The Cottage Smallholder

When I got back this evening, Danny was muttering about the fruit flies in the kitchen. Unfortunately one had taken a nosedive into his whisky. He paced the room looking for the source of the invasion. Could it be the tomarillos, the wild plums, the carrier bags of grapes, the tiny greengages that Jocelyn and I had picked on Wednesday that were ripening on the side?

I nervously pointed to a bag of elderly bananas that were sitting on the wood-burning stove, just behind his chair. Danny just laughed and asked, gently, “Why do you keep on buying bananas when you don’t eat them?”

I buy bananas to take to work. If hunger overwhelmed me, I would eat one. If I don’t have decent food insurance, the client’s fridge can become a major focus. It has done so in the past. Twenty miles from the nearest shop, a withered spring onion has charisma.

Strangely, if there is a banana in my all-day lunch box, I tend not to eat it. Its role is more that of a companion fruit. With a banana by my side my attention is averted from the slices of Gouda cheese, usually sitting on the eye level shelf or the tempting red string bag of mini babybels that most people stash in the butter compartment, just above the milk. So one banana can make five return trips and become a real friend before it is jettisoned.

Even though the bananas (full of potassium) eventually go into the compost, I do feel guilty at the waste and on account of this we often enjoy this great dish on a Friday night.

I discovered recntly that bananas can be frozen (in their skins, in a sealed bag).

Recipe for baked bananas in rum

Ingredients:
Small hand of elderly bananas (you can use new ones but the old ones are best as they do have more sugar at this stage)
Water
2 tablespoons of rum (alternatively brandy or whisky at a pinch)
1 tbsp spoon of soft brown sugar
Aluminium foil

Method:

1. Remove skins and place bananas in an ovenproof dish
2. Pour in water, to half of the level of the bananas
3. Add the rum (or brandy/whisky) and sprinkle the sugar over the fruit
4. Cover the dish tightly with foil
5. Bake in the centre of a low oven for twenty minutes (160c/140c fan) and serve with lashings of cream