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Worldwide Locations
Chinese Toffee Bananas
Ingredients
1 egg
185 ml/6 fl oz/3/4 cup cold water
125 g/4 oz/1 cup plain (all-purpose) flour
peanut oil for deep frying
4 firm ripe bananas
Sugar glaze
375 g/12 oz/1 1/2 cups sugar
125 ml/4 oz/1/2 cup cold water
2 teaspoons black sesame seeds
Directions
Beat egg, add water and beat again, then add flour all at once and beat
until smooth. Let batter stand while making glaze. (To make the glaze,
heat sugar and water in a small heavy pan, without stirring, until
golden. Add the sesame seeds, remove from heat.) Start heating oil for
deep frying, as the success of this sweet depends on having the glaze
ready and the oil hot enough at the same time!
Slice bananas thickly, dip into batter to coat, then take one piece at
a time and drop into the oil. Do not crowd the pan or they will stick
together. If the temperature of the oil drops too much the batter will
be heavy and absorb too much oil.
As soon as each piece of banana in batter is golden, lift out with a
slotted spoon and put immediately into the saucepan with the glaze,
turning to coat all over. Lift out and drop into a bowl containing cold
water and ice cubes. The glaze will harden and become brittle almost at
once. Lift out quickly onto a platter which has been lightly oiled to
prevent sticking. Serve as soon as possible, while sugar is brittle and
batter crisp.
Recipe excerpted from Encyclopedia of Asian Food by Charmaine Solomon (Periplus Editions, 1998)
I was SO looking forward to making these, but I found a) the batter was too thick, and b) there was WAY too much water in the glaze to make a nice thick toffee, so much so, that it didn't solidify in the iced water!! They tasted OK, but looks wise - not at all like the picture here.
I will make them again but will make a proper toffee using much less, if any water and will make the batter a bit thinner!
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