MUY BIEN März/April 2018

Green Bananas
Probably everyone knows what an
unripe banana looks like – they are green.
In this state they still contain too much cellulose
which cannot be digested by humans and may
lead to stomach pains at times. Luckily, not with me,
- I personally love those yellowy green hard bananas.
Really unripe bananas can be cooked and then taste like
sweet potatoes. In Sansibar this is a popular dish. Naturally,
we are not talking about cooking bananas.
Let’s get back to the ripeness. To begin with we have a
starch-sugar ratio of 20:1 which then turns into 1:20. The
sugar content can therefore be easily deduced by the colour
of the shell. You have unripe bananas at home and want to
speed the ripening process along? Place a ripe tomato or
apple next to it, the ethene is accelerates the process.
Bananas which are transported to mainland Europe
are sent to a banana ripening station in ripening
boxes and are treated with banana ripening
gas – here again we have ethene.
Fakten:
• Bananenkartons sind beliebte stabile Behälter
zur Aufbewahrung von Krimskrams,
Büchern und Geschirr. Aber vorsichtig. Sie
sind in der Regel mit Fungiziden kontaminiert
die während des Transports Insekten
abhalten und töten sollen.
• Die Banane hat kleine, kreisrunde Punkte?
Das ist gar nicht mal so schlecht. Es handelt
sich um Einstichstellen von saugenden
Insekten und sind ein Indiz für wenig
bis nicht genutztes Insektengift. Auf den
Geschmack haben diese Einstiche keinen
Einfluss.
• Wohin mit Ihren reifen oder überreifen
Bananen? Entweder Sie backen einen leckeren
Babanenkuchen oder frieren sie geschält
ein - klappt super.
• Sie mögen keine schwarzen Druckstellen
an der Banane? Hängen Sie die Staude an
einen Haken.
• Bananen wachsen nicht an Bäumen
sondern sind Stauden. Von den ca 100 Arten
der Gattung Musa zählen um die 30 zu
den Essbaren.
What
is so different about
Canarian bananas? Well, they
are small, juicier and have an intensified
flavour compared to their relatives.
Also, they are richer in magnesium, potassium,
iron and various vitamins.
One reason for this is the six-month maturity of the
perennial, twice as long as with the tropical banana.
The juiciness and high humidity of the Plátano
is bought at a high price with the enormous water
consumption it has. Between 400 and 800 litres are
needed to produce one kilo of bananas.
To save about 10% of water, many plantations disappear
under plastic covers. Nevertheless, this is
not economically feasible and naturally, labourers
are cheaper in South American than in
the Canary Islands so that our banana
must be subsidised by the Spanish
state and the EU.
Fakten:
• Banana boxes are popular sturdy containers
for storing bits and bobs, books and
dishes. But be careful. They are usually contaminated
with fungicides that are sprayed
on to the fruit to deter and kill insects during
their transportation.
• Your banana has small, circular spots?
That’s not all that bad. These are small
spots where insects have stung and sucked
the banana. This is an indication of little to
no insecticide. It does not affect the taste.
• You have bananas left over and don’t
know what to do? You can bake a delicious
banana cake or freeze the peeled bananas
– works perfectly.
• You do not like black spots on the banana?
Hang the perennial on a hook.
• Bananas do not grow on trees but are
bushes.Just 30 of the 100 sorts of the species
“Musa” are eatable.
MUY BIEN
Seite
35