One last visitor
Our final visitor of the day. Margaret is on holiday in London with her husband.
She heartily approves of our banana muffins.
Love Your Local Market (not just your bananas)
Ellie Gill from the wonderful organisation Love Your Local Market has been in touch. They love bananas at markets as they bring in the punter.
She says: "So many of our national markets are now working really hard to reduce food waste, while the new wave of third sector community markets have sustainability at their very heart. We love Save a Banana day".
Look out for the big Love Your Local Market annual celebration in May where thousands of events will be taking place around the country, many of whom will be sustainability stars. You can follow Love Your Local Market on Twitter here.
Wrapping it up...
We're in the final hours of our manic banana cooking today - and RachaelLondon's banana and bacon recipe has just come out of the oven.
Against absolutely all expectations (drum roll) it is completely and absolutely delicious. We are all stunned. Speechless. How can chicken and bacon and sweetcorn and cream and mashed banana taste so nice? And yet it is fantastic! We're gobbling it up.
Updated
The banana muffins are out of the oven.
Banana Old Masters
We've given artworks from Matisse, Picasso, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Michaelangelo and Velázquez the banana treatment:
See more here.
Peel from the bottom?
Henry Dimbleby, the Guardian's Cook columnist and founder of the Leon chain, dropped by and ate rather a lot of our cake and then started scoffing the ketchup as well.
"Bananas," he told us between mouthfuls, "are the third most bought things in this country after petrol and lottery tickets." He says you have to have a strategy to avoid wasting them - cake is, apparently, a very good strategy.
He also said that you should peel a banana from the bottom...
Fairtrade Foundation pop by...
"Fairtrade fortnight was fantastic," says Barbara Crowther, director of policy and public affairs at Fairtrade Foundation. This year they've been campaigning for a completely fair banana industry and trying to tackle the banana price wars that place such heavy penalties on banana farmers.
Barbara has just popped down and is sampling our reliably popular cake. "We had over 10,000 events, and MPs tabled an early day motion in support of our campaign."
She points out that one of the problems is that we pay so little for bananas in this country: "Perhaps we should pay a little more and throw away fewer?"
Her mother remembers her very first taste of bananas, just after the second world war when bananas were an incredible luxury. "Now we just throw them away. It takes 3 months from the moment the first fruit appears on the tree - and we throw 1.4million of them away every day. It's criminal, really."
Global Fairtrade Day in on May 10th - the petition is going brilliantly.
FareShare
A recipe from our lovely banana suppliers:
Bacon-Banana Chicken
In progress and smelling rather nice...
Now for something a little different...
Banana and Oatmeal Face Mask
Mash 1 ripe banana with a small handful of oatmeal.
Smooth the mix over the face and relax for 10 minutes.
Rinse off with warm water and pat dry.
Your face will feel smooth and soft and licking your lips will be sweet.
A sweet treat
Sent in by Esther Bromnick via email:
Use ripe banana. Lay flat make a cut down the length of the banana. Take 6 half squares of chocolate and push into the banana or under the skin. Place on a barbecue or hot oven (200º) for 20 minutes until the skin is black and the chocolate is seeping out of the banana. Sprinkle over some chopped salted peanuts and serve with vanilla ice cream.
We love this alternative use!
Frozen banana teething soother
Life-saving dicovery made recently - a frozen banana handed to a 10-month-old with raging teething pain serves as a far more effective soother than any of the expensive remedies out there, plus keeps them fascinated for at least 20 mins.
'Balance a Banana on your Index Finger Day'
Happy Giraffe Ltd celebrates Balance a Banana on your Index Finger Day
Happy Giraffe Ltd chose the 12th of March for Balance a banana on your Index Finger Day. This noble day brings attention to bananas that would not usually be balanced, and gives them a much needed moral boost.
We completely missed this day. Good job these guys didn't.
Banana, coffee and cardamom cake II
Here's the finished masterpiece:
It's certainly drawing in the crowds:
Banana Ketchup
Thickening on the stove...
... and smelling incredible.
Next Recipe
In the interests of exploration and experimentation, we're now trying out RachaelLondon's recipe for chicken, banana and bacon. We really can not imagine what this will taste like, but we're just wading in anyway. We've bought chicken and streaky bacon from the wonderful Ginger Pig stall - it's very enjoyable doing the shopping here.
Updated
Recipe for one overipe banana.
