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We bought a bunch of bananas a few days ago, a variety that's green even when ripe, although they do start to get a yellow tinge to them.
Which all means that it's difficult for me to tell just exactly how ripe they are. Unless I poke them to see how soft they are.
Well, I put the bunch of bananas in a wire-frame fruit basket on top of the fridge. There was one turning a bit black, so I knew that at least that one was most likely ready for eating a day or two ago. So*. I grab the bananas by the stem to get a closer grope of them - you know, test to see which banana was the ripes.
And what do you think happened next?
They all instantly separated themselves from the stem and *splatted* to the floor.
Some just had split seams. Two were a little mashed.
Into the cereal they go.
Why can't they just turn yellow like normal bananas? Why oh why oh why?
Well, actually, I don't mind them being green. Except when stuff like this happens. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I speak from past experience when I say the top of the fridge is a bad place for bananas. It can get hot up there, and you want the bananas at room temperature, not heated.
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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Yeah, I know. But when we bought them, they were hard as rocks. So* I put them up to help them ripen. I didn't want to wait a week or more until they were ready . . . Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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They're not plantains, they're bananas. We have many varieties here that I've never seen in North America - some that are about 4 inches long (finger bananas, a bit rubbery, and very sweet, and frequently eaten smashed into rice and curry), some that are red (also very sweet, considered to be dessert bananas), others that are yellow when ripe, others that are green when ripe. Some are short, like the finger bananas, others that are up to twelve inches long. All sweet and basically what you know of as bananas.
What you call plantain are also available here. But this is also where I mention that, in Sri Lanka, all bananas and plantain are locally called bananas or plantain with no distinction made between the general terms.
And I managed to salvage all of them. None of them busted open on to the floor, just to open air, and what with the thirty second rule and all . . . Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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So*, I made a fruit salad tonight to use up all those overripe bananas. Turns out that two were too smashed to make into fruit salad, so they were archived into the freezer for, as mack correctly ascertained, Banana Bread. (Five points to mack!) The rest, all two of them (three were consumed for breakfast, which means a total of seven at the beginning of this saga) went into a fruit salad, boring as it is with only apples, raisins, and dates for company. Oh, and a sherbert sauce, whatever that's supposed to be.
Yup.
And Bob, the cleaning lady was here on Saturday. She mopped the kitchen floor twice. Yeah, I'll call that clean! Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Tis better to test a banana too early than to wait too late until their all too ripe, IMHO. Besides fresh, my favorite way to use an excess of them is to peel, place in sandwich bag, plunk in freezer. Makes a frosty, nutritious treat, better than a popsicle!!
Posts: 216 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I love bananas when they're as ripe as they can get without being brown or black on the insides. Black spots on the outside are fine. That usually means they're just about right.
I can't understand how anyone can enjoy those old hard green unripe bananas that most people eat. But I'm glad they do, since otherwise we could never manage between us to eat the whole bunch at the proper moment of perfection.
I have made recent forays into avocados and mangos, which I'd never bought at the store before. How do you tell when those things are ripe? I think I missed it on both of the above. I love guacamole so avocados are probably delicious alone. Mangos I've never tried but I've heard good reports about them. But I've always learned how to tell good fruit by asking my mom and her showing me specific examples at home or at the store. Verbal descriptions like "firm, but just a little bit soft" don't help much. Trial and error is rather disgustipating.
Maybe I should invite my chef daughter to come visit and go to the store with me. Hey, that's a good thought! Then she can concoct some yummy dishes with the fruits we choose and feed them to me! Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Architraz Warden: Random related question: Anyone else find that there are very few less pleasant textures than a banana that has been frozen and then thawed?
I did that with the last batch, and it had me wondering if I really wanted to make banana bread.
Doesn't that approximate the texture a banana takes on when thoroughly gummed and slimed by an eight month old baby, then offered to you to have a bite?
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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There is a great way to ripen fruit. Put them in a grocery store bag and close it. It's as easy as that. It works especially well for peaches.
Posts: 2064 | Registered: Dec 2003
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Avocados are ripe when they yield slightly to pressure from your finger. Mangoes should yield a bit more than slightly. If they yield a lot, they are over ripe and not too good.
