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Pisang Goreng (Fried Banana)

Pisang goreng

Ripe banana in a crisp batter, fried golden and eaten hot — the Indonesian sweet snack that became a beloved close to the Dutch-Indo meal.

Pisang Goreng (Fried Banana)VIIISweets & Baking
Prep
15 min
Cook
15 min
Serves
4
Level
Beginner

At the end of a Dutch-Indo meal, when the rice and the sambal and the saté have been cleared, something sweet and hot often arrives from the kitchen: pisang goreng, banana in a crisp golden batter, fried to order and eaten with the fingers. It is one of the simplest dishes in the Indo repertoire and one of the most immediately loved.

An Indonesian street snack

Pisang goreng is Indonesian through and through — a snack sold hot from carts and warungs across the archipelago, morning and evening, wherever there is a wok of oil. In Indonesia it is made with starchy cooking bananas like pisang raja or pisang kepok, which hold their shape and turn creamy inside their crust. It arrived in the Netherlands as the rest of the rijsttafel did, through the colonial era and the Indo families who kept these flavours alive, and it settled comfortably into Dutch life as the sweet close to an Indo meal. The dish is theirs; naming that is only right.

Crisp coat, soft heart

The whole pleasure of pisang goreng is contrast: a light, crackling batter around fruit that has gone soft and molten with the heat. The technique is all in the frying. A batter built on rice flour crisps harder and holds longer than wheat alone; oil at a steady 175°C sets the crust fast without letting it drink fat. Fry in small batches so the temperature holds, and drain well.

Pisang goreng is best measured in seconds — the walk from the fryer to the plate is all the resting it needs.

Serve it the moment it is cool enough to hold. A dusting of icing sugar is traditional, a thread of palm-sugar syrup is generous, and — in the more indulgent Dutch-Indo manner — a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream against the hot banana is hard to argue with.

From the kitchen
“Eat pisang goreng straight from the pan — the contrast of crisp batter and hot, soft banana fades within minutes of frying.”

Ingredients

Serves 4

The batter

  • 120 grice flour — or plain flour
  • 30 gcornflour
  • 1 tbspsugar
  • 0.5 tspbaking powder
  • 1 pinchsalt
  • 180 mlcold water — approximately

To fry and serve

  • 4bananas — ripe but firm, halved lengthwise
  • 500 mlneutral oil — for frying
  • to serveicing sugar or palm-sugar syrup
  • to servevanilla ice cream — optional

Method

  1. 1

    Mix the batter

    Whisk the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt, then stir in enough cold water to make a smooth batter about the thickness of pouring cream. Rice flour gives the crispest, lightest coat; a little cornflour keeps it shattery.

  2. 2

    Choose and cut the bananas

    Use bananas ripe enough to be sweet but firm enough to hold their shape. Halve them lengthwise, or leave small ones whole. Very soft bananas turn to mush in the oil.

  3. 3

    Heat the oil

    Bring the oil to about 175°C — hot enough that a drop of batter sizzles and rises at once. Too cool and the batter drinks oil; too hot and it colours before the banana warms through.

  4. 4

    Fry until golden

    Dip each banana in the batter, let the excess run off, and lower into the oil. Fry, turning once, until deep gold and crisp, three or four minutes. Work in small batches so the temperature holds.

  5. 5

    Drain and serve

    Lift onto paper to drain, then serve hot — dusted with icing sugar, drizzled with palm-sugar syrup, or, in the Dutch-Indo way, beside a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

In the kitchen

The tools that make this recipe easier.

For the sweet table

Coffee-time (koffie met wat lekkers) is its own small ceremony.

  • Koffie — strong filter coffee, one biscuit alongside
  • Slagroom — whipped cream for poffertjes and tompouce
  • Roomboter — good butter on the warm koek
How a Dutch meal is built →

Questions from the kitchen

What kind of banana should I use?+

In Indonesia, starchy cooking bananas (pisang raja or pisang kepok) are traditional. Ordinary dessert bananas work well too — just choose ones that are ripe and sweet but still firm enough to hold together.

Where does pisang goreng come from?+

It is an Indonesian street snack, sold hot from carts and warungs across the archipelago. It travelled to the Netherlands with the rijsttafel and the Indo community and became a familiar sweet finish to an Indo-Dutch meal.

Why rice flour in the batter?+

Rice flour fries up crisper and stays crunchier than wheat flour alone, and it browns to an appealing gold. A little cornflour adds to the shattery, light texture.

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