GREEN BANANA CURRY

Green bananas – not to be confused with regular unripe bananas
or plantain, which is also green and looks like a very large banana
– are small, green and stumpy with blackish patches when they’re
ready to eat. Like plantain, green bananas are easier to pare with a
sharp knife rather than peel, and like regular bananas they soon
soften up when cooked, although they taste (I think) quite a lot
like potatoes. Confused? You won’t be – assuming you don’t know
everything there is to know about green bananas already, in which
case this recipe for green banana curry may be a bit too basic for
you, and probably isn’t even authentic either.
Serve with some sort of meat curry and rice, or just with rice as
a vegetarian main course.
2–21⁄2 lb (1 kg +) green bananas
1 bunch of spring onions
2 green chillies
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp chilli powder
1⁄2 tsp turmeric
2 tins of coconut milk
1⁄2 mug of couscous
Lemon juice
Lime juice
Oil
Method
1. Mix the curry powder, cinnamon, chilli powder and turmeric
together in a bowl.
2. Remove banana skins with a sharp knife, cut into chunks and
coat with the spices.
3. Top and tail the spring onions and cut them lengthways; deseed
and finely chop the chillies.
4. Warm some oil in a large pan and fry the green bananas, spring
onions and chillies together for a couple of minutes until the
bananas are browning nicely and the onions have softened.
5. Add the coconut milk to the pan and bring to the boil then
turn the heat right down and simmer gently for 10–15 minutes
until the bananas feel ‘done’ when you pierce them with a sharp
knife.
6. Turn the heat off and add the couscous to the curry; sprinkle
(or squeeze) some lemon and lime juice into the pan according
to taste then stir well and leave for about 10 minutes so the
couscous cooks gently in the sauce. Serve with rice.