What to Do with Banana

How to Make Banana Bread

Ingredients

3 sliced bananas

1 egg

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 oz sugar

1.5 cups flour

1.5 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup raisins

Preparation

Mix all ingredients together. Bake. I use a bread machine, but if you don't have one, you can still make this recipe the old way; i.e., 350 degrees F for 1 hour.

How to Make Banana Chips

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Banana Chips - Technical Brief

Short Description

• Problem: Kids need a healthy snack, or you have a craving.
• Idea: Deep fry banana slices. Hey, why can't I make those banana chips I pay big money for in the market?
• Difficulty: be carefull when boilling large quantities of oil, oil temperature is very very high, no flame should come in contact with it.
• Price Range: $10 max, if you had no bananas, oil or sugar
• Material Needed: bananas, oil, and sugar, a big pan.
• Geographic Area: anywhere where you can find bananas
• Competencies: Easy, be carefull with the boilling oil
• How Many people? minimum 1, but hey, do it with the kids
• How Long does it take? not long

Introduction

There are several different types of banana chips:

• Banana figs - These are bananas which are cut into slices and then dried either in the sun or by artificial means.
  
• Savoury banana chips - These are banana slices which have been predried for a short period of time (eg 5-6 hours) until they have a slight rubbery texture. It is difficult to give an exact drying time as bananas will have differing water contents. In such cases it is best to test by trial and error. After drying, the slices are fried in hot oil until they turn a golden brown colour. They are drained in order to remove the excess oil, and subsequently flavoured with a variety of spices.
  
• Sweet banana chips - These are bananas slices which have either been soaked or dipped in a strong sugar syrup or honey.

This technical brief is based on an investigation of what a Sweet banana chips project might look like as an income generating activity for the NGO Savings Group in Bangladesh.

Banana chips are crispy snack food similar to potato chips. Most producers use plantains rather than desert bananas. Chips are normally made from under ripe fruits by frying the slices in oil.

Green bananas are available in many parts of Bangladesh. There are two types of ANAS bananas. One variety is fatter and shorter with a short stem. The end tapers to a thin point. This banana has a soft skin. The other type is longer and thinner with a longer stem. The end of the banana is thicker; it does not taper to a point. The skin is harder and thinner. The second type of banana (long type) is preferred.

The market for banana chips might be considered to be primarily children of school age.

Label, design, and promotional materials might also be targeted to this group.

Figure 1: Banana chips ©Neil Noble/Practical Action

Definitions

A preservative is any substance which, when added to a food, prevents or retards its spoilage. The additives contribute texture, taste, and colour to the product.

Preservatives

Sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, benzoic acid, ascorbic acid, and citric acid.

Blanching

Consist of immersing of product in water at a temperature of 95�C for a variable period of time. The temperature and the duration depend on the species, its state of maturity and its size.

Use of Sulphites

Bi-sulphite of sodium, potassium, and calcium
Meta bisulphites of Sodium and potassium.

Use of sodium bicarbonate

Sodium Bicarbonate

Acidity and pH

Acidity may be expressed in terms of hydrogen ion concentration, a solution being described as acidic if its hydrogen ion concentration is greater than 10. A solution is basic if its hydrogen ion concentration is less than 10. ie pH = -log (H)

Enzymes

Enzymes may cause deterioration of foods, they can also be used in food processing to produce particular products or modify the characteristics of particular products.

Water activity

Micro organism grow only when water is available. Water activity aw has been coined to express the degree of availability of water in food.

Rancidity

One of the major problems in storage of food material, changes taking place in lipids is generally referred to as rancidity.

Banana chips processing

It is important that they are sliced to an even thickness to avoid some being undercooked and others overcooked. The best way to do this is with either a hand vegetable slicer (commonly used on restaurants and hotels) or at larger scale with a rotating slicer of the type used to cut ham and bacon.

Raw materials

Green banana, Anaj (long type)
Vegetable oil

Ingredients

Food colour Lemon-yellow, food grade
Common salt sodium chloride
Beat salt
Spices Red chilli powder, Cumin powder

Additives

Sodium metabisulphite

Equipment/Utensils

Frying pan
Frying spoon. Tea spoon
Slicer
Plastic bowl
Knife
Balance (Triple beame)
Balance capacity - 3 Kg
Screen
Cotton towels
Thermometer
Chula

Process diagram Weigh green bananas | Peeling | Soaking | Slicing | Rinsing | Drain out water | Frying | Drain out oil | Cooling | Spicing | Packaging

These products use a relatively low level of technology and require very little equipment, however, there is the constraint of marketing. Bananas are most usually consumed in the fresh state. To sell banana products therefore requires some very effective marketing.

