PicoBlog

Ah, but this sauce has a story. It’s about colonisation, human ingenuity and a nationalist culinary heroine. About derring-do, and making-do.

Enter Maria Orosa, born in the Philippines in 1893, who, as a courageous teenager, took a scholarship to study food chemistry in the United States.

Returning home as a food scientist in 1922, she was determined to use technology to help her country become more self-sufficient in food production. Working at the local Bureau of Science, she set about replicating various popular foods using purely indigenous ingredients, with a particular interest in modern preservation methods such as canning.

By the 1930s, she came up with what was to be her most successful experiment - mashing and cooking the local saba bananas with vinegar, sugar and spice (and red colouring) to approximate tomato ketchup.

With American soldiers stationed in the Philippines during WW 2, demand for tomato ketchup took off. Bananas stepped up, and by 1942, banana ketchup was being produced commercially under the Mafran label. (Orosa sadly died under US shelling in a Philippines hospital in 1945).

It’s funny how such a specific and distinctive sauce can remain hidden in plain sight for so many years; taken for granted by those who grew up with it, and sparking curiosity in others as they stumble across it. I’ve seen it around over the years, but more recently it has grabbed my attention, screaming out from menus such as Melbourne’s Filipino-inspired wood-fired restaurant Serai. I love the collision of words it represents, and the collision of worlds.

So I had a go at making it, and the recipe is below. Be warned, it’s not bright red like the commercial version you can buy in Woollies and in Asian food stores because I don’t do additives, but it tastes great.

And what do you know, this very week, a terrific story on banana ketchup drops on America’s omnivorous food site Eater.com. And just a few months ago, Maria Orosa was honoured with a belated obituary in the New York Times ( as part of their Overlooked series). Banana ketchup is out there, people, and there is no point ignoring it. In fact, I hope this isn’t just it ‘having a moment’, but results in many more people becoming aware of one of the world’s most curious sauces.

BUT WHAT DOES IT TASTE LIKE?

Like tomato sauce’s troppo cousin; just as too-sweet and too-tangy, but also lightly spicy, fruity and floral. It’s chutney-like flavour is delicious with spring rolls (lumpia), fried chicken, or slathered on pork burgers. Use it as a chutney or tomato sauce substitute in sandwiches, serve with chops and snags at your next barbie, or add to stews and curries - and even to Bolognese sauce for spaghetti. It could happily sub in for tonkatsu sauce with your next pork schnitzel.

BANANA KETCHUP

• 2 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil

• 1 onion, chopped

• 1 tbsp grated ginger

• 3 garlic cloves, grated

• 500 g mashed banana (eg 3 large, 4 medium, and make sure they’re ripe)

• 1 tsp turmeric

• 1 tsp allspice

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 75 ml rice or coconut vinegar

• 125 ml water

• 2 tbsp brown sugar

• 3 slices pickled jalapeno chilli

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tsp sea salt

Heat the oil and cook the onion, ginger and garlic for 10 minutes, stirring, until softened but not browned

Add mashed banana, turmeric, allspice, tomato paste, brown sugar, jalapeno, vinegar, water, soy and sea salt and simmer for around 10 minutes, stirring as it thickens.

Once it’s nicely thickened, turn off the heat and leave to cool.

Whiz in a blender for 2 minutes, until smooth.

Store in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

# Cover with a lid if it gets a bit ploppy, and stir so it doesn’t catch on the bottom.

# While still warm, adjust the flavour in terms of sea salt.  A good spritz of lime juice gives it a whack of brightness.

# You’ll be needing something to serve it with…

PRAWN SPRING ROLLS

Crisp, skinny, open-ended spring rolls inspired by Filipino lumpia shanghai, but filled with the prawn mousse from my prawn toast recipe instead.

• 300 g green (raw) prawn meat (eg from 600 g prawns)

• 1 garlic clove, finely grated

• 1 small knob ginger, grated

• 2 small spring onions, chopped

• 1 tsp sea salt

• 1 tsp white sugar

• 1 tsp cornflour

• 2 tsp Chinese rice wine

• 1 tsp fish sauce

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 1 egg white, lightly beaten (you may not need all of it)

• Spring roll wrappers, thawed

• Peanut or vegetable oil for deep frying

Combine the prawn meat, garlic, ginger, spring onions, salt, sugar, cornflour, rice wine, fish sauce and sesame oil with HALF the egg white, until smooth. If it feels dry, add a little more egg white and whiz again. Refrigerate for 2 hours to help it firm up.

Cut the spring roll wrappers in half. Place 1 dessertspoon of prawn mixture near one end, and roll tightly. Dampen the other end with a fingertip dipped in cold water, and seal. Don’t worry about sealing the sides. Repeat with remaining mixture.

Heat the oil in a high-sided pan to 180C, or until a piece of bread turns golden in 10 seconds.

Cook the spring rolls in batches of two, until golden – about 2 to 3  minutes – then check one to ensure it is cooked in the middle, to get your timing right.

Drain on paper towel, and serve with banana ketchup for dipping.

Thanks for reading! And special thanks to Terry Durack for constantly and persistently suggesting I do spring rolls to go with the banana ketchup. Annoyingly, he was right.

I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution. It’s about time, folks.

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