Chef Makoa
Confiture de Coco (Tahitian Coconut Jam)
Tahiti's coconut jam turns grated haʻari, sugar, and vanilla into a glossy golden spread for firi firi, pain coco, toast, or any table that needs one more sweet spoon.
Culinary Explorer
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Beignets de Banane au Meiʻa (Tahitian Banana Fritters)
Created by
Tahiti's warm goûter fritter: ripe meiʻa wrapped in a light batter, fried golden, then rolled in sugar and grated coconut for a sweet afternoon bowl.
Pastries & Cookies
Polynesian, Tahitian
Comfort Food
Quick Meal
15 min
Active Time
15 min cook•30 min total
Yield18 to 22 fritters
The canoe carried the banana too, that good traveling relative, and in Tahiti the fruit is meiʻa, sweet and common and close to the hand. This dish belongs to Tahiti as people eat there now: reo Tahiti on the tongue, French words at the bakery counter, a plate of beignets de banane passed around when the afternoon wants something warm.
I learned to respect that kind of food from the aunties before I ever respected the fancy stuff. Deep food is not always heavy with ceremony. Sometimes it is a ripe banana going soft on the counter, a bowl of batter, and somebody saying, no waste that, fry it up. Back home in Hawaiʻi we know the same lesson with maiʻa, the banana, tucked into breads and pancakes, and the Cook Islands, Sāmoa, Tonga, and Aotearoa all have their own ways of sweetening the day with fruit and starch. One ocean, one canoe, one root, and plenty cousins on the table.
The why here is simple. Use fruit ripe enough to perfume the room, batter it lightly so the banana stays itself, and fry only until the outside turns golden and crisp at the edge. Then roll it in sugar and coconut while it is still warm. No need make it precious. Just feed the people while the bowl is full.
Banana was one of the canoe crops carried by Polynesian voyagers, and in Tahiti, meiʻa became part of both older subsistence foodways and the later French-influenced pastry language of beignets. The dish shows the living table of French Polynesia: indigenous fruit and coconut meeting flour, sugar, and frying brought through colonial trade and everyday bakery culture. It is not ceremonial deep food like the ahimaʻa, the Tahitian earth oven, but it tells another true story, how island kitchens keep adapting without forgetting the land that feeds them.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
very ripe bananas (meiʻa)
Quantity
4
peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
all-purpose flour
Quantity
1 1/4 cups
granulated sugar
Quantity
2 tablespoons, plus 1/2 cup
divided
baking powder
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
large egg
Quantity
1
whole milk or coconut milk
Quantity
1/2 cup
vanilla extract
Quantity
1 teaspoon
finely grated unsweetened coconut
Quantity
1/2 cup
for rolling
neutral oil
Quantity
for frying
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| very ripe bananas (meiʻa)peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks | 4 |
| all-purpose flour | 1 1/4 cups |
| granulated sugardivided | 2 tablespoons, plus 1/2 cup |
| baking powder | 1 1/2 teaspoons |
| fine sea salt | 1/4 teaspoon |
| large egg | 1 |
| whole milk or coconut milk | 1/2 cup |
| vanilla extract | 1 teaspoon |
| finely grated unsweetened coconutfor rolling | 1/2 cup |
| neutral oil | for frying |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 4-quart pot or Dutch oven for frying
- •Deep-fry thermometer
- •Wire rack set over a sheet pan
- •Small scoop or two spoons for lifting battered banana
Instructions
- 1
Ready the bananas
Peel the meiʻa, the bananas, and cut them into fat one-inch pieces. You want fruit freckled dark and sweet all the way through, soft but not collapsing. If the bananas are a little ugly, good. Eat what you have.
- 2
Mix the batter
Whisk the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the egg with the milk and vanilla, then stir the wet into the dry just until the batter comes together. Leave it a little lumpy. Overmix it and the fritters get tough, and no one came to goûter for tough.
- 3
Coat each piece
Fold the banana chunks through the batter so each piece is wrapped, not buried. The batter should cling thickly, like a loose pancake batter. If it runs off, add a spoonful of flour. If it sits heavy and dry, loosen it with a small splash of milk.
- 4
Fry golden
Heat two inches of oil in a heavy pot to 350F. Drop in battered banana pieces a few at a time, giving them room, and fry 2 to 3 minutes, turning once, until golden brown and puffed with a gentle crisp edge. Keep the oil steady. Too cool and they drink oil, too hot and the banana stays raw inside.
No thermometer? Drop in a little batter. It should bubble right away and rise steadily, not sink quiet and not scorch dark in seconds. - 5
Sugar and coconut
Lift the fritters to a rack or brown paper for a minute, then roll them while still warm in the remaining sugar mixed with grated coconut. The outside should sparkle lightly, the coconut catching on the golden crust, and the banana inside should be soft and sweet.
- 6
Serve warm
Serve them warm, piled high in a wooden bowl or on banana leaf, enough for hands to keep coming back. This is not a precious pastry. It is a Tahitian afternoon snack, sweet fruit, flour, oil, and a table that makes room.
Chef Tips
- •Use bananas so ripe the skins are freckled and the fruit smells sweet before you peel it. Firm yellow bananas taste flat here.
- •Coconut milk in the batter makes the fritters softer and more island in their own quiet way. Whole milk works fine too. Keeper, not gatekeeper.
- •Fry in small batches. Crowding drops the oil temperature and turns a light beignet heavy.
- •Eat these the day you fry them. Leftovers can be warmed in a 325F oven for a few minutes, but the first bowl is the best bowl.
Advance Preparation
- •Mix the dry ingredients up to a day ahead and keep them covered at room temperature.
- •Cut the bananas and mix the batter only when you are ready to fry; ripe banana browns fast and the batter loses its lift if it waits too long.
- •Combine the sugar and grated coconut earlier in the day so the finishing bowl is ready when the fritters come out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 45g)
Calories
140 calories
Total Fat
7 g
Saturated Fat
2 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
10 mg
Sodium
70 mg
Total Carbohydrates
18 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
10 g
Protein
2 g
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