In Sri Lanka banana chips were marketed as a snack food to be consumed with drinks prior to a meal. Another example is of dried and flavoured chips marketed as a healthy alternative to sweets and snackfoods, and aimed heavily at school children. These examples show that it is not only important to get the technology right, but the marketing is a vital area. It is therefore very important to assess the market for these products prior to production and evaluate the expected demands.

References and further reading

This Howtopedia entry was derived from the Practical Action Technical Brief Banana Chips.
To look at the original document follow this link: http://www.practicalaction.org/?id=technical_briefs_food_processing

Banana Beer Practical Action Technical Brief

Adding Value to Bananas Food Chain No 21, July 1997, ITDG

Traditional Foods: Processing for Profit by P. Fellows, IT Publications, 1997

Practical Action Bangladesh has produced a booklet on green banana chips production in Bengali

Useful addresses

Practical Action The Schumacher Centre for Technology & Development, Bourton on Dunsmore, RUGBY, CV23 9QZ, United Kingdom.
Tel.: +44 (0) 1926 634400, Fax: +44 (0) 1926 634401 e-mail:practicalaction@practicalaction.org.uk web:www.practicalaction.org

Related articles

- How to Make Banana Chips
- How to Make Banana Beer
- How to Grow a Banana Circle
- What to Do with Banana
- How to Make Banana Bread
- How to Make Mixed Fruit Juice
- How to Preserve Fruit and Vegetable by Cold Storage
- What to Do with Fruit Waste
- How to Make Fruit Vinegar

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How to Make Banana Beer

Technical Brief

Banana beer is made from bananas, mixed with a cereal flour (often sorghum flour) and fermented to an orange, alcoholic beverage. It is sweet and slightly hazy with a shelf life of several days under correct storage conditions. There are many variations in how the beer is made. For instance, Urwaga banana beer in Kenya is made from bananas and sorghum or millet and Lubisi is made from bananas and sorghum.

Raw material preparation

Ripe bananas (Musa spp.) are selected. In the rainy season unripe bananas can be left to finish ripening laid on a hurdle over the fire where the cooking is done. During the dry season bananas can be ripened by making a pit in the ground, covering the sides of the pit with green banana leaves, packing the bananas in to the pit and then covering them with banana leaves and earth. On one side of the pit a little ditch should be dug for a fire so that warmth and smoke can enter the pit. This takes about six days. The bananas should then be peeled. If the peels cannot be removed by hand then the bananas are not sufficiently ripe.

Processing

The first step is the preparation of the banana juice. The extraction of a high yield of banana juice without excessive browning or contamination by spoilage micro-organisms and proper filtration to produce a clear product is of great importance. Grass can be used to squeeze the banana so that only a clear juice is obtained. The residue will remain in the grass.

One volume of water should be added to every three volumes of banana juice. This makes the total soluble solids low enough for the yeast to act. Cereals are ground and roasted and added to improve the colour and flavour of the final product. The mixture is placed in a container, which is covered in polythene to ferment for 18 to 24 hours. The raw materials are not sterilised by boiling and therefore provide an excellent substrate for microbial growth. It is essential that proper hygienic procedures are followed and that all equipment is thoroughly sterilised to prevent contaminating bacteria from competing with the yeast and producing acid instead of alcohol. This can be done by cleaning with boiling water or with chlorine solution. Care is necessary to wash the equipment free of residual chlorine, as this would interfere with the actions of the yeast. Strict personal hygiene is also essential. For many traditional fermented products, the microorganisms responsible for the fermentation are unknown to scientists. However, there has been research to identify the micro-organisms involved in banana beer production. The main micro-organism is Saccharomyces cerevisiae which is the same organism that is involved in the production of grape wine. However, many other microorganisms were identified. These varied according to the region of production. After fermentation the product is filtered through cotton cloth.

Flow diagram

Raw materials	Ripe bananas
Peel	Peel by hand
Remove residue	Use grass to knead or squeeze out the juice. The residue will remain in the grass.
Mix with clean water	The water: banana juice ratio should be 1:3
Mix with cereal flour	Mix with ground and roasted cereals to local taste. For sorghum the ratio should be 1:12
Ferment	In plastic container. Leave to ferment for 18 to 24 hours.
Filter	Through cotton cloth
Pack	In one-litre plastic bottles with cork stoppers or equivalent
Store

Packaging and storage

Packaging is usually only required to keep the product for its relatively short shelf life. Clean glass or plastic bottles should be used. The product should be kept in a cool place away from direct sunlight.

