Black Pepper Bananas with Palm Sugar and Porridge

Name: Rukmini Iyer's Black Pepper Bananas Recipe | Easy Porridge
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: Serves 2
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 100g jaggery or soft dark brown sugar; 80ml water; A pinch of sea salt flakes; ¼ tsp ground ginger; 16 black peppercorns, ground; 1 heaped tsp butter; 2 large just-underripe bananas, cut into 1cm slices; 80g rolled oats (not the large steel-cut kind); 400ml your choice of milk, plus extra to taste

by Rukmini Iyer from India Express: Simple and Delicious Recipes for Every Day

Bananas cooked down in brown sugar, and a healthy amount of black pepper, are a delicious and unique topping for porridge.

Serves 2

Total 40 min

Prep 10 min

Cook 30 min

Easy

Discover more delicious Banana recipes

From moist cakes to breakfast bakes

Introduction from Rukmini Iyer

This is a lovely and unusual way to serve bananas, which my dad used to make for me with golden syrup. In South India this recipe is known as chenda muriyan, and you’d use jaggery, a lovely caramel-like palm sugar, along with freshly ground black pepper and just a hint of ginger for warmth. But you can use brown sugar, or indeed golden syrup as alternatives. Use bananas which are only just turning ripe from green, as that’ll give the best texture to the finished dish. I like to serve this with porridge.

Ingredients

For the bananas:

100g jaggery or soft dark brown sugar

80ml water

A pinch of sea salt flakes

¼ tsp ground ginger

16 black peppercorns, ground

1 heaped tsp butter

2 large just-underripe bananas, cut into 1cm slices

For the porridge:

80g rolled oats (not the large steel-cut kind)

400ml your choice of milk, plus extra to taste

Method

Put the jaggery or sugar, water, salt, ginger and ground pepper in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring to help melt the sugar. Once boiling, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes until you have a thin syrup.

Add the butter and simmer for a further minute before adding the sliced bananas and turning off the heat. Let the bananas infuse in the hot syrup for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, you can make your porridge: tip the oats and milk into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer, stirring continuously, for 5–6 minutes to your preferred consistency, adding a splash more milk if you wish.

Serve the bananas on the porridge, with a big cup of coffee alongside. Leftover syrup can be used as a porridge topper another day.

NOTES: If you’re using jaggery, the easiest kind to dissolve into a syrup comes as a powder which looks like brown sugar – the solid mug-sized cones are beautiful but difficult to use. If you’re on a low-sugar diet, use date syrup in place of the sugar.

Preview