Elvis Presley's Fried Peanut Butter, Banana (and Bacon!) sandwich

I sