What to do with a banana in the kitchen, other than the ever popular banana bread?
Make a meat loaf and use that banana.
The fruit banana is so versatile and yet, almost nobody knows the extend of such a fruit in a kitchen. Of course, we can use bananas in almost any desserts and baking out there but when it comes down to cooking with bananas, it is completely another story.
Bananas if used in main dishes, will act as a ‘bonding ingredient’. Almost like glue to papers, it will make the main ingredient to glue to the others in the mix.
The banana used here is bonding the meat together forming a really nice and dense kind of bread, one that will keep its shape once sliced. And the banana will give that little sweetness to the dish without giving the taste of the banana. Actually we cannot taste the fruit in this dish.
One other thing, I did not write the quantities of the ingredients because to me, the size of a meatloaf is only related to the amount of meat I have on hand and to the dish I will use to bake it. The rest is just ‘icing on the loaf’ kind of talk here…
Ingredients
White wine, just enough to wet the meat
Pesto sun dried tomato
Pesto green olive
dijon mustard
tabasco
sesame oil, just a small drop
olive oil, about 1 tablespoon
garlic and pepper seasoning
black pepper steak sauce
old style Dijon mustard
ground pork, about 2.5 pounds
Marinate the meat with the ingredients above, for 12 hours.
Then add :
1 slice of bread, cut into piece
1 small banana (as a bonding agent)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Transfer mixture to a 5-by-9-inch loaf pan.
Stir together 1/2 cup ketchup and 1/4 cup brown sugar until smooth; brush over the meat.
Bake the meatloaf for about 1 hour, until the edge of the meatloaf is starting to detach for the sides and become crusty. I usually let it cool completely before cutting it.
