Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Turon (Spring Roll Wrapped Fried Banana?)

Okay I learned how to make this from my Filipino friend and her mother (both cook good food, I've learned lots from them and enjoy visiting, gardening, and cooking with them on the weekends it's very carefree and relaxing to me especially now that I started college and am annoyed by it... anyways...)

Okay this is simple it is a "Burro Banana" sometimes called "Chunky Banana" I have no idea what Filipinos label it as in their stores but it's like a short fat plantain. When it is ripe (it has a yellow color with little black markings yet still firm) is when it is used for this dish..

The Burro Banana is sprinkled with brown sugar, wrapped in a type of Spring Roll Wrapper called "Lumpia" it is different than the Chinese spring roll wrapper because it has a different crunchy more "puffy" in my opinion. It is made with only wheat flour, water, coconut oil, and a little bit of salt I believe from reading the packaging.

Ingredients:
-1 package of 25 Lumpia Wrappers (spring roll pastry NOT EGG ROLL WRAPPERS!, the brand I noticed my friend bought is either called "Samana" and another called "Spring Home" which is manufactured in Singapore I believe)
-9-12 "Burro Bananans", peeled and cut into 3 long parts (yellow with black flecks and no soft spots on exterior)
-Brown sugar (just have a big bowl of it near you)
-Water or a beaten egg to seal wrappers (it's easier with egg, but water works fine to)
-oil to pan-fry or deep-fry (your choice how you wanna do it)

Directions:
(1)
Open package of spring rolls, seperate each sheet, be careful not to rip any.
(2)Arrange all your ingredients and have everything on hand
(3)Now place the lumpia wrapper like a diamond shape facing you place the banana slice horizontally near the middle but not really, sprinkle sugar on it to taste not a bunch but some.
(4)Fold the upper flap over the banana tightly then the left one and make sure everything lines up with the banana, do the same to the right one. Now roll it towards you sealing it when you get to the last roll dampen with some water or egg and seal.
(5)Set aside in a large plate and work fast or the wrappers will harden and become hard to work with.



(6)Heat oil enough to deep-fry or pan-fry your choice on medium high heat, to check if oil is hot dip a wooden spoon or chopstick a little if it bubbles it's ready for frying, fry about 1-2 minutes on each side until golden brown.

NOTE: I have no pictures of the frying process but you get the point, the reason I took no more pictures is because I made them all early in the moring then put them covered in the fridge to fry for dinner for dessert or later another day.

Also these freeze well, just wrap them seperately in wax/ parchment paper individualy and freeze them and then just thaw before frying.

Do not use super ripe bananas with this unless your gonna fry immediately, because the banana will moisten it to much as it sits so ideally use a banana that has a few black specs but is still yellow.

If you wanna see how the final dish would look just google the word "Turon" on google images.

Avocado Shake

Yeah yeah, I know it sounds extremely wierd, but you know what I have had a delicious Avocado Shake at a Vietnamese Pho Shop chain called "Pho So 1" here in Southern California (I go to the one on Van Nuys next to "99 Ranch Market") anyways I woke up this morning and said to myself, "What should I have for breakfast? Oh we have tons of Avocados, I guess I'll make a shake and try to immitate what I had over there. Other cultures consume avocado in a similar way to like Filipinos and I think Indonesians I've even seen these shakes with boba in "Boba" shops which are of Taiwanese origin. For the sake of having my blog more organized and not adding a bunch of extra labels I'm labeling it under "Filipino Beverages" I already have a Filipino label here so I'll use it (unless my Filipina friend goes on a rant that I made it wrong or it isn't suppose to be like that but honestly it's simple milk+ avocado+ sugar +maybe ice= avocado shake)

Well the shake tasted pretty damn good, it was extremely rich (I like that) it is probably sinful to consume but I loved it, I didn't achieve the strong green color of the shake I have at that place, so I went online after making my version and found that some just use 1 avocado, 1 cup crushed ice, and 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk and like it with "Boba" this one sounds best to me, but here is mine.

Serves 1 or 2 (depends I chugged down the whole thing)
Ingredients:
-
1 large ripe Hass Avocado or 3 small Hass Avocado, cut in half scoop out flesh
-1 cup whole milk
-1/2 cup or 1 cup crushed ice
-1/4 cup sugar (to taste because I have a sweet tooth)

Directions:
(1)Place ice, milk, avocado, and sugar in a blender, cover, blend on low first then slowly higher speed until everything is smooth and creamy.

(2)Enjoy!