Pisang goreng (makes 10 pieces)

Indonesia's afternoon snack. Bananas split lengthwise, dipped in a corn-flour and turmeric batter, fried in hot oil until the skin shatters around fruit turned to caramel inside. Eat straight from the wok with fingers that ignore the heat.

Pisang goreng is the gorengan (fried snack) sold from carts in every Indonesian street, town and warung from Jakarta to Bali. The frying turns the banana's natural sugars into something close to caramel; the corn-flour batter goes crisp and lacy around the fruit in the way a wheat-flour batter never quite manages. The turmeric is for colour rather than flavour, giving the batter the bright yellow that signals a proper pisang goreng from across a market.

Use small, firm Lady Finger bananas if you can find them; the larger Cavendish bananas hold too much moisture and turn pasty in the heat. Slice them in half lengthwise so the cut side faces the oil and caramelises first.

The oil temperature is the make-or-break. 170 degrees is the sweet spot; too hot and the batter burns before the banana softens, too cold and the batter absorbs oil and goes soggy. Eat with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of palm-sugar syrup; an Indonesian black coffee on the side.