Banana & cranberry muffins
Recipe for 1 banana
150g self-raising flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g light muscovado sugar
25g porridge oats, plus 1 tbsp for topping
1 medium banana, the riper the better
1 carton of low-fat yoghurt(128mls)
1 tblsp of lemon juice
2.5 tbsp light olive oil
1 egg white
75gms cranberries, blueberries, walnuts or whatever you have to hand.
Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 put a baking tray into the oven to heat up. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper muffin cases.
Take 1 tblsp of sugar & 1 tblsp of oats and mix for the topping, put aside.
Tip the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl, add the sugar and the oats. Make a well in the centre. In a separate bowl, mash the banana with the lemon juice, yoghurt, oil and egg white until evenly combined.
Pour the liquid mixture into the well and stir quickly and sparingly with a wooden spoon. The mix will look lumpy and may have the odd fleck of flour still visible, but don't be tempted to over-mix. Tip in the fruit or nuts and give it just one more stir. Divide the mix between the muffin cases - they will be quite full - then sprinkle the tops with the oats and sugar mix. Put into the oven on top of hot baking sheet and bake for 18-20 mins until dark golden. Put onto a rack to cool completely.
Surprise Chocolate Brownies
The Vegetarian Society have very kindly shared their recipe for banana chocolate brownies via email.
You can see the recipe here.
Keep the jokes coming!
@GdnLiveBetter Why do bananas wear suntan lotion? Because they peel...ba-dum-tsh #saveabananaday
— Borough Market (@boroughmarket) March 26, 2014
Banana Ice-Cream/Smoothie
It seems that ice creams and smoothies are a really popular way of using up ripening bananas.
Here's a recipe from a commenter.
I no longer fear when bananas get over ripe anymore, sometimes I even leave them to get that way! I just de-skin them, chop them up and put into freezer bags and freeze them for when I have an urge for Ice Cream....
Instant Soft-Serve Banana Ice Cream
1 chopped up frozen banana
200ml milk / milk substitute
Maple Syrup
Chopped nuts/ mixed seeds such as sesame, pumpkin, linseed, and sunflower seeds
Instructions:
Put frozen banana and milk into a blender. Blend until the banana has broken down into an ice creamy texture. Don't blend too much as it will start to melt!
Put into a bowl and drizzle with a bit of maple syrup and sprinkle with chopped nuts of your choice or some mixed seeds.
Super healthy and yum!
You could also add some cocoa powder to make a chocolate banana ice cream, although you may need to add a splash of maple syrup to the ice cream itself to sweeten it, depending on how ripe your bananas were when frozen.
Bananas Foster
Our mouth's are watering over this recipe from the Reluctant Gourmet.
¼ cup (½ stick) butter
1-cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup banana liqueur
4 bananas cut in half lengthwise, then halved
¼ cup dark rum
4 scoops vanilla ice cream
In a good-sized sauté or fry pan, combine the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and heat over a low heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Add the banana liqueur and stir. Add the bananas and cook until they start to soften and begin to brown. Be careful not to burn them.
Remove the pan from the flame and add the rum. I always advise to remove a hot pan from the flame when adding any kind of alcohol just to be careful. It takes a bit for the rum to get hot enough to flame but you never know. Return the pan to the stove; cook until the rum is hot, about two minutes.
The official method to “flame” the bananas is to tip the pan slightly and ignite the rum. The flames burn off the alcohol in the rum and leave a wonderful flavour.
Spoon the ice cream into individual bowls, add the bananas, and top with the warm sauce. You’ll want to serve this immediately since it doesn’t take long for the sauce to melt the ice cream.
Hannah and Phoebe Harniess have just dropped by. Phoebe's school were on strike today so she asked her mum if they could have a wander down Borough Market. They're horrified that 1.4m bananas are thrown every day - they always use up their bananas to make banana cake.
@KeepBritainTidy @GdnLiveBetter Over-ripe bananas make great ice-cream; chop, freeze and blend; no need for an ice-cream maker! #saveabanana
— Andrew Hall (@thirteensteps) March 26, 2014
Banana bread variations
We've received some great recipes from Kirsty Phillipson-Lowe who's whipped up her leftover bananas into two great cake-based treats.
Here's her version of Rhubarb and Banana Crumble Cake.
And her Banana, Walnut and Date Loaf is here.
You can submit your banana recipes below or send them to livebetterchallenge@theguardian.com
Updated
Banana bacon chicken anyone? Yummy!
