FRIED BANANAS WITH PALM SUGAR & CHEESE

Been staying at Grandma's for the longest run ever now. I just broke my own record of staying here for more than a month and actually really loving it. The only downside to this city is that sometimes it gets so hot I'd start daydreaming of rainy days. So here I am,  imagining what I'd eat during a rainy day...and what could better brighten up your day if not with good ol pisang goreng (fried bananas). And no no, I didn't eat this out on a blazing hot day, I ate it in a fully blasted air conditioned room, while sipping tea, under a blanket and having Modern Family marathon. Pure bliss.

At home, we usually just fry the bananas in batter or slighty brown them with butter and then sprinkle over some chocolate sprinkles and grated cheese. This time our relative is staying at home and she made this for us. Although I had suspicion it's gonna be too sweet from the palm sugar coating, but it turned out perfect. Just oh so yummmm!

Ingredients:

5-10 ripe pisang raja (or ladyfinger bananas if you can't find any of these), split lengthways

1 cup rice flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1-2 cup water (depending on how thick/thin you like your batter)

a pinch of salt

3 cups of palm sugar for coating

1 cup of grated cheddar cheese

about 5 tbsp condensed milk

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix rice flour, all purpose flour, and water and a pinch of salt until there is no lumps.  You can adjust the thickness of the batter if you like. Here I wanted something "light" (yeah riiiight, with all those cheese and condensed milk) so my batter is quite thin but still crunchy. 

2. Heat up your frying pan and oil for frying. Prepare the palm sugar in a large bowl for coating.

3. Once the batter mixture is ready, put in the bananas into the mixture in several batches. Fry them until golden brown. Repeat with the remaining bananas. Let the fried bananas cool slightly on a paper towel-lined tray to absorb the oil.  

3. While it's still hot, toss the fried bananas in palm sugar until well coated. Arrange on a serving plate.

4. Drizzle the condensed milk over and top with generous amount of grated cheese. Oh, you're welcome :P