Traveller’s banana pancakes recipe

The Banana Pancake Trail is a loosely defined route that takes in all the most popular of backpacking destinations from India, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia down to Bali, and where you are guaranteed to find this cheapest and most comforting of foods. Travellers often mistakenly think it is a local dish, but the tradition of cooking them spread organically as Western backpackers started to explore Asia and yearned for sweet, sticky filling food. The recipe differs from guesthouse to guesthouse, country to country, but the best ones always are drenched in some form of syrup, crisp and hot and golden.

Makes 4 big pancakes
1 cup of flour
1 pinch salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup of milk
3 small bananas, sliced or mashed
Oil

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder, then make a well in the centre.
Beat the egg and milk together, then slowly pour into the well, stirring all the while.

Stir in the banana and leave to stand for quarter of an hour.

Heat the oil in a small pan, and ladle in enough mixture to thickly coat the bottom.

When the top begins to dry out and bubbles form, carefully turn it over and cook the other side until golden

Serve hot with maple or golden syrup, palm sugar or honey.