Here’s how she made it:
Step 1: Prepare a solution of 800 ml water and 200 ml of rice water.
Step 2: Add 10 gms = (2 tsp) of salt to the liquid.
Step 3: Peel raw and ripe bananas.
Step 4: Soak them in the solution for half an hour and slice them.
Step 5: Dry under the sun for two days, and more if the weather is cold.
Step 6: In a blender, powder the dry banana slices and store them in an airtight container.
“If you wish to make large quantities, you can approach a local flour mill and powder it using a pulverizer. While the powder has a shelf life of six months, the dried banana slices can be stored for more than a year. But, it is important to lay them under the sun for a few days every two months.” says Nayana.
From this flour, she now makes chapatis, cutlets, cookies, dry gulab jamuns and more.
Experimenting with recipes and teaching others
Once Nayana made the banana flour, for the first few days, she would add a large scoop of it to whole wheat atta and make chapatis. Later, she began preparing these dishes using only banana flour.
“The rotis have a slight sweetness but taste very rich. In the following weeks, I started experimenting with new recipes. First, I made a small list of dishes which are made using maida or wheat flour and replaced them with banana flour,” says Nayana, adding that she even made malt by adding millet-based flour and milk.
Nayana also made butter biscuits and a variety of sweets, including dry gulab jamuns, which were her favourite.
“To make the dry gulab jamuns, I mixed banana flour with milk powder. I added water and milk to the dry mix and made small balls. These were fried in ghee, soaked in sugar syrup and finally rolled in grated coconut. It was not only a delicious snack for my children,” says Nayana.
On hearing about her success in making banana flour, Padre requested her to share the process with other farmers on his WhatsApp group. Nayana shared a voice note with the steps, and also provided details about some dishes she had made.
Thanks to her, we can now start experimenting with banana flour various recipes , good luck to all. Be kind and share your knowledge with other, knowledge if not shared goes waste.