Eric Lanlard's Banana Fritters

My fridge is currently full of half opened jars and packets and little bowls of leftovers.  I really need to get better at using stuff up.  And saying that this challenge precludes me from doing so is a really lame excuse.  But sometimes, blue tinged buttercream isn't particularly useful.

With being thrifty and not wasting things in mind, I decided to tackle the issue of a ramekin full of chocolate ganache from last week's Hummingbird Bakery Cupcakes.  I probably should've turned it into truffles or just frozen it.  But it has been sat in the fridge and the cream it was made from goes out of date today so I have had to force myself to find a recipe to use it up.

Two of my five a day?

Said recipe is from an episode of Baking Mad with last week (although personally, I don't class this as baking).  Eric had me rapt the second he mentioned banana fritters.  This is something that my mum used to make for me as a child at Easter when she was making home-made fish and chips on Good Friday.  She always used a fresh yeast batter for this but thankfully Lanlard's recipe uses store cupboard ingredients.

Because I was only making this for myself, I had to reduce the recipe down (it serves six and I'm sure I could've managed the lot) and used just a sprinkle of the spices.  The flavours worked really well with the rum in the sauce.  I'm wondering what it would be like with malice instead of plain rum.  I feel more testing coming on!  

I did find I needed more milk in the batter, but this may just be because my flour was 'thirsty'  The test fritter was really stodgy.  Tasty, but stodgy.  So I added probably added another 2 tbsp of milk (I made half the quantity of batter).  

The dipping sauce used the same ratio of ingredients as I already used for my ganache so I just warmed what I had in the microwave until it was runny and then stirred in a teaspoon of rum.

Seriously, this is a really simple and decadent dessert and great for anyone who loves bananas.  And it's great for sharing.  The warm sauce was lovely with a couple of strawberries dipped in too - just for that healthy factor.

The recipe can be found over on the Channel 4 website, but I'll post it here because I know sometimes their recipes disappear after a show has ended.

Serves Six

• 200g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• 30g golden caster sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 egg
• 300ml milk
• 1 litre vegetable oil, for deep-frying
• 6 bananas
• Golden icing sugar, to dust

For the chocolate dip

• 125g dark chocolate
• 125ml double cream
• 25g unsalted butter
• 2 tsp dark rum

Method

1. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, spices, sugar and lemon zest. Make a well and add the egg and the milk a little at a time, mixing well until you get a smooth batter. Leave the batter to rest while you make the chocolate dip.
2. To make the chocolate dip, place the dark chocolate in a bowl and heat the double cream in a saucepan. Pour the hot cream over the dark chocolate and stir gently until the chocolate has melted. Add the butter and keep stirring until glossy, then add the rum and mix well.
3. Heat some vegetable oil for deep frying in a deep fat fryer or wok to 180°C. Cut the bananas in half lengthways and half again horizontally. Dip the banana pieces into the batter and coat well.
4. Gently place the battered banana pieces into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. Lift out and drain on kitchen paper, then dust with icing sugar and serve with the chocolate dip.