Friday, September 5, 2008

Saba

Saba is a native banana variety used mainly for cooking. It is also knows as banana musa. It is the only variety of banana I know of that cannot be eaten without first being cooked.

We call it nilagang saba, the most basic way to cook it, by boiling or steaming them with skin on. The raw saba can be sliced and cooked with a few ingredients to make Ginataang Halo-halo, another Filipino favorite. And a popular snack, banana in skewers, the banana cues. And there is also the banana turon, which is deep fried in lumpia wrapper. As an ingredient in main dishes, saba can be fried first before adding to Pochero, Arroz ala Cubana and one of my featured dish, Saba and Okra Medley.
Health benefits of bananas? From a health-ful site, a single banana contains 16% of the dietary fiber, 15% of the vitamin C, 11% of the potassium and 20% of the vitamin B6 recommended each day.

3 Comments:

Mayet said...

hi! Back home we never get to cook the whole bunch coz we also love to eat them raw unlike the plantain that I have discovered here!
but I also love it with meat!
have a great day!!

LOREN said...

I want Saba in my pork sinigang. It adds some sweet taste in it.. We also have this dish in Bicol where we cook raw saba(or I prefer semi ripe ones) in gata. Some prefer it with salt. I prefer it with sugar. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the dish. heheh

dHomemaker said...

wow, the hundred and one ways to cook saba.. love it! :-)

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