West African Style or "what to do with a lonely banana"

What to do with a lonely banana? I was cooking for myself tonight so the banana wasn't the only lonely thing, but a distinct advantage with one person cooking is the freedom to experiment without fear of offending or upsetting others. Now fruit in savoury cooking does not at first conjure up great ideas but the banana was calling out to me for salt and savoury flavours of an african style curry.
    Growing up I don't remember many of my Grandma's meals but my father told me recently she would make a West African curry and put bananas in it. I've always liked the taste of savoury and sweet together so perhaps my memory from being a toddler is purely in my palate. The only recipe I ever got from my Grandma's time in West Africa was peanut soup so the use of bananas was definitely a revelation. At first I thought my father had been talking about plantain with its firm starchy sweetness or more of a South African style fruit curry with dried apricots and things, but no, he was certain Gran had used bananas, especially as she used to use the small sweet ones you could get out in Ghana. A quick trawl of the net reassured me that banana's are definitely a good addition to curry, so with the lonely banana, an onion and handful of other additions I made my attempt to honour Gran's memory.

Lonely Banana Curry

This is what I had:-

1 banana
1 onion
A bunch of greens (Pak choi / chinese cabbage / spinach )
1 length of lotus root
some tomato puree
A palmful of spices ( the ususal suspects; chili, turmeric, cumin, ginger)
A couple of stalks of celery
A sprinkle of shredded coconut

1. I fried the onion off with chopped greens, sliced and peeled lotus root and chopped celery, adding the spices towards the end.

2. A dollop of tomato puree was added and stirred in thoroughly along with a sprinkle of coconut.

3. A splash of water was added to sauce it up and break open the spices.

4. The banana was added in slices and stirred in with a good seasoning of salt

5. After a further 10 minutes cooking the dish started to thicken up, cook longer if needed until the curry tightens up.

6. I then took it off the heat and rested for a few minutes then served with pitta,

I have to say the combination of sweet banana and spices was pure brilliance. Don't skimp on the chili as the banana can take the heat! I served with pitta as its all I had in but I dreamt of eating it with thickly sliced white bun bread from the carribean market, but  I guess its also delightful with rice. A dressing of scallions sprinkled on top would also pimp it up or some toasted peanuts too.