Saturday, July 17, 2010

Bananarama II: Steamed Banana dessert - Pais Pisang/Lepat Pisang

pais pisang aka lepat pisang

Bananas for banana I am as you may have seen from my previous entry, 'BananaRama- I run for bananas!' During these past few weeks, the bananas I have bought have been ripened at a speedy rate, I cannot even keep a perfect ripe one longer than 2 days even though I bought them while they are still green! the temperature has been so high lately. Those oh so ripe bananas do not go to waste in my kitchen. Made them into fried banana dumpling (picture at bottom of page) and just now, steamed banana dessert that is wrapped in banana leaves. This brought me back to my Mom's kitchen.

Mmm..still steaming as I took that picture. For my friend, Haniz:) here's the very simple step you can follow.

Ingredients:

Banana leaves for wrapping ( cleaned and cut them into 6 inches wide, making sure to handle them ever so gently, as the leaf tears easily )

8-9 large ripe banana
1/2 cup of shredded Coconut (optional)*
1/4 cup sugar ( optional especially when the bananas are so ripe. it is sweet on its own)
pinch of salt
2 cups of All Purpose Flour (or more if you like it firmer)
[an option of replacing 1 cup of AP flour with 1 cup of Whole Wheat Flour]

* this ingredient reminds me of a lady whom we waited every morning at our college dormitory for my favorite version, lepat with coconut center.


Mix them altogether.


On one leaf, scoop about 3 tablespoon of the mixture, fold part of leaf as shown, then fold the other half to cover. Finally, fold the ends and tuck them at each end, like shown.

Get your steamer ready. As you can see, I am using a wok with a rack placed halfway with water enough for steaming. Make sure you have the water boiling and ready to steam. Put the ready wrapped banana mixture onto the rack. Cover and steam for about 15-20 minutes till it is firm to touch.

Makes about 18-20.


Voila! you have yourself, wrapped steamed banana for dessert. Enjoy!

Ah, I should not forget my all time favorite. Cekodok pisang. Fried Banana Dumpling. Cucur Jompot in my language.

'cekodok or jemput pisang' in Malay, more like a banana fried dumpling [cekodok - looks more like a toad, hence the name, a dark frog curling its body; jemput pisang is little drops of banana. ]

cekodok pisang; fried banana dumpling