The Tale of Three Ripe Bananas

Heather is running a Use It Up challenge for April which ties in very nicely with my 'tale of three ripe bananas.'

P takes an organic banana to work with him as part of his packed lunch every day.  Last week he came back one evening with three very ripe bananas which he hadn't got round to eating but which had all schlepped up and down to London with him in his briefcase.  I only really like eating bananas which are positively under-ripe - pretty much still green - so I knew I wouldn't ever eat them up.  The following afternoon I decided to make some Banana Bread with them.  It's a really easy recipe from 'The Complete Rose Elliot' cookbook but it does have to cook for an hour.  Now, I don't know whether there is something wrong with the oven, or the clock, or what, but after an hour what came out of the oven was pretty much charcoal.  I was not happy - feeling I'd now not only wasted three organic bananas but an egg, butter, sugar, flour, golden syrup etc etc.  I tried eating a slice but the burnt crust was just horrible.

Cut to the following afternoon when the burnt offering of the banana bread was still sitting on the kitchen side - taunting me - when I had a 'eureka' moment.  I hacked off all the burnt bits with the bread knife, sliced up what was left, soaked the non-burnt sponge slices in some sherry and arranged them around the sides of a large glass bowl.  Then I added a carton of custard to the middle of the bowl and chilled everything in the fridge.  Just before we were about to eat I added some chopped banana slices to the custard and, voila, we ended up with banana custard trifle.  With a large dollop of extra thick double cream it was totally delicious. 

So the 'tale of three ripe bananas' eventually had a happy ending.  Now, in the spirit of Heather's challenge, I'm wondering what to do with half a bowl of cold basmati rice.  Does anyone know if you can add rice to home-made soup to thicken it instead of potato?  Or are there any good rice soup recipes out there?

Comments

[Mary]

I would make fried rice ;-) You can add it to soup, though, but it's not as good ;-)

[Heather]

That banana trifle sounds lovely! Rice can be added to soup for a more wholesome meal. Could you make a little rice salad? I would just add chopped tomato/peppers/cucumber, onion and maybe a little chopped up ham or tuna or cheese, whatever needs using up really and add a little salad cream to bring it all together.

[Lindsey]

I love rice in soup - go for it! Do let us know how you get on.

[Wendy]

Well, you cetainly rescued the banana loaf - the trifle sounded really scrummy. By the way, I am exactly the same as you. I can only eat under-ripe bananas and always pick the green ones when I shop.