Snack – Page 3 – AMCARMEN'S KITCHEN

Hello Everyone! Today’s recipe is one that my mother has been making for a while now and is loved not just by my sisters and myself, but also by my high school friends who have had the lucky chance to indulge in these simple but delicious banana fritters, or also known as Turón Plátanos. For short, it is known in the Philippines as Turón and is a very popular street food snack/meryenda. It is made up of thinly sliced bananas (preferably saba or plantains) and a slice of jackfruit, dusted with brown sugar, rolled in a spring roll wrapper and fried. Since I am not a huge fan of jackfruit, we skipped that ingredient so that I could have some to eat! You can classify it as a dessert as well as others call it a caramel banana spring roll and serve it with ice cream on the side.

One day, I’m guessing probably 5 or 6 years ago, my mom fried these up for breakfast/afternoon tea(?), I actually cannot remember for what meal of the day, and I wanted to dip these spring rolls into something so I took a bottle of ketchup and poured it into a small plate. I then dipped a spring roll into the ketchup, bit into it, and was surprised to find out that it wasn’t a savoury spring roll (because during that time she also made spring rolls that had minced pork filling). The taste was unbearable, as in the pairing of tomato ketchup and banana was just not a good one. I told my mom and sisters about it and they could not stop laughing, and even to this day they would still ask me if I would like some ketchup with my turón.

Here’s a tip that you might want to follow: what my mom does is that she makes a whole bunch of turóns, 40 to be exact, as there are 40 sheets in a pack of spring roll wrappers. Once they have been wrapped, she puts them into a container and freezes them overnight and fries them the next day, straight from the freezer, no defrosting required. She says that this way the rolls are crispier when fried. Also, making them in big batches and freezing them allows you to fry them over a few days/weeks instead of having to make just a few each time you feel like having some.

PREP TIME 24 HOURS* | COOKING TIME 4-5 MINS | MAKES 40 ROLLS

*This includes setting aside the rolls in the freezer overnight before frying.

INGREDIENTS

10 ripe plantains, cut into 4 lengthwise
1 pack (40 sheets) large spring roll wrappers
1 cup brown sugar
Cooking oil, for frying

METHOD

Add the brown sugar to a small plate so that you can roll the plantains over it and coat them with enough sugar. Then place the sugar coated plantain on top of a spring roll wrapper and fold, locking the wrapper on each side.
Place in a container and repeat until all the plantains have been sugar coated and wrapped. Freeze overnight.
In a small (or medium, depending on how many you’re going to fry) pan, heat the oil over medium-high. Make sure it is quite hot before adding the wrapped plantains in. Fry until the wrapper turns golden brown.
Drizzle with caramelised sugar (optional) and serve hot for dessert or meryenda – with ice cream on the side if you wish. Enjoy!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Hello everyone! And sorry for a very late post (1:27am Sydney time). I basically just finished cleaning up after a late dinner hosted by 3 other people and myself. It was a Malaysian-Asian themed dinner (excluding the peri-peri chicken we had as our menu evolved though out the night). I really wanted to make a dessert for the night, and I remember watching Uel and Shannelle from My Kitchen Rules whipping up this dessert and so I decided to have a go. Mind you that this was my first time ever making it and I was so glad on what a success it has been! Everyone loved it! I call it beginner’s luck 😛

I actually looked at two different recipes to make this dish so please do check out the original recipes below:

So here’s today’s recipe: Kueh Ketayap (Pandan Crêpes with Coconut filling)

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 45 MINS | SERVES 16 CRÊPES

INGREDIENTS

For the pandan extract:

12 pandan leaves, cut into short pieces
1/2 cup of water

For the crêpe batter:

4 eggs
2/3 cup pandan extract
1 1/3 cup of water
1 cup milk
2 cups plain flour
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

For the coconut filling:

3 cups shredded coconut
90g gula melaka (palm sugar), roughly chopped
3 tbsp water
1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp cornflour, mixed with 1 tbsp of water for thickening

METHOD

Place the pandan leaves and water into a blender. Blend until the leaves are chopped very finely. Pour contents through a fine sieve and press against it using a spoon to draw out any extra juice. Discard the leaves. Tip: if you keep the extract in a sealed bottle, you can keep it for up to one week in the fridge. Do not freeze though.
Mix all the batter ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl and cover with cling wrap. Let it rest for at least half an hour.
Meanwhile, cook the gula melaka and water in a saucepan until syrupy. Add in the shredded coconut and salt, and mix thoroughly. Add the cornflour water mixture and cook until thick. Set aside and leave to cool.
Warm up a crêpe skillet under low heat with 1/2 tsp of butter. Melt butter and swirl around the skillet to distribute it. Ladle the batter in the pan. Distribute the batter thinly by turning the skillet. Cook until set and remove from the pan. Repeat for the remaining batter (should make about 16 crêpes).
Put 1 tbsp of filling on the crêpe and roll tightly.