BANANAS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21988, 12 January 1937, Page 2

BANANAS

HOW TO USE THEM WITH , MEAT AND FISH Bananas are plentiful in Christchurch this week. The following hints for using this wholesome fruit in unusual ways may be welcome to many housewives: — Peel a large banana, slice it longways into three, and fry it -lightly with bacon, or grill it. It is very good. Or cut the ends off, just breaking the top skin, thus leaving the fruit room to swell. Grill it slowly, turning it as if it were meat. Serve this separately with curry, and slice one or two and add to the curry while it is cooking. The Tahitians are great fisher folk, and they eat cooked bananas with their delicious Pacific Ocean fish. Bananas are best with steamed or grilled -fish of the less oily variety, but fleshv, such as sole, whiting, or mullet. The banana should be grilled in its skin as already directed until very soft, finishing off under the flame for a second to brown it.

Mask the fish with a sauce piquante, put the banana beside it, and serve with hot, well mashed potatoes. When grilling steak, place some bananas in their skins in the bottom of the griller. Remove the skins from the bananas when the meat is cooked, pour off the fat from the bottom of the dish, sprinkle some sugar and a good layer of apricot jam or marmalade over the now naked, bananas, and leave them to finish browning while the first course is being eaten. Serve very hot with a squeeze of lemon if desired. Before making banana fritters, half grill the whole banana. *lt will finish cooking in the fritter. Finely-chopped banana will give a novel flavouring to a light cake mixture. with banana icing on top. COUNCIL OF WOMEN DUBROVNIK CONFERENCE JUGOSLAVIA EN FETE A vivid account of the meeting of the International Council of Women at Dubrovnik, Jugoslavia, is given in the magazine of the International Council of Women, which is published in London. The writer says that the women attending the meeting had many experiences. They crossed wild mountains to get to one meeting place; another had to be approached through a maze of islands; a third was reached through many cities, and in each place the members were almost overwhelmed by the kindness and hospitality of the hostess council. The visitors marvelled at the husbandry of this wild country, where stones had been conquered, and every available yard of earth was turned to account.

“Yet,” she continues. “Dubrovnik has many features peculiar to itself. We’ met for the first time in a fortified medieval city rising out of the sea, not a centre of government or commerce, but a lure to the holidaymaker and the ,lpyer, of the picturesque, Wheeled traffic was alinpst ;unt» known within fhe -walls.: : Newspapers, in any language we could read were half a week old. The conference was a great event, our badges a passport at every moment. Portraits of Lady Aberdeen, garlanded with laurel, adorned the main street, and crowds of girls gowned in the various and beautiful national costumes welcomed us on the quay, and graced every festive occasion. In only one way did Dubrovnik fail us. We had been promised a second summer, and the rain was puch that at the end of the week there was not a golosh to be bought in the city! The Queen’s Reception “A reception was held in a sunlit garden overlooking the sea, where the Queen in her white robes, followed by the Queen-Mother, greeted every guest nersonally, and shook hands with every member of the congress. We saw her again the next day in the city while she visited a wonderful exhibition of handcrafts of the country which had been arranged for our benefit, and also the interesting exhibition of books by women writers. “We worked early and late, preparing our reports and pruning and consolidating the council agenda in committee, also revising the constitution, and dealing with formalit'-s, and the discussion of the council meeting itself.

“It was very sad to feel that Lady Aberdeen was presiding over us for the last time, and that we were taking official leave of two of our conveners, Madame Avril de St. Croix and Dame Elizabeth Cadbury. This sense of leave-taking made us appreciate all the more keenly the gift to these three leaders, and to Dame Maria Ogilvie-Gordon of »the Jugoslavian Orders. We rejoiced in the fact that the last-named was elected as first-vice-president, and the Baroness de Boel came forward as our new leader. "The reports were full of interesting information. . . . We 'adopted these and reaffirmed our devotion to the cause of peace and principles of the League of Nations; to • the need for adequate provision for motherhood, infancy, and education; and to the right of women to work freely and independently of personal relationships. A great deal was accomplished, and slides and photographs were prepared for those who wished to have them with the full reports of the conference. Social Times “We have feasted together, and the culinary gifts of the ladies of Dubrovnik must be sampled to be appreciated, for no written description is adequate. We have enjoyed entrancing music and feasts of colour, and at every halt on our journey through the country eager friends have been at hand to smooth our way and show us features of interest. “Have we only had a delightful holiday? Is it true, as some enquirers (mainly of the opposite sex) are apt to hint, that it all amounts to a ‘lot of talk’? Those of us who have taken part in many conferences know that there is something much deeper. The women of 36 countries have met and exchanged experiences, renewed . old friendships and formed new ones. They have learned to make allowances for d.fferences of tradition and temperament, to understand the fundamental solidarity that knows nothing of differences of race and creed in the unity of a great desire to serve the weak and the oppressed, and to give a mox*e abundant life to all mankind. We all hold these ideals, but it is a great inspiration to join in finding a practical expression for them, or in translating them into action. Such an inspiration is the gift of the International Council of Women to all who join ih its meetings.”