Maruya | Banana Pancake

It’s been months (?) or a year since I made maruya (banana fritters; kumbo in Ilonggo or Visayan dialect). This has become a frequent breakfast or merienda on our table during this pandemic. 

I learned to cook maruya from my mother using a very simple recipe consisting of mashed saba, margarine, flour, sugar and egg but through the years, I’ve learned to modify her simple recipe by doing the math in my kitchen. The price of having a mathematician for a hubby. 🤣 

I play with the ingredients each time I cook… like using unsalted butter instead of margarine, using brown instead of white sugar, adding non-fat milk, vanilla and raisins. For my previous experiment, I mixed the sliced bananas with pre-mixed pancake flour. 

For this version of maruya recipe, there were more spur-of-the-moment additions. The bottle of oatmeal seemingly gave me an irresistible grin while I was reaching for the flour in the cupboard. How could I not give in to such a healthy invitation! 

Oh, yes, how could I not notice the dried blueberries waving radiantly at me when I took the pack of raisins? 

Finally, the lemon extract took a big step forward even before I could take out the vanilla. It took me a few seconds to make up my mind…Vanilla? Lemon? Vanilla? Lemon? 🤔 Hmmm... why not take both?!!!

Interested to know how I did it? Here, let me share with you…

Cooking Directions

Ingredients:

5 pcs medium-sized saba 

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup quick-cooking oatmeal

2 tbsps softened unsalted butter

1/2 cup muscovado sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup non-fat milk

Few drops of lemon extract and vanilla

1/4 cup dried raisins and blueberries (and/or nuts, though optional)

Oil

Steps:

1. Slice saba.

2. Add flour, oatmeal and 1 tbsp butter. Mix. 

3. Add sugar, milk, egg, vanilla and lemon extract. 

4. Add raisins and blueberries. Mix. 

5. Heat oil and remaining butter in pan.

6. Place 2- 3 tbsps of batter on pan. 

6. Cook until golden brown on both sides.

7. Remove from pan. Place on paper towel. 

8. Serve hot with your favorite beverage. 

Hmmm… I so love this latest version. I was surprised at how the measurement created a perfect blend of batter resulting in soft and fluffy pieces that tasted like pancakes! My mother and hubby both love pancakes.

The recipe yielded 8 medium and large pieces. Ssssshhhh…. hubby consumed half! 🤣🤣🤣 Ayana Grace saw my Instagram post and asked if there was any left when she came over the following day. Well, there were still four pieces of raw banana left! That meant the planned banana cake had to wait for the next baking session.  

Oh, wait, for this requested batch of maruya, I used peppermint flavor instead of lemon. You guessed it right! Another instant decision I made because I love peppermint (Peppermint Patty, too 😉😜) and there were several of them in the ref!!! Ayana Grace suggested adding a few drops to my coffee. So I did, and I superduper loved it!

We have finished our afternoon coffee before I realized I forgot to add the egg. Good that nobody seemed to have noticed... and there were no left-overs! 🤣

Now back to the next episode of my K-drama! 🙂🙂🙂