Banana is a tropical berry that has long been no longer a delicacy, although some 400 years ago, real wars were fired because of its plantations. Now the popularity of this fruit boldly competes with apples and often not only because of taste, but also price. Tropical "friend" is increasingly becoming cheaper than the usual fruits and vegetables.
Yes, a banana is a berry! The plant "banana" is a grass, therefore, its fruits should be called berries. This herbal plant pleased with its taste and useful properties of all civilizations known to us. In some cultures, banana is a staple food. In some areas of Africa, the fruit we are used to is not used in the usual way: its fruits are fried, boiled, stewed, and so on. The fate of its unripe fruits fully 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 beneficial properties for a long period of time, were procured 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. This taste of childhood is familiar to many. A sticky, sweet and beloved by almost all children product that could be stored for an unrealistic long time. Its production consisted of processing at a temperature of 80-90 C, as a result of this, a banana lost almost all its useful properties and its use in food actually did more harm than good.
Naturally, over time, people thought about how to dry bananas without losing their beneficial properties. It would be logical to reduce the temperature regime of processing. And now, dried bananas appear on the market, prepared 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 have been preserved. And here, as usual, the normal question arises: "What is the catch?". To do this, you need to understand the process itself.
Back in 1904, a Russian engineer Starzhinetsky invented the 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 be practiced in the United States. The principle of such an original method is as follows. The product is served instant freezing at a temperature of -40 C and then, using a vacuum, moisture is frozen out of it. Thus, water, not accepting a liquid state, is immediately converted into gas and excluded from the product. In the case of tropical fruit, we get dried bananas, which are now 10 times lighter than their original state and endowed with a moisture content of less than 8%. But here is a surprise. Such a weightless banana becomes 15 times more calories than a banana in its usual state.
As a result of the obvious inadequacy of the advantages of the above methods, it becomes clear that you need a recipe for dried bananas, which would be as useful as regular fruits. And in 2009, the production technology was perfected. From now on, dried bananas are obtained due to careful processing at 30-35 C. And even if the time is spent much longer, but the result justifies the means. The fruit acquires a special taste and retains absolutely all the nutritional properties. Such fruits rarely come in free sale, their production is quite laborious, and, consequently, the cost increases. So maybe you should dry them yourself?
How to dry bananas at home is not difficult to understand. The main thing in this delicate work is to withstand temperature conditions. Bananas should be peeled, cut into cubes or circles (if desired, you can leave them in their original form), sprinkle with lemon juice diluted with water, and set to dry. An excellent option for drying is an electric furnace with a temperature regulator. Remember, do not set the temperature above 40 C. It is better to store the finished product in vacuum packaging. If you use the recipe for dried bananas and maintain the appropriate storage conditions, then you can preserve the fruit for more than one year. True, rarely does anyone think about preserving bananas in this way, except to obtain slightly different taste properties.