AMERICANS CONSUME MORE THAN 3 BILLION pounds of bananas a year; about 12 percent of that weight is in the banana peel, which is in fact edible when cooked until tender. Bananas grow in upside-down clusters on a 16-foot-high plant that looks big enough to be a tree, but it is actually a giant herbaceous plant. Bananas are a staple food crop in the Southern Hemisphere, particularly in Southeast Asia and Latin America, where they grow several different varieties and which they eat fried, boiled, baked, and raw. Most people eat only the inside, which is called the pulp, but the skin and the blossoms (or hearts) are delicious, and the leaves can be used to wrap steamed food or as a waterproof serving dish. A classic Thai dish is minced chicken and banana blossom salad. Banana works well in other savory dishes, too. I like to pair the sweet flavor of the overripe fruit with salted cabbage, searing them together in a cast iron pan and adding some salt.
Most bananas in American grocery stores are from one cultivar and are shipped underripe. On a visit to our local ShopRite, we found they were only selling green bananas. When we asked the produce manager if they had ripe bananas, he hospitably escorted us to the back storage area where they had boxes and boxes of perfect yellow bananas. He told us that they had been removed from the sales display because no one would buy perfect yellow bananas, only green underripe ones. (Admirably, the store had arranged for them to be distributed as animal feed and not sent to a landfill.) Despite many people’s aversion to them, browning bananas are fine to eat. Spoiled or bruised parts simply need to be cut away. And if bananas become overripe or almost black before you can use them, store them in the freezer. The peel acts as a protective cover for the frozen flesh.