Minatamis na saging

Saba simmered in dark syrup made before the fruit goes in, so the slices stay whole.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 10 saba bananas, peeled and halved
• 200 g dark muscovado sugar
• 500 ml water
• 1 pandan leaf, knotted
• 0.25 teaspoon salt

Method

1. MAKE THE SYRUP BEFORE THE FRUIT GOES IN. Sugar and bananas started together means the fruit sits in thin sweet water for twenty minutes, takes up all of it, and falls apart before the syrup is anywhere near thick.
2. Use firm saba, yellow with a few black marks. Fully ripe ones collapse whatever you do; green ones stay chalky.
3. Sugar, water, pandan and salt in a wide pan. Simmer 12 to 15 minutes, uncovered, until it has darkened and thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon thinly.
4. Bananas in in a single layer, cut side down. Crowded or stacked they steam and break up.
5. Very low heat, uncovered, 10 minutes. Do not stir -- tilt and spoon the syrup over them instead.
6. Turn each piece once with a spoon, 6 more minutes, until they are glossy, deep amber, and a skewer goes in without the piece sagging.
7. Lift them out into a bowl before reducing anything further. Left in while the syrup thickens, they overcook in the last two minutes of a dish that was finished.
8. If the syrup is still thin, boil it 3 minutes alone and pour it over.
9. Good warm on their own, cold with ice, or used as the sweetener in a halo-halo.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes