Spicy Banana Zucchini Balls
By: Cafenilson
Published: Tuesday, December 8, 2009 - 12:54pm

Ingredients




1 cup coarsely grated zucchini, squeezed dry
1 large banana, mashed or chopped finely (ripe or not)
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons turmeric
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 teaspoons crushed chilli pepper
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup flour (or more if required)
vegetable oil for frying

Preparation

1 Mix all ingredients in a bowl until it forms a soft dough.  Add more flour if needed. 2 Heat vegetable oil on medium heat (about 350F).  Drop a teaspoonful of dough (regular teaspoon) into the hot oil and fry until brown, turning zucchini ball around. (Make sure your oil is not too hot or your zucchini balls will get too brown!) 3 Drain in paper towel.  Repeat with the rest of the dough.

About


Banana, turmeric, honey. These are the three ingredients for this month’s Royal Foodie  Joust hosted by The Leftover Queen/Foodie Blogroll Forum.  Immediately, I thought of the banana spring roll (turon) we used to have as kids for snack.  Raw banana sliced, sprinkled with brown sugar, wrapped in spring roll wrapper then deep fried until brown and crunchy.  Sometimes, the vendors would add a small slice of jackfruit with the banana to give it a different “flavor”.  I was playing with the idea of slices of bananas sprinkled with turmeric, drizzled with honey then wrapped in the spring roll wrapper and fried. My taste-tester was not too excited about it (and I haven’t even made the dish!). So I scrapped that idea and moved on to something savory instead.
The inspiration for this savory/sweet dish was actually the zucchinis I harvested from my container garden. I wanted to make fritters so why not combine the zucchini and bananas? These snack/appetizers are spicy with just the right amount of sweetness from the banana and honey.  I would like to try this with a banana curry sauce as a dip.