Maruya(Banana Fritters)

It's Saturday afternoon and I took a survey of my pantry and found 3 pieces of ripe plantain bananas and for some reason Maruya came into my mind. Last time I had this food was last year when I went back to the Philippines for a vacation. So I realized, making this snack was long over-due. Maruya or Banana Fritters is another famous street food in Manila and is made from plantain bananas, dipped into a batter, deep fried and usually served with sugar. This is a great afternoon snack with coffee or tea.

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
(These first 3 ingredients can be replaced by Self Rising flour)

2 cups cooking oil
flour for dredging
1 egg
1 cup milk
sugar
3 ripe plantain bananas, peeled and halved lengthwise

Directions:
Combine dry ingredients together. Add milk and egg, beat until smooth. Make sure the mixture has a thin pancake batter consistency so add more milk if tha batter is too thick. Then in batches, roll banana slices in flour and then dip in batter and fry in hot oil until golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with sugar and enjoy while they're hot.

When I had this food at a restaurant last year in Manila, they converted this street food into a fancy dessert. It was served with vanilla ice cream and palm sugar sauce was drizzled on top . hmmm.. very yummy indeed!