Dried bananas

Banana is a tropical berry that has long been no delicacy, although some 400 years ago, because of its plantations, real wars were fomented. Now the popularity of this fruit boldly competes with apples and often not only because of the taste, but also the price. Tropical "friend" is increasingly becoming cheaper than the fruits and vegetables that are habitual for us.

Yes, yes, a banana is a berry! The plant "banana" is a herb, therefore, its fruit should be called berries. This herb plant was pleased with its taste and useful properties, all the known to us civilizations. In some cultures, a banana is the main product for food intake. In some parts of Africa, the fruit that is used to us is not used in the usual way: its fruits are fried, boiled, stewed and so on. The fate of its immature fruit completely repeats the mission of potatoes in our country. In order to be able to store fruits for a long time, they were subjected to heat treatment. Dried bananas, which did not lose their natural useful properties for a long period of time, were harvested for future use and used regularly.

For quite a long time in the era of the USSR, dried bananas were available only in one version - Vietnamese dehydrated. Many people know this taste of childhood. Sticky, sweet and loved by almost all children the product that could be stored unrealistically long. Its production consisted of processing at a temperature of 80-90 C, as a result of which the banana lost almost all its useful properties and its consumption in food actually did more harm than good.

Naturally, over time people thought about how to dry bananas without losing useful properties. It would be logical to reduce the temperature regime of treatment. And now, on the market there are dried bananas cooked by sublimation, that is cold drying. Such a product in most cases comes from China, and, of course, is quite inexpensive, although useful substances and vitamins are preserved. And here, as usual, a normal question arises: "What is the catch?". For this you need to understand the process itself.

In the distant 1904, the Russian engineer Starzhinetsky invented a method of sublimation of products. A unique invention and a new way of storing products did not find proper recognition at home, but with incredible success began to practice in the US. The principle of this original method is as follows. The product is immediately frozen at -40 ° C and then the moisture freezes from it with a vacuum. Thus, water, not taking a liquid state, is converted directly into a gas and is excluded from the product. In the case of tropical fruits, we get dried bananas, which are now 10 times lighter than their original state and have a moisture content of less than 8%. But here's a surprise. Such weightless bananchik becomes 15 times calories than a banana in its usual state.

As a result of the obvious lack of advantages of the above methods, it becomes clear that you need a prescription for dried bananas that would be as useful as ordinary fruits. And in 2009 the production technology was brought to perfection. Henceforth dried bananas are obtained due to accurate processing at 30-35 C. And let time is spent much longer, but the result justifies the means. The fruit acquires a special taste and preserves absolutely all nutritional properties. Such fruits are rarely found in free sale, their production is quite labor-intensive, and, consequently, the cost also increases. So maybe it's worth drying them yourself?

How to dry bananas at home, it is not difficult to understand. The main thing in this delicate work is to withstand the temperature regime. Bananas should be cleaned, cut into cubes or circles (if desired, you can leave it in its original form), sprinkle with lemon juice diluted with water, and put dry. An excellent option for drying is a electric oven with a thermostat. Remember, do not make the temperature above 40 C. Store the finished product better in vacuum packs. If you use a recipe for dried bananas and maintain the appropriate storage conditions, then can not preserve the fruit for one year. True, few people think about canning bananas in this way, except to get a few other flavoring properties.