P.F. Chang’s Banana Spring Rolls
Menu description: Warm, crispy bites of banana, caramel-vanilla drizzle, coconut-pineapple ice cream.
• 3-4 ripe Saba bananas (or cooking bananas)
• 8 wonton wrappers / Egg roll wrappers
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ⅛ teaspoon Chinese five spice mix* (available at Asian market - see NOTES below)
• jack fruit in can (optional)
• oil for frying
Caramel Sauce (or you can just buy the ready-made one)
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Preheat oil to 350 degrees in a saucepan or a deep fryer.
- Set two small bowls side by side, one with a scoop of brown mixed with the five spice, one with water. Separate the egg roll wrappers you are going to use, one per half banana.
Wrapping the bananas
- Cut banana in half crosswise and place in the wrapper.
- Add slices of jackfruit and sugar mix (amount depends on your preference)
- Spread water all over the edges of the wrapper and roll it up like a burrito, sealing the ends by folding and pushing the dough together with your fingers.
- If a halved banana is too long, trim the edges to fit the dough. Prepare all the banana pieces before frying.
Frying
- Fill a heavy bottom pot with about ½ inch of oil and warm over medium-high heat.
- Fry one or two at a time, carefully turning to brown evenly on all sides (if you are frying in a saucepan). For deep fryer: Just throw the banana spring rolls and let it brown.
- Remove from oil and slice rolls in half. Serve warm over pineapple-coconut ice cream, with berries and a drizzle of caramel.
Caramel Sauce - Combine the sugar, water, and the corn syrup in a large saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
- Increase the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil.
- Do not stir from this point on, but instead swirl the liquid around the pan so that the caramel doesn’t burn.
- Continue to cook until the caramel turns an even amber color then remove from the heat and let stand for about 30 seconds.
- Be careful here, Pour the heavy cream into the mixture. The mixture will bubble up significantly and is very hot.
- Stir the mixture with a spatula scraping the sides of the pot and combining all the ingredients, again be careful.
- Add the butter and stir until combined. As you stir you will see the caramel come to the consistency that you want and look like caramel.
- Let cool for a few minutes and then drizzle over your dessert.
- This recipe makes about 1¼ cups.
Notes
Chinese five spice is made of: cinnamon, anise, ginger and cloves. if you don’t have it, shake into the sugar a TINY AMOUNT of those spices instead. .
Have you tried jackfruit yet? It is probably the best vegan food you’re not eating but should be. If you have never heard of jackfruit, it is a tropical fruit that you can use in savory dishes. It is related to figs, mulberry and breadfruit and grows on the largest trees in the world. Jackfruit looks like a durian on steroids; it’s huge. When it’s cracked open, there are pods that are often called “seeds.” However, there is a fleshy coating around the actual seeds and this is the part that we want to eat. When jackfruit is ripe, it has a sweet taste and can be used in desserts but when it’s unripe, the flavor is savory. You can buy jackfruit whole and do the work of breaking it down yourself or you can buy it with all the work done for you. Jackfruit can be purchased frozen, dried or canned either in brine (for savory dishes) or in syrup (for sweet dishes). The texture of jackfruit is similar to chicken and pork and it has been commonly used as a meat substitute throughout Asia for many years. The jackfruit in brine is often called “vegetarian meat.” The seeds are also edible and can be boiled or roasted.