Buñelos aga'

As tradition built it

Fry about 2 to 3 minutes a batch.

Ingredients

• about 900 g (2 lb) ripe bananas
• 240 ml flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4 tbsp sugar
• about 475 ml (1 pint) vegetable oil, for frying

Method

1. Peel and mash the bananas.
2. Add the flour and baking powder and mix together. Add the sugar and mix well.
3. Heat the oil to about 175°C.
4. Drop the mixture in by the spoonful, turning frequently.
5. Cook until golden brown on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes.

Notes

No cooking time or oil temperature is given in the source recipe.

The recipe is Magdalena S. Taitano's, from the 1985 Guam Cookbook as Guampedia reprints it; it gives no temperature or time. Those are Ed Sablan's, of Biba CHamoru Kitchen in Portland, in Portland Monthly (24 November 2020): 350°F, 2 to 3 minutes, served with maple syrup or honey as on Guam. Annie's Chamorro Kitchen fries over a medium heat and warns that too hot an oil burns the outside before the inside cooks.

What a modern chef changes

The frying temperature controlled precisely, since the traditional recipe gives none.

Method

1. Fry at a fixed, thermometer-checked oil temperature, around 175°C, rather than judging readiness by eye, for a consistently golden, evenly cooked result batch to batch.
2. Rest the mashed banana batter for 20 minutes before frying, allowing the flour to hydrate fully, a step this chapter adds because the traditional recipe specifies none, offered plainly as this chapter's own addition rather than a discovered technique.