Turones with cheese and carafee sauce
After putting it off for months I finally grabbed the chance and time to make a very decent looking and delicious tasting turon (banana spring rolls). It’s not a personal favourite but once in a while I like sinking my teeth into one. After all it’s a part of every rural born and bred person’s childhood. It’s almost a religion on its’ own. A turon or a banana spring roll is made by rolling a very ripe “saba” banana in a wafer thin lumpia wrapper (usually 1 ½ inch in diameter and 2-2 ½ inches long) and then deep fried. Some coat it in dark brown sugar before frying some prefer to dip the babanas in dark brown sugar before rolling in the lumpia wrapper.

Turones

Turon is usually cooked as they are bought since the lumpia wrapper loses its crispiness after prolonged exposure to air. You can find a vendor in shady street corners or food stalls with a deep wok half filled with hot oil, ready whenever needed.
As I was saying early on, the reason I finally got myself into making a batch was because of my cousin Cherry’s arrival. She works overseas and we grew up together. I missed two dinners with her and her husband ( I was working late and fell asleep late afternoon till midnight) so I thought as an apology I’d make some snacks to bring over to their house. I wanted something familiar but with a few added indulgence. So I made another dulce de leche and turned it into a caramel coffee sauce to accompany my bite size turones with cheese.

Turones with caraffee sauce

For the recipe of the basic Dulce de Leche, refer to my earlier post here. They may be prepared ahead of time, allowing the caramel to cool properly.
As for the caraffee (caramel plus coffee) sauce, add a shot of espresso (approx 2-3 tbsp) for every 6 tbsp of the dulce de leche. Add more dulce de leche if you want a thicker sauce.

Turones filling

Turones (with cheese)
Very ripe “saba” bananas
Lumpia wrapper about 25-35 pcs (sold per batches)
Dark brown sugar
Cheese, 2 inch length cut using a regular French fry as a template
First, divide a piece of banana in three, then divide each piece in three again, so now you have 9 pieces. Use one (two maximum) per wrapper. (I included a photo of the “saba” variety for reference. In some Ilokano communities saba is a general term for bananas.)

“Saba” variety

Place a banana and cheese in each wrapper then, gently but securely wrap it, set aside. Continue wrapping until you ran out of lumpia wrapper. There is a possibility that some of the lumpia wrappers would have holes all over and render unusable, you may use them as a makeshift “covering” for the finished turones (prior to frying) to keep it dry (the bananas tend to turn watery in its’ very ripe state.)
Once your all set and you’ve cleaned up your prepping table. Heat about 1 cup of oil in a deep frying pan. Test the temperature by dropping a torn (tear pieces from the “unusable wrapper”) then drop it in the hot oil, if it turns golden brown after 2 seconds, its ready. (However, if it turns darker than that reduce heat). Deep fry the turones 3-5 pieces at a time. No crowding the pan please.
Keep pieces in a covered container as you finish cooking every piece of turones. Serve as soon as possible with the caraffee sauce to retain crispiness and best taste. Enjoy.