jemput-jemput (banana fritters)

While Da and I were at the supermarket, I saw a beautiful bunch of bananas.

What can you make with bananas? Other than banana cake or banana bread, you may want to try making jemput-jemput (banana fritters).

Ingredients

600g bananas (equivalent to about 5 large bananas)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla essence
6 tbsp fine sugar
290g plain flour
6 tbsp rice flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
oil for frying (I use a mixture of canola oil and sunflower oil)

Method

1. Using a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas thoroughly.2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until well blended.

3. Heat up a wok with some cooking oil.

4. Spoon the batter using 2 wet spoons to form a ball shape. Fry in medium heat until crispy and golden brown.

5. Drain off the excess oil from the jemput-jemput.

6. Transfer the jemput-jemput onto a plate lined with kitchen paper to cool (and to soak up any remnant excess oil).

Tips

1. This recipe goes better with local bananas (eg. pisang rajah) instead of the large Dole bananas. However, if you cannot find local bananas, make do with the large Dole bananas but do not give this recipe a miss. It is easy to follow and the jemput-jemput is delicious.

2. Ideally, you should use over-ripe bananas so that the jemput-jemput is sweeter and softer. If you do use over-ripe bananas, you can consider replacing the fine sugar with brown sugar.

3. If you are using ripe bananas that are not over-ripe, if you were to replace the fine sugar with brown sugar, your jemput-jemput will not be very sweet. If this suits your palate, that is fine. However, your guests who have a sweet tooth may find that the jemput-jemput is not sweet enough.

4. If you cannot finish eating the jemput-jemput (which is best eaten hot), you can reheat it the next day in a convection oven.