References and further reading

Grape Wine, Practical Action Technical Brief
Banana Chips, Practical Action Technical Brief
Traditional Foods: Processing for Profit, Edited by Pete Fellows, ITDG Publications 1997

Useful organisations and contacts

C.T.A
P.O. Box 380
6700 AJ Wageningen
The Netherlands
Telephone: +31 (0) 317 467100
Fax: +31 317 460 067

Website: http://www.agricta.org/

Useful internet sites

Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Perdue University
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/banana.html

References and further reading

This Howtopedia entry was derived from the Practical Action Technical Brief Banana Beer.
To look at the original document follow this link: http://www.practicalaction.org/?id=technical_briefs_food_processing

Useful addresses

Practical Action The Schumacher Centre for Technology & Development, Bourton on Dunsmore, RUGBY, CV23 9QZ, United Kingdom.
Tel.: +44 (0) 1926 634400, Fax: +44 (0) 1926 634401 e-mail: practicalaction@practicalaction.org.uk web: www.practicalaction.org

Categories

How to Grow a Banana Circle

This article is a draft. It was just started and needs further work.

Goals

By growing Bananas in a circle, you can increase production, and avoid the untidyness often associated with Bananas.

• Easy, large, production from a small space
• Multi-crop system
• Consume organic waste - especially from bananas.
• Retain moisture, or soak up excess
• Easy access for harvesting
• A tidy way of growing Bananas
• Grey water sink - including for Laundry

What You'll Need

• Lots of Mulch
• Ideally use of a small excavator
• Sweet potato cuttings:
• About 7 banana shoots: collected from suckers which appear beside mother plants, slice off with a sharp spade as close to the mother plant as possible
• Optionally
  • Taro
  • Arrow root
  • Canna Lilly
  • Comphrey

Construction

Pick a location - the bananas will grow to about 4 meters, and generate shade. A location where water gathers would be good since the bananas can make good use of the water.

Dig a hole 1-1.5 meters deep and 2-3 meters diameter, piling the soil in a mound around it. Depending on location, you can leave a gap for water to flow into the middle, and add a lead-in drain, or swale.

If the location is on a slope, then build the mound as a crescent to catch the water.

The size can be reduced to a circle 1-1.5 meters diameter if dwarf bananas are used.

Plant the shoots around the top of the mound,[the highest point] evenly spaced. Dot in sweet potato cuttings over mound with the intention of covering mound and mulch pit. Place optionals on the inside edge of mound where mulch from pit makes contact and outside edge where the mound makes contact with the ground. Fill centre of circle [mulch pit] up to 2 meters high with garden prunings/old banana stems/unwanted suckers/optionals growth/straw mulch etc..This will feed your bananas and tidy up your garden.

In the wet tropics you can put logs into the middle to rot, in the cooler sub-tropics use more green prunings.

Maintenance, Pests and Problems

Keep one mature plant fruiting, a second half grown, and one sucker growing in the same direction around the top of the mound for all 7 original plants. This will ensure that your bananas circle will produce healthy bananas continuosly. Depending on the climate its likely that you'll get a bunch every three or four months from each of the seven families.

Keep the tree clean by removing broken and dying leaves cleanly to avoid rot and snake-habitat. The leaves can be used for plates.

Bats and parrots will take the ripe fruit - remove the "bell" (the flower) once the bunch is formed, also the bunch is best bagged for pest control, put a bag over the bunch, sealed at the trunk end, open at the other, the bags should be light and ideally have a silvered top, which confuses bat's radar as well as reflecting heat if you can't buy these then improvise from a white fertilizer bag with foil on top. Theoretically the bell can be eaten, but noone ever shared a recipe with me!

Cut down fruited banana at the first sign of yellow, and chop remaining plant stem and throw into mulch pit in the centre of the circle.

Unwanted suckers also to be placed in mulch pit.

Keep mulch pit topped up with new organic material for best results.

Problems

In Australia bananas commonly get bunchy-top disease which is recognizable by the leaves all bunching together at the top of the plant instead of opening. They can also get a borer (beatle) which makes it rot and the plant starts wilting. In both cases, remove the plant, including the roots and mulch it.

They don't like severe winds, if this is a problem, reduce the foliage by removing any even slightly damaged leaves before the windy season.

Variations

A banana circle also makes a good place for an outdoor shower, make sure to use natural soaps, or even, where legal, as an outdoor toilet, although in this case make sure to cover with organic matter.

This way of growing will also work for Papayas, or in the tropics for Palms, but don't mix them as the other plants will tangle with bananas.

External Links

Author:Mitra http://www.mitra.biz/howto_bananacircle.htm

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