Banana and Jackfruit Slice (or Turon Saba...sort of)

Ahh, to feel healthy again and join the land of the living. Some nasty chest infection kept me out of action for a little while and it wasn't fun. Cooking and even eating were too much of an effort.

Now that the batteries are slowly getting recharged, food is again foremost on my mind. Curiously, I have been craving more Filipino food.

I have recently made kare kare, a rich peanut based beef stew, although we were having summer temperatures. As I type, there's some salted grated green papaya in the fridge waiting to be turned into a refreshing batch of relish (atsara/achara). And then there's this. Banana and Jackfruit in pastry. Technically, this is a 'deconstructed' version of one of my favourite Filipino snacks. Turon saging are bananas (saging, usually the saba variety), slivers of jackfruit and a sprinkling of brown sugar wrapped in spring roll pastry and then deep fried. Oooh, I remember when I used to burn my mouth as I bite into a hot turon, straight from the street vendor's wok. I never did learn my lesson- I could not muster the patience to wait for my turon to cool down.

Anyhow, I decided to experiment making a snack with the turon flavours in a form similar to baklava. In the end, I can't really say that this is a 'lower fat' version for all the butter and olive oil I used on the pastry. Not that I was too worried about that, you don't think of those things when trying to recreate childhood memories and sharing them with your own family. Hubby and the little girl loved these sweet and flaky slices. They were even good cold, staying crunchy after an overnight stint in the refrigerator. I could not find fresh jackfruit in the local Asian shop so I had to settle for the tinned variety, in light syrup.

Banana and Turon Slice

2 large bananas, sliced thinly on the diagonal
1 cup sliced jackfruit
5 phyllo pastry sheets
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp brown sugar
cooking oil spray

Syrup
1 c sugar
1/2 c water
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 180dec C.
Grease a cookie tray with the cooking oil spray.

Cut the phyllo sheets into four and cover with a cloth to prevent from drying out as you work.

Layer 6 sheets of pastry, brushing each thoroughly with the combined butter and oil.
Arrange the slices of banana to cover the top layer. Sprinkle with half of the sugar.

Layer another 8 sheets of greased pastry over the banana. Arrange the slices of jackfruit and sprinkle with the rest of the sugar.

Top with the remaining 6 sheets of greased pastry. Brush the top of the pastry with the remaining butter and oil.

With a very sharp knife, cut into 3 lengthways, but do not cut through the base.

Bake in the oven for around 40minutes.

Meanwhile, stir the syrup ingredients together in a pan over low heat until the mixture boils and the sugar has dissolved. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

When the pastry is cooked, pour the cooled syrup over the hot slice. When cold, cut into squares or diamonds.

Makes approx 12 pieces.