Mar 5, 2009 1:39 pm US/Eastern
Tony Tantillo: Bananas
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CBS 2 HD food reporter Tony Tantillo.
CBS
Well today's tip of the day is going to be with bananas.
Now I do many tips on bananas during the year, but every year in the wintertime I like to do a tip on bananas because if you do not handle them properly, the bananas will become grey and you will lose some of the flavor they have inside. Some people say they don't, but I personally think they do because cold temperatures will take out some of that sugar, and they will get that funny looking grey color, and nobody's going to eat 'em, so let's talk about selection and storage of bananas in the wintertime.
When you buy them at the market—it's so simple—buy them yellow, buy them ripe, and make sure the yellow is 80% top to bottom. A little bit green on top, a little bit green on the bottom, that's OK, but the rest of the banana has to be yellow. If you buy them green, even in transportation from the market to your home, exposure to cold temperatures could turn them grey even before you get them home.
When you bring them home, if you buy them in a plastic bag, let them stay in that plastic bag on the counter just for a little while. That way the heat retains inside the banana, and the banana needs to retain that heat to become nice and yellow and ripen beautifully.
If you buy them green, bring them home and store them in the wrong place, you know what happens? As we all know, we wind up throwing them away. We lose money, we lose nutrition, and we lose value.
Bananas in the wintertime…treat them properly and they'll taste just like they do right out of the tropics.
Tropical Salad with Yogurt Dressing
Feel free to mix and match with other tropical fruits if you like or to increase or decrease the amounts of particular fruit. Although they're not a tropical fruit, strawberries would add some color.
Serves 6
Yogurt Dressing
1 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt or plain yogurt with 1 teaspoon vanilla added
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon lime juice
Tropical Salad
2 bananas, cut into ½ inch slices and tossed with ½ cup orange juice
2 cups fresh pineapple cut into ½ inch chunks
2 cups papaya (or mango) cut into ½ inch chunks
3 kiwifruit, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut into half-moon slices
6 mint sprigs for garnish
1. Combine yogurt, ginger, honey, and lime juice. Set aside.
2. Drain bananas and put into a bowl with pineapple, papaya, and kiwifruit. Mix well, but do not bruise.
3. Fill 6 wine goblets with equal amounts of the fruit mixture, about 1 cup each. Top with a few tablespoons of the dressing and a mint sprig.
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