During confinement, while his restaurant La Maison de Petit Pierre in Béziers is temporarily closed, chef Pierre Augé is rethinking his cooking: “what should I do with my peelings? » A little thought and then the idea came to him: transform his banana skins into banana honey. An idea worthy of a Top Chef!
“Make something with what you throw away”
We too often think about throwing away our peelings. However, there is a world of possibilities: just as you can reuse your leftover lemons and recycle your vegetable peelings, Pierre Augé says “you can cook the banana skin! »
“In the banana, we forget that the skin is also useful”
Banana is delicious, “powerful in the mouth”, and is even used to “bind” foods, such as to replace eggs in the preparation of cakes for example. What about his skin, the existence of which we would almost ignore by throwing it in the trash? “Just by scraping the skin of the banana, you get some flesh. So, in honey, this remaining flesh will provide a lot of softness, which is particularly interesting.” A reuse of leftover bananas not to be ignored!
Banana peel… in honey
“To prepare banana honey, you must immerse the banana skins in water for 24 hours, with a little ascorbic acid (replace if necessary with lemon juice, to prevent oxidation and browning of the the banana peel). Once these 24 hours have passed, drain them. First of all, when using the skin of a fruit, it is imperative to clean it well. Rinse the banana skin thoroughly with water and cut it into cubes. In water brought to a rolling boil, cook the banana skin for about 10 minutes. Then, drain it again, and confit it with a little sugar, in a saucepan, over low heat. Once the honey texture is obtained, your preparation is ready.”
Little tip from the chef: favor the use of white sugar, otherwise, for variety, dare to use coconut sugar!
The “banana honey” obtained can be incorporated into yogurt, herbal tea, pancake batter or any other cake preparation. A great way to limit waste.
