Whether it’s a sweet or savoury dish you want to make, the humble banana can be elevated to new heights thanks to Sally El-Arifi’s book, The Little Book of Bananas.
With over 80+ recipes inside, you can rustle up a variety of mouth-watering dishes from scrumptious red Thai banana curry to delectable green banana fries. Or if you’re craving something classic, treat yourself to some banoffee cupcakes or kick back with a banana martini.
Sally is a baker and chocolatier and in her book she guides you through classic pairings as well as modern twists to showcase the versatility of the beloved fruit, from the parts you love to the parts you would usually throw away. Sally tells us what inspired her new book.
Bananas are greatly important around the world. Every part of a banana is used in some way, from the fibres for fabric in Japanese culture, the sap in fabric dye to the leaves for cooking – the whole plant has many uses. Most well known, of course, is eating it.
I can still remember sitting on the counter while my mother recounted each step of banana bread to me. I was six and it was the first cake that I learnt how to bake. She measured everything by eye and I guess I absorbed the skill by watching her. This was when I fell in love with food and this love of food led me to specialize in food science and nutrition at university. I wanted to really understand the science behind the ingredients used in baking. It is this knowledge, in addition to my professional experience as a chef, baker and chocolatier, that you can take advantage of throughout this book. It is my fervent aim to help chefs and bakers of all levels to learn more about the food we eat and how we can use ingredients in unexpected ways to create something amazing.
Later in life, when I turned my craft to baking, I tried to apply the same freehand attitude in my mother’s cooking to my work and I failed miserably. Invigorated by my botched experiments, I threw myself into the science of it all. Although my soap- tasting experiments weren’t always appealing (do not overdo it on the baking powder), I was able to couple my instinct to craft like my mother with applying the chemistry of baking to create some of my best recipes. You see, relying solely on instinct wasn’t enough when it came to baking; my recipes needed the order, the structure of science to back it up.
In the middle of my journey, I may have fallen out of love with bananas briefly. Banana-flavoured medicine was something I, like many children, had to endure when I was unwell, which had left a long-lasting sour taste in my mouth, forever associating banana flavouring with being off school and re-runs of daytime TV. Eventually, I wanted to rediscover the love of bananas I once had but because there were very few banana-centric recipes out there, I needed to start multiple recipes from the ground up, which was a lot of fun. Thankfully, as time passed, I came to love the fruit again.
Bananas are incredibly underrated. They have such varying characteristics, from green to brown, and can bring something unique and amazing to any sweet or savoury recipe. To create this book, I expanded my already vast collection of banana recipes to really take advantage of the fruit’s versatility.
The first time I realized that you could cook the banana peel was incredibly exciting for me. Not only did it reduce food waste, but it was a new ingredient to try. My taste testers (my family) had to deal with some very interesting flavour combinations and textures but when the recipes worked, it was a great triumph.
Bananas also represent so much more than flavour for me. The fruit touches on my Ghanaian, Sudanese and British heritage, from tatale (plantain pancakes) to banana bread. This book is a collection of all the banana recipes that I have created over the years and I am so happy to be able to share them with you. I’ve added some tips to particular recipes that welcome creative flair.
Tickled your taste buds? Order Sally El-Arifi’s The Little Book of Bananas now!
