There's a reason pretty much every Thai restaurant offers fried banana fritters with vanilla ice cream (and it's only partly because of profit margins…ha-ha) these easy fritters are seriously delicious, and are the kind of soothing, rich and cooling dessert you got to crave after the palate assault of a spicy Thai meal.

Thankfully, these are very easy to recreate in your home kitchen, and although the authentic version uses Thai fingerling bananas, through some personal experimentation (a tough job…but someone's got to it) I've decided that regular bananas are either just as good as better than the original, and so sourcing the required ingredients is a snap.

These should be made pretty close to order, and although you can make them before dinner and hold warm in a low oven, you're probably better off making the batter ahead of time, and then taking a couple of minutes after dinner to fry them; and enjoying them hot and fresh!

Thai fried banana fritters, enough for about 6 bananas (6 people)

6 bananas (you can do them whole, but cut into 2 or 3 sections is more manageable for frying

1 cup of all purpose flour

1/4 cup of coconut milk (cream)

1 cup of dried shredded unsweetened coconut

¼ cup of white sugar

1 cup of water

½ tsp of salt

Mix together all the ingredients and whisk well, the batter actually improves slightly with age, and making it before dinner gives it enough time to really come together before frying.

Heat up some vegetable oil over medium. You can either deep fry, or deep shallow fry (fill a fry pan up with about 1 inch of oil). The oil is ready when a drop of batter starts bubbling vigorously immediately after being dropped in. The bananas will be greasy if you add them before the oil is hot enough, or if you add too many simultaneously, causing the oil temp to drop.

Dip the bananas in and the batter will cohere around them, slowly slide the bananas into the hot oil (in batches so the oil doesn't cool) and fry for about 3-4 minutes, or until nice and golden brown.

Blot dry on paper towels.

Serve with good vanilla ice for a perfect ending to any Asian or tropical or…well pretty much any kind of meal. These are always crowd favorites, and although simple to prepare, good enough for entertaining.

You can substitute pineapple, although it's not as good, and Thais also enjoy taro fritter and sweet potato (parboiled) fritters.