[Homesteading #4]: News, Rain and the Grandfather of Bananas||How to Cook the Perpetual Snack/Dessert, Sweetened 'Saba'!

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Hi friends! How are you today? Earlier I watched the news and guess what, it's just like yesterday. People killing, people dying. Well, that's not something to joke about but seriously, it's very alarming. One thing I hate about our television is the repeating news episodes, another is the lack of cable connection.

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I wanted to go outside to tend the plants but look, it's raining heavily. The small ditch is almost overflowing.

I heard that there are two low pressure areas near us so let's expect rains until Monday.

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I've decided to do another cooking post, it's the best option as I couldn't go outside. I could also write about science(not really good though) but these days I find cooking more enjoyable. We didn't have many ingredients today because I don't have much money. Yesterday our neighbor gave us a bunch of bananas. If you remember the chickens that ruined some of our plants, yep that guy is their owner.

If you're wondering why he gave us bananas for free, here in the Philippines especially in the provinces it's better to give items like fruits instead of keeping them to rot. Why didn't he sell it? It's not that many to sell and saba bananas are quite cheap($0.03-0.05 per piece) so he wouldn't earn that much. Still, why did he give it to you? Let's just say that like money, human relation is also an investment.

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So for today we're cooking the 'undying' snack/dessert sweetened saba bananas. Saba bananas are not only used to make snack and desserts you xould also add it to other dishes like Nilaga(boiled meat) and Pochero.

But before making the snack let's have some fast fact about this banana variant.
Saba Banana fast facts:
• Westerners refer to it as 'the Grandfather of bananas' because the word 'saba' is the Hebrew for 'grandfather'.
• Rich potassium, vitamin B, vitamin C, iron and protein
• good for the heart
• prevent stroke
• neutralizes nicotine
• good source of energy
• helps preventing constipation because of high fiber content
Credits: philnews.ph

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Wow, that was fast. Earlier I bought 1/2 kg. brown sugar for 25Php($0.5). And we only need 3 ingredients for this snack/dessert (bananas, brown sugar, water). I guess everything is ready to go. Let's set this on fire!

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Step 1: Prepare the Ingredients

Ingredients:
15 pcs. Saba Bananas
500 g. Brown sugar
2-3 cups water

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Step 2.a: Remove the overripe bananas

You could identify overripe bananas if they're too soft or have black patches on their skin

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Step 2.b: Peel the bananas

Cut the two ends of the banana and peel the skin.

Don't throw away the skin as they're very good natural fertilizers for plants.

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Step 3: Slice the bananas according to your preference

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Step 4: Pour 2-3 cups water and heat the pan in low heat, wait until the water is warm enough

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Step 5: Pour the sugar

Mix until all sugar is dissolved in water

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Step 5: Turn to medium heat and pour the bananas

Mix occassionally,

After 5 minutes...

10 minutes...

15 minutes...

20 minutes...

25 minutes...

30 minutes...

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Step 6: Serve

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And that concludes our third cooking blog. Sweetened Saba is a very simple yet versatile snack/dessert. It has long shelf life. You can eat it as is or you can add vanilla ice cream. There are too many ways to enjoy this treat it only depends on your imagination and preference. If you're diabetic or someone who doesn't like sweets you could eat the banana raw. Actually, it's healthier when raw but people prefer to cook it because it taste better that way.

I couldn't believe that we already cooked 3 dishes. Haha. I hope you'll still be there next time

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Again to you who read until these very last sentences, thank you very much!

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Credits: All images are mine

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