What to Do When Life Gives You 99 Bananas

What do you do when life in Hawaii gives you plenny kine bananas? Make dried bananas, freeze them or make banana bread! Broke da mout!

First, cut down the bananas…(Bananas are technically an herb, not a tree, in the grass family. My daughter informed me of this recently. Who knew?) The banana herb/plant only gives off one stock, then dies. So cut down the entire plant at the base with a machete and let it fall…be careful of the sap – it stains your clothes dark brown. I found this out the hard way.

Secondly, give a few bananas to the neighbors.

Use some very ripe and mushy ones for Banana Bread!

Broke da Mout’ Banana Bread:

How to Make Dried Bananas

This recipe creates bananas similar to dried apricots in texture. You can easily use all the ripe ones at once and create an ono-lishious and nutritious snack that conserves a long time.

• First heat oven to 170 degrees.
• Peel and slice about 40 extremely ripe bananas in half, sideways.
• Lay the bananas on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil or ti-leaves. Think of ti-leaves like nature’s tin-foil; they can be used however you would normally use foil. Wash ti-leaves and cut ends off to fit your trays. Line with bananas. Use trays rather than putting bananas straight on the grill as this makes a soft, caramelized dried fruit, not a dry banana chip.
• We do this in the afternoon and cook for 3 or 4 hours. Then turn off stove and leave bananas in all night.
• In the morning, turn oven back on to 170 and cook for another 4 or 5 hours until bananas have shrunk down to about 1/2 their size and are dense and tasty. If they are not dried and firm after 5 hours, leave in for another 2 hours. Delicious warm…
• After cooling, store in wrapped ti-leaves or tupperware…keiki will easily down 5 or 6 dried bananas in a sitting and get their full dose of vitamins and good stuff without even realizing it.

Tip: If the bananas aren’t ripe enough, the dried bananas won’t be sweet. For the bananas that are partly brown and mushy, peel, break in half and store in plastic bags in the freezer to use for smoothies or banana bread.

Pro tip: Smoothies are more creamy with frozen bananas vs. regular bananas plus ice.

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Aloha