So this sounds disgusting, but bear with me, it's lovely. Cut a pocket into two chicken breasts, and mush half a banana into each one. Wrap in streaky bacon or parma ham.
In a small roasting tin, tip in two cans of sweetcorn or the corn off two ears of fresh, a small glass of white wine and a small carton of double cream. Mix up. Place banana bacon breasts on top, bake for about 45 mins until bacon is crispy.
Serve with mash and greens. Is utterly delicious.
Also, for a quick pre-gym snack - whizz up with a stick blender a banana, a glass of milk and a good spoon of peanut butter. Chocolate powder or chocolate protein powder optional.
Banana Lollies
The lovely Simply Being Mum has written all about #saveabanana day and shared her quick recipe for chocolate top bananas.
You can see the recipe on her blog here.
Sustainable Resaturant Association
We've just been chatting to Barney Smyth from the Sustainable Restaurant Association. Just four years old, this organisation is growing and growing, and now has more than 4000 sites.
"The biggest project this year is probably Foodsave" says Barney - it's a system for helping restaurants reduce their food waste which can save a single restaurant up to £5000 a year. Joe Warwick will be reporting on it for us here at Live Better.
Chefs from the SRA are sending us their favourite banana recipes today. Keep posting yours in the comments below.
Updated
FoodCycle Recipes
The lovely folks at FoodCycle have sent us some delicious recipes for using up bananas.
Firstly, a Banana and Butterscotch Cake
(Makes 1 loaf cake)
250g caster sugar
250g banana flesh, chopped into 2cm pieces
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
100ml sunflower oil
2 large eggs
150g plain flour
75g spelt, rye or wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
125ml plain yoghurt
½ tsp mixed spice or cinnamon
Tip 150g of the caster sugar into a frying pan/pot with 25ml of water and bring to the boil. Cook over a high heat until the sugar turns a dark, reddish caramel (be careful not to burn the sugar though!). Add the banana pieces, butter and vanilla and simmer until the bananas break up in the caramel and the mixture is thick.
Spoon onto a plate and leave to cool. Beat the remaining 100g sugar with the oil and eggs until thick and slightly aerated. Beat in the bananas and yoghurt. Combine the flours, spice, baking powder and soda together then fold this through the banana mixture.
Spoon the mixture into the greased tin, heat the oven to 180°C and bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
And a rather unusual Banana Skin Curry
1 whole leek
2 red onions
2 white onions
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 yellow pepper
5 mushrooms
1 banana skin.
Spices/herbs:
Italian seasoning, (sesame seeds, sea salt, basil, parsley, oregano, garlic granules, thyme, black grounded pepper and sage), chives, parsley, turmeric, curry powder
Agave syrup
Sea salt
Grounded black pepper
Cut all the vegetables up as finely as possible and add into a bowl
Season the vegetables in a bowl before frying them
Add 3 tsp of each herb and spice and mix it around with a spoon
Get a frying pan or wok and put some olive oil in it and fry the vegetables – make sure everything is soft especially the peppers
Get a bowl and put the banana skins in there with hot water for 12 minutes. Make sure the banana skins are soft; test one by eating it to see if they are soft.
Once cooked drain them, cut the black ends of the bananas off and cut the skins up in to little pieces
Add them to the pan of mixed vegetables, add some sea salt, black pepper, and agave syrup and add 3 tbsp of each spice and herb again.
Once everything is fried leave it to cook down more and then serve with rice flavoured with chives, parsley, sea salt and black pepper.
Serve with rice.
Why did the banana go out with the prune? Because he couldn't find a date. #saveabanana @GdnLiveBetter
— Lizzie Waste Watch (@LizzieWW) March 26, 2014
Updated
Banana, coffee and cardamom cake
The beginnings of banana, coffee and cardamom cake as contributed by the wonderful Alison Walker from Country Living magazine.
And here's the recipe.
For the cake:
225g raisins
150ml hot strong coffee
2 tbspns dark rum (optional)
110g butter
140g dark brown sugar
1 tsp crushed cardamom seeds (abt 15 pods)
2 medium eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
225g self-raising flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the icing:
275g icing sugar
2 tsp coffee extract
Put raisins in a bowl and pour over the coffee and rum. Leave to soak overnight.
Heat the over to 180C, gas mark 4.
Lightly grease 900g loaf tin.
Beat the butter, sugar and cardamom until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat in the eggs, then the bananas.
Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda and fold into the egg mixture, followed by the raisins and their liquid.
Turn into the prepared tin and bake for 1-1 1/4 hours until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Turn onto a wire rack.
When the cake is cold make the icing.
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the coffee extract.
Add the rum if using and 2-3 tbsp of water to make a soft but not runny icing.
Spread over the top of the cake and leave to serve before icing.
Keeps for a week in an airtight tin.
Updated
We have our first joke!
Q. What is Beethoven's Favourite Fruit?
A. Ban-an-an-aaaaaaa!
Not sure if that works so well in written form.
Keep 'em coming!
Love Food Hate Waste
The lovely Emma Marsh, head of Love Food Hate Waste, has just dropped by on her way to the House of Lords where she'll be deep in conversation about ways of achieving the ambitious target that WRAP has sent of halving food waste by 2025 (against 2007 figures).
"We've made so much progress," she says. "There's so much commitment across the board now, retailers, consumers, members of Parliament - this is something that everyone has really begun to take action on."
Her husband doesn't actually like bananas, we're slightly dismayed to find. Her non-banana wasting strategy ("One in ten bananas are thrown away!" she tells us... all those poor bananas) is to buy them every other week. She keep all her other fruit and veg in the fridge, while the bananas queen it in the fruit bowl till every single one has been eaten.
What's cooking?
Here are the two recipes Rachel will be making first to use up some unloved bananas.
Filipino banana ketchup
This makes a great marinade for chicken or pork too.
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion
2-3 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
1 large green chilli
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
½ tsp ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
4 bananas, mashed
125ml cider vinegar
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp rum (optional)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp salt, plus more to taste
water
Gently fry onions over a medium heat until beginning to soften (about 10 minutes).
Add chilli, garlic, ginger and spices. Stir through so that well-coated in oil and the mixture is fragrant.
Add the bananas, vingegar, honey, rum, tomato paste, soy sauce and salt.
Bring to the boil.
Simmer and cook for 15 minutes, stirring to ensure that the liquid doesn't catch.
Remove from the heat and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
Whizz up in a blender until smooth.
Check seasoning and add a little water if a thinner consistency required.
Fruit chaat
Northern Indian and Pakastani street food - sweet, savoury, spiced fruit with fried potato.
Serves 4
2 bananas, peeled & chopped
1 mango, peeled & cubed
1 apple, cubed
1 large potato, boiled, peeled, cubed, or cubed and fried (and/or a mixture of pineapple, plums, star fruit, pears...)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1-2 tsp chaat masala
1 tsp toasted cumin powder (you can grind your own)
1 tsp chilli powder or 1 red chilli, finely chopped
1-2 green chillies, finely chopped
½ tsp black salt (kala namak) or more as required
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
Rub banana and apple with the lime juice.
Stir through the rest of the fruit.
Set aside in the fridge while you fry the potato.
Before serving mix the fried potatoes with the rest of the fruits.
Add all the spice powders and black salt.
Mix well.
Sprinkle over the chopped herbs.
Ready to get cooking
Rachel Kelly is at Borough Market and ready to get cooking!
And here are some of the bananas she'll be saving by cooking things like banana ketchup, banana fritters, and maybe even some banana cocktails towards the end of the day...
1.4 million bananas are wasted every day in the UK. Let's #saveabanana https://t.co/j4ZD1maBPC
— Guardian Live Better (@GdnLiveBetter) March 26, 2014
Save a banana?
Yes. We are declaring today as 'Save a Banana Day'.
If you want to know more about why we've decided to dedicate a whole day to saving pieces of tropical fruit, read here.
Otherwise, stay tuned for recipes, photos, tips, shocking facts, and gags as we celebrate the wonderful banana!
Here’s FareShare’s recipe for Banana Nut Brownies from one of our lovely volunteers, Pam. Enjoy!
Ingredients
175 g butter, cut in to pieces
300 g soft brown sugar
175 g dark chocolate broken in to pieces
100 g walnuts, chopped
3 eggs, beaten
2 ripe bananas
100 g self-raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Butter and line an 18 x 28 cm. baking tray with foil or baking paper
2. Put the butter, sugar and chocolate in a pan and heat gently until melted, then remove from the heat
3. Stir in the nuts, eggs and bananas until well mixed, then stir in the flour, cocoa and baking powder
4. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 30 minutes until firm in the centre. Cool in the tin and then cut into squares