Friday, February 20, 2009

#81_Turon to a Higher Level/Banana Rolls

SABA BANANAS
This is a variety of bananas that is used for cooking.

There are probably as many varieties of bananas in the Philippines as there are varieties of apples here in the U.S. Much like the Granny Smith variety of apples which is best for baking, the saba variety of bananas is best for cooking in meat stews, ginataan (with coconut milk), banana fritters (maruya) or TURON (banana rolls), to name a few.

TURON is a very popular snack in the Philippines. They are commonly made and sold by vendors on the streets, but they can also be made easily at home.

For TURON, you need to use ripe, but firm bananas. Unfortunately, the bananas I used to make these turon today are over ripe, but I had to use them anyway because I hate to see them go to waste.


The traditional way of making Turon is to cut the bananas in half, lengthwise, coat the slices in brown sugar, wrap in eggroll wrappers, and fry them in hot oil until they turn golden and crispy.
Taking TURON to a higher level.

My friend Zenny from San Diego shared with me her recipe of a dessert that combines cream cheese and Ricotta cheese with fruits, wrapped in eggroll wrappers then fried just like spring rolls.

This is how I did it:

I took that idea with a twist.

I sliced the bananas into thirds, lengthwise, and rolled each slice in brown sugar. Then I put a piece of string cheese on the banana. On top of the cheese I lined up some frozen berries, i.e. raspberries and blueberries, and wrapped them in eggroll wrappers. Fried them in hot oil until golden brown and crispy.

The result? Ahhh, to die for!!

AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL!!!

This is an absolute "must try" version!! It is really, really good, I swear!

This is a cross between banana cream pie and raspberry cheesecake without the creaminess, but instead it has the wonderful crunchiness from the eggroll wrapper with the caramelized sugar.

You may wonder how the wrappers may have some caramelized sugar?
The brown sugar that coated the banana pieces melts and oozes out through the wrappers so when they are fried in the oil, will result in a very nice caramelization outside the wrapper.


Mozzarella cheese in between slices of bananas.

I experimented this with just the mozzarella cheese in between slices of bananas. Although it is sweet, gooey, stringy, cheesy and delish I like the ones with frozen raspberries much, much better. I don't care much for the blueberries though.
It is amazing how just one ingredient like the red raspberries can take a simple dessert, like this one, to the top tier.
AMAZING! Better than banana flambe!!

8 comments:

  1. golly! we just made turon with langka the other night. I should have seen this first!!! This sounds sooooo gooooood!!!!
    Just a clarification, is this string cheese mozzarella (the one with the berries)?
    My sons will have fun making these!

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  2. manang, about the string cheese that I used...you'll laugh at this because I just found them in the fridge left by one of our Gdaughters...I didn't pay much attention as to what kind of cheese they are, not mozzarella for sure, they are individually wrap and when kids eat them they pull off the string-like cheeses about 6 inches long. I like them alot with the turon considering I don't care much for cheese.the bottom picture, I just used shredded mozzarella cheese. they're good too.

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  3. When I was in the Philippines, Although I love to eat, I used to cry when it is my turn to cook.

    Now that I am here in America, I wished I knew how to cook this and that, then I decided to google... I found this. I thank you very much.

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  4. Manang, I just made some of these last week and this time I paid attention to the label...it says that it is made from low moisture mozzarella....whatever that means, but yes, it is Mozzarella cheese.

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  5. Anonymous, thank you very much for your nice comment and I'm so glad you found this blog of mine. Just like you, I didn't have much training cooking Filipino dishes when I was back home because I relied so much on my mother to cook them for us.It's when I got here that I had to learn to cook them....calling mother or asking friends for the recipes. Nowadays, sources are all over the net.
    Hopefully, you'll find the recipes here helpful. If you have any question, just feel free to leave me a message or catch me on Facebook. I don't think you have to sign up to go to my recipe page if you don't have an account. Take care.

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  6. NYUMNYUM!!!!Im on a diet but this is very hard to resist.I will deffinetly gonna try this.Anyway,Do you have any idea why some of the TURON stay crispy even for a day?I usaully buy the turon that they sell in one of the filipino store and its so crispy and not suggy even the next day.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous,you're right this is hard to resist and it's hard to stop at just 2 pieces. I pile up the fried turon upright on paper towels and they stay crispy for few hours but not til the day. If you find out the trick please share it with me. Take care!!

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  7. This is my all time favorite filipino dessert. Love the sweetness of sugar combined with banana. Yumm!

    Hannah
    Ford 7.3 Powerstroke injectors

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