bananas is baking them in chocolate. It's so simple, it isn't really a recipe.
Take a banana and carefully run a knife along the inside curve to expose the flesh. Break up some chunks of good quality dark chocolate and stuff them inside the skin. For maximum decadence, add a few drops of whichever alcohol you happen to have lying around, whiskey or brandy or sherry; wrap the lot in tin foil and blast in a hot oven for ten minutes.
When you take it out, open the tin foil and extract the chocolatey mess from the skin, trying to avoid burning your fingers too much. Slap on some whipped cream and eat without delay.
"When Eric eats a banana..."
