#97_Coconut Flavored Sweet Potato Rolls a la Turon

No, these are not the typical turon! just clones.
These are sweet potatoes
with coconut cream powder and brown sugar
wrapped in spring roll wrappers.
At first glance, one will think these are turon.
Yes,they might be in appearance, but they have totally different fillings.
By the way, turon is made of slices of bananas coated with
brown sugar then wrapped in spring roll wrappers
and then fried in hot oil.
They are a very popular snack in the Philippines.

Inspired by the turon, I made this recipe out of slices of sweet potatoes coated with
coconut powder and sugar mixture.
The coconut powder gives this recipe a unique flavor and is very easy to make.

This recipe is my first entry to a contest being sponsored by the
North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission.
Watch out for more recipes that I will be posting for this contest.

Manang of kusina ni manang invited me to join the contest
and I appreciate her for doing so.
Thank you manang !

Start by cooking the sweet potato either by steaming, boiling or
by pressure cooker until just fork-tender

Peel then slice the cooked sweet potatoes lengthwise.

Combine 1/4 cup brown sugar and 4 heaping tablespoons of coconut powder.
Slightly moisten the slices of sweet potatoes with milk or water and coat each slice with thecoconut powder and sugar mixture.
This trick makes the mixture adhere more easily to the sliced pieces.

Take a piece of spring roll or egg roll wrapper and place it on a work surface
with a pointed side facing towards you.
Place a slice of sweet potato coated with the coconut powder/brown sugar mixture
on the wrapper about 1/3 of the way from the pointed side.

Fold the pointed side over the sweet potato and roll it up once.

Fold the left and right corners in and roll it all the way
to the other pointed side.
Don't worry about sealing the pointed seam with water or paste
as you do with egg rolls
as long as you place the seam side down first when frying.

Oops, I see one seam coming up!

Heat some canola oil in a frying pan, over medium heat.
Make sure that the oil is hot enough, but not smoking hot,
before you fry the wrapped sweet potatoes.
To test if the oil has reached the perfect temperature for frying them,
dip one end of a roll into the oil.
When the oil sizzles, it is ready for you to fry the wrapped sweet potatoes.
Fry them on all sides until golden brown.

COME ON, TAKE A BITE...
I KNOW YOU'LL LIKE IT!!

VARIATIONS:

1) Omit coconut cream powder and add string cheese (mozzarella).
2) Omit coconut cream powder and mix about 2 tsp of ground cinnamon into the brown sugar
3) Use phyllo dough instead of egg roll or spring roll wrappers.
Use about 4 stacks of phyllo dough sheets, brushing each sheet with melted butter and then bake them in the oven.

NOTE:
Coconut cream powder is found in any Asian store.

#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!!