Banana Ketchup Recipe

Banana ketchup (or catsup) is made with puréed banana and seasoned with salt, sugar, garlic, onions, and spices. The sweet, savory, and tangy condiment normally consists of crimson artificial meals coloring so it resembles tomato ketchup.

On the farm the place I grew up in Tarlac, banana bushes (that my father planted) grew abundantly. I mashed the fruit and watched my mother stir the thick, effervescent banana ketchup over a sluggish hearth. A cheesecloth pouch stuffed with spices bobbed throughout the potion of sweet-smelling, darkish yellow bananas. It wasn’t crimson as tomato catsup typically is, so I was skeptical when Mom said it was banana ketchup.

After days of prep, Mom finally served a thick, magenta-colored banana ketchup as a side to the scrumptious entrées she cooked. I acquired hooked and on no account wished each different ketchup.

My very personal banana ketchup recipe is a recent sort out the distinctive one my Mom took days and hours to make. I discovered that making the banana ketchup in phases helped me accomplish the sweet, subtly tart style my Filipino palate was accustomed to.

What Is Banana Ketchup?

Banana ketchup was invented throughout the Philippines by Maria Orosa, a meals scientist and chemist, who advocated self-sufficiency in meals offers. Throughout the Nineteen Forties, she created banana ketchup as a response to wartime meals shortages. Amongst her many important contributions to meals preservation, Orosa turned utterly completely different fruits—bananas, mangoes, papayas, and ripe tomatoes—into ketchup.

All through WWII, Maria Orosa, then a division head on the Bureau of Plant Enterprise, despatched offers to the American and Filipino POWs held as prisoners in focus camps spherical Manila. Orosa despatched offers by means of the VSAC (Volunteer Social Assist Committee) ladies, one in every of whom was my mother, Lulu Reyes Besa.

Orosa’s methods and keenness for meals preservation sparked an curiosity in my mother, which grew to change into notably useful when my mom married my father, a farmer.

The Biggest Bananas for Banana Ketchup

The bananas grown throughout the Philippines, though lacking in dimension and weight, are quite a bit sweeter than the bananas I uncover proper right here in America. To make banana ketchup, I exploit very ripe Cavendish bananas (the vary you’ll uncover on the grocery retailer).

Freezing them sooner than cooking halts the ripening, so I get the exact style I would really like and a similar sweetness to the Philippine-grown Latundan or Lacatan choice.

Straightforward strategies to Serve Banana Ketchup

Banana ketchup is rich, thick, and has a sweet, barely tangy style. Operate a dipping sauce for Filipino dishes like giniling (ground meat and potatoes hash), embutido (pork roll), arroz a la Cubana, or fried hen.

For lots of Filipinos, banana ketchup is used as an ingredient for sweet spaghetti. I add it when making sweet-sour sauce for lumpia Shanghai (egg rolls), shrimp rebosado, or fish escabeche.

As a marinade, banana ketchup enhances the flavors of char-grilled pork barbecue skewers or barbecue hen. As a condiment, I mix it in with a do-it-yourself dressing for our family favorite, pineapple coleslaw.

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