Bananas are ripe when they peel easily. If the peel is on super-tight, that banana just ain't ripe.
I love fruit. Cantalopes are ripe when their stem end smells like...cantalope. Watermelons are ripe if they make a hollow thump sound when you rap on them. If something inside raps back, that's a bad melon. Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I can not eat a banana that is ANY brown spots. I prefer them to be slightly green at the edges. Once they get a single spot, they are banana bread in my house.
Here in Hawaii we have a lot of different varieties of bananas that I never saw on the mainland. My favorite is the apple banana, which are very small (maybe 3 inches at most)with a very firm texture and tangy flavor. Even when the skins are brown, it's still edible.
Williams bananas are tasty and have a good texture, but have too many strings in the peels. They're quite large - 8-10 inches long and maybe 1.5 inch in diameter.
Most of the bananas I ate on the mainland were from Central America and were grown more for their ability to withstand shipping than for taste. Although, even though bananas grow here, they're still more expensive than I ever paid in Idaho. Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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quote:But when we bought them, they were hard as rocks. So* I put them up to help them ripen. I didn't want to wait a week or more until they were ready
In that case, you should put them in a brown paper bag (like from the grocery store) and tightly roll the top (leaving some air space), and leave it on the counter. (In cooler places, I might recommend an oven on very low for the first few hours, but you're in Sri Lanka, so I think room temp will suffice.) Bananas emit a gas that causes fruit to ripen even after picked, and when you put them in a paper bag, the trapped gas bounces around with them and ripens them faster. (This technique works with other fruits, too; you put a banana in with a bag of peaches or pears and it ripens them. If you don't have brown paper grocery bags there, I will have to add that to my list of things to collect and send you.
maui babe, my favorite are ice cream bananas. We get those, apple bananas, red bananas, all kinds of bananas in the hispanic grocery here. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Brown paper bag from the grocery store? What country do YOU live in?
Yeah, I know that, but on top of a fridge works okay. And for the record, I checked out the temp of the top of the fridge, and I was wrong on that score. It's not actually warm. At all. It's the same temperature as the counter ten feet away. So it wasn't even the fridge that did it. It must just've been time. . .
Oh, and your technique also works with plastic bags. Done that many a time.
Apple bananas. I'd love to give those a try. Mmmm. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I thought plastic bags were bad for fruit because it doesn't let it breathe like paper bags do. I like bananas when they're all yellow though, not too soft and squishy.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: In that case, you should put them in a brown paper bag (like from the grocery store) and tightly roll the top (leaving some air space), and leave it on the counter. Bananas emit a gas that causes fruit to ripen even after picked, and when you put them in a paper bag, the trapped gas bounces around with them and ripens them faster.
Ethylene. And apples produce lots of it too.
*restrains herself from commenting on the "bouncing gas"*
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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No, no, no, please, no, do not restrain yourself. We like comments about "bouncing gas". Especially since we have no idea what that means, and it sounds highly entertaining.
So, please, kind, wise, rivka-one. Please expound on the virtues of "bouncing gas".
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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It's not its virtues -- or even its flaws. It's the very idea that a gas could bounce. Gases diffuse, permeate, penetrate . . . I suppose the individual molecules do some bouncing.
Bananas have an optimal ripeness. Too green and they have a horrible bitter taste to them, too ripe and they're too starchy. That said, any too ripe bananas make great smoothies and those that don't I leave to ferment to make excellent banana bread. That creeps Tom out, though, so I have to hide them.
I've never tried anything other than the plain old grocery store bananas. Now I'm curious.
Posts: 1777 | Registered: Jan 2003
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You leave bananas to ferment? Please elaborate on this method.
And I don't know about the Midwest, but out here you can get all kinds of bananas if you look. Farmers' markets, ethnic foods stores, health stores -- even the extra-expensive-and-exotic section at the supermarket. I love baby bananas. Only slightly more expensive than garden-variety, perfect size for a snack, and a lovely creamy texture. I had some yesterday . . . actually, I think there might be one left.
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None of them busted open on to the floor, just to open air, and what with the thirty second rule and all . . . ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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