Coconut Nougat with Banana-Nouga Koko ek Bannann

Coconut nougat with banana or Nouga koko ek bannann, is a soft coconut candy made with freshly grated mature coconut, flavoured with vanilla and nutmeg. It is delightfully sweet and nutty and a childhood favourite of mine.

Nouga is derived from the French word ‘nougat’ which is  a family of  confections made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts, whipped egg whites, and sometimes chopped candied fruit. The consistency of nougat is chewy.  The coconut nougat with banana is quite close to the classical definition except that it has no egg white and made with coconuts instead of other nuts.

Purchasing your coconut

If you live out of the tropics, it is not very common to buy unhusked coconut , however  you can, on the other hand,  now purchase husked coconuts from most Asian shops or major grocery stores.  When you  purchase your coconut you have to pay special attention to the following:  A coconut should weigh heavy in the hand. Shake the nut to detect the swishing sound of the coconut water. If there is little  or no water in the nut, it is old.  Make sure the nut has no cracks. If the coconut is damp or has wet spots, the shell is probably cracked and the coconut water is leaking. Avoid those with white spots, particularly around the ‘eyes’ . These could be white mould that has  probably developed from the water leaking from a tiny crack. The flesh and the water should smell and taste fresh and slightly sweet.

Kokobarb

Being an islander, I try to access semi-husked coconuts. They are now also available in some Asian shops and major grocery stores. In creole they are called  kokobarb , literally meaning ‘bearded coconut’. It is a special way to husk a coconut. Some people, in order to preserve their coconuts for long period would leave some husk on the coconut at the stem end. It is termed ‘nature’s bottle cap’. It protects the eyes from rodents and other insects and also assists in lengthening the freshness of the coconut. It’s easy to knock or cut the “cap” off later since there are no long fibers in this section.  

Draining your coconut

You will first need to drain the coconut water from the nut before you break it open and this is done by puncturing the soft eye of the coconut. A coconut has three eyes and one is always softer than the other two. Use a sharp object like a knife, screwdriver, or wine opener to puncture through the soft eye and into the flesh of the coconut. Once punctured, turn the coconut over and drain the water out of it into a bowl. If you want, you can drink the drained coconut water. It is very refreshing.

Cracking  the coconut open

 The next step is to split the coconut in two ready for grating. Place the coconut on a folded cloth and hold it firmly in the palm of your non dominant hand, the eyes on the horizontal. Use the blunt side of a chef knife or cleaver to hit the coconut around its perimeter, referred to as the coconut’s “equator.” Rotate the coconut in your hand as you go along. Don’t go using your best knife here, for obvious reasons. Make sure that the blade isn’t facing the coconut. As you rotate it, you should hear and see it crack open. The coconut should split is half. It can then be grated .

What type of banana

The ideal banana for this coconut nougat with banana recipe is the bannann mil sometimes referred to as ‘sour banana’ in Asia and was introduced to Seychelles by  Sultan Abdullah who was exiled in Seychelles in 1877.   He was a very enterprising person and during his 17 years of exile, he grew many native Malaysian fruits including the ‘Manbolo’ and Mangosteen.  The bannann mil is now the most common banana in the Seychelles mainly due to its resistance to disease. It is a banana that contributed greatly in nourishing the population during the two great wars. 

Bannann mil  is famous for being slightly sour but beautifully sweet at the same time. They are petite and slender, sharp-ended, and easy to spot in a crowd. Their skin is relatively thin, covering pale yellow smooshy-soft deliciousness.

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If you cannot get bannannn mil you can use the Cavandish.  The flavour will be slightly different in that the bannann mil imparts a slight sour taste to the nouga counterbalancing the sweetness of the sugar.

What grater?

For this recipe we require a grater that gives us a fine finish. There are so many different types of graters available to grate the coconut. You have the hand coconut grater, hand rotary grater or electric rotary grater, the box grater, the food processor etc… but I prefer my old fashion  bench grater because I always get the correct consistency and appropriate finish.

Bench grater

The grater consists of a small bench to which a sharp rounded and serrated piece of metal is attached. The coconut is split in two and the person grating sits astride the bench and grates the fresh white coconut meat directly from the brown hard coconut shell using the sharp metal teeth of the attached grater. The brown shell protects the hands, but care must be taken to not come in contact with the sharp teeth of the metal blade.

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Grate the coconut using a rotating motion to move around the entire half of the coconut, starting at the outside and working towards the inside. Most Seychellois will have a bench grater in their kitchen and can easily grate a coconut in 5 minutes. The grated coconut meat drops into an awaiting bowl, positioned below the front end of the grater

This little tool has caused me so much pain in my younger days since I had to grate on average up to eight coconuts daily for use in cooking or as chicken feed. Any slip in concentration can result in one grating the palm of one’s hand. Believe me it does hurt!!

If you have no access to fresh coconut, frozen grated mature coconut is your next best alternative. However, ensure that you buy grated mature coconut , not young coconut.

The vanilla

This recipe requires one vanilla pod, but if you cannot access the fresh pod you may use about 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence. If you do access a pod, you will need to remove the seeds from the pod and this is how it is done:

Split the vanilla bean down its length using the paring knife.  Working with one half at a time, hold down the tip of the bean against the cutting board. Use the dull side of your paring knife -not the sharp side -and scrape the vanilla beans from the pod. Move from the tip of the pod, where you are holding it, and scrape down the entire length.

The vanilla pod can still be used even if the seeds have been scraped from it. Some cooks will cut it into very fine pieces and add it to the nouga.

Preparing the Coconut and Banana Nougat

Slit the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds, and keep. Peel and mash the bananas in a bowl.

Place the brown sugar into a large pot set over low heat. Leave the sugar alone until you see it begin to melt. Using a heavy duty wooden spoon or heat-safe rubber spatula, scrape the sugar from the edge of the pan to the middle.  You’re doing this for a couple of reasons — first, you want to keep the melted sugar from browning too fast and burning.  Second, you’re moving the unmelted sugar to the hotter spots on the pan to begin melting.

The sugar may clump

You may experience some clumping of unmelted and melted sugar.  Don’t worry; keep cooking the sugar over low heat and those clumps will melt right out. Once the sugar begins to caramelize, add bananas and mix and then add the grated coconut and mix well. The sugar will solidify after adding the banana and coconut, but don’t worry, the sugar will re-melt.

Keep cooking the mixture over low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar re-melts. Cook on low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the scraped vanilla seeds and grated nutmeg and stir well.

Finishing the Coconut and Banana Nougat

Remove from heat and transfer the nougat onto a plate. Smoothen the surface but do not press on the nougat.  This is a soft nougat and will not harden upon cooling. Allow to cool and serve as is , or with coconut cream. Better still, you can serve the nougat on a galette, a local cassava biscuit, instead of jam as shown in the photo below.

You may decide to also turn your coconut and banana nougat into small balls.  If this is your wish, use a tablespoon and scoop small amounts of the nougat onto a piece of waxed or parchment paper. Let the candy cool for a couple of minutes, then use your impeccably clean hands to roll the candy into balls.   Wrap each ball of candy with plastic wrap.  The nougat will keep for about 2 weeks at room temperature in an airtight container and will keep indefinitely if   frozen.

Did you make this recipe?

I hope you will enjoy preparing this dish. Please let me know how it turned out for you. If you have a different version of the recipe or have related questions, please leave your comments below.

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