Maruya (banana fritters)

Maruya, or banana fritters, is native merienda item that's popular in the provinces. Well, that was way back when I was a kid. Come to think of it, I haven't had maruya in those days when we'd go to Batangas or Laguna for mountain climbing.  Well, I just might be able to see some again when we go back for vacation.

For this recipe, my wife asked me to cut the bananas into strips. It might be because some of the bananas still needed a bit of ripening and cutting them this way will make sure it gets cooked all the way through (we've had the cooking bananas in our water heater room waiting for it to ripen up but it was taking its sweet time. I decided to cook it after 3 weeks' waiting) . But really, the best way to have this is to just have it sliced lengthwise. I like cutting out three pieces out of one banana.



Ingredients :

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
5 ripe saba (banana plantain), sliced lengthwise into 3 pieces
Cooking oil
sugar for sprinkling

Procedure:

In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt, followed by the milk and egg. Beat until smooth. Heat up enough oil in a frying pan to submerge halfway the banana pieces. Use medium heat.

Roll the banana slices in the batter, letting the excess batter drip back into the bowl before placing into the hot oil to fry. Do not crowd up the pan as the batter will spread a bit and stick to each other if if the pieces are too close.

Fry both sides until golden brown.
Drain on paper towels. Place on serving dish and sprinkle sugar on top. Or you may also roll each piece onto sugar before serving.

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