We buy a lot of bananas, Sparky loves them - but his banana window is pretty small: he needs them ripe, but not beautifully spotty and soft like I like them, and we wind up with a backlog of frozen ripe bananas. I use them to bake, but, let's face it - most baked banana recipes are really desserts.
I turned to google and searched for something healthier. In the vegan community, I found lots of references to a "Banana Scramble"; sort of vaguely like egg-free scrambled eggs. Sparky was already a fan of "Elvis" oatmeal using these ingredients - I realized pan-frying would bring the dish into a whole new dimension.
So, now we have a quick breakfast staple that seems really decadent, but is still pretty healthy, considering it has only 4-5 ingredients, including the garnish. Plus, it's simple enough that Sparky can make it on his own. I've discovered that we like a more oat-y version than the recipes I found online, so the cakes hold together better (truthfully, I rarely measure - I just toss the ingredients together, mix, and cook.)Ingredients (1 serving)
1 frozen banana
1/4 cup plain oatmeal
2 tbsp milk (for a vegan version, substitute a nut or soy milk)
1 heaping tbsp peanut butter
A tiny amount of butter for the pan (if you have a non-stick pan, you just need a whisper)
1/8 tsp vanilla sugar for garnish, if desired
This is pretty simple: the hardest part is removing the frozen banana from its peel (if you are hasty, like me, and freeze them whole, just run it under warm water, peel, rinse again to get any stringy bits off.) Mash the banana in a small bowl, and add the oats, milk and peanut butter. Mix thoroughly until the peanut butter is well distributed.Drop onto a hot buttered skillet in small dollops, slightly less than 1/4 cup each. Cook until the edges start to brown, and then flip carefully (they don't hold together very well until they're ready for the plate, so keep them small, and if you break one, just turn it into two cakes.) Cook until the cakes are crisp on the outside and are still creamy but give slight resistance when poked in the middle (you want the escaping steam to thoroughly cook the oats.)
Place on a plate and sprinkle with the vanilla sugar.
Thank you. Thankuhvehrymudjch!
3 comments:
Is the oatmeal raw oats or cooked leftovers? If raw, we talking instant, quick, rolled, steel cut?
Good question: I use raw oatmeal, and have used both instant (quick & instant are the same as far as I know; they're essentially dried pre-cooked rolled oats) and regular rolled oats. I think steel cut take longer to cook & may not work well in this recipe.
In this particular instance, we used rolled oats, which give the cakes a heartier texture and do take a few seconds longer to cook.
Hey, Leek - tried this with presoaked, steel cut oats - and nobody liked it. Changed the texture to something like an unpleasantly chewy risotto.
Rolled or instant oats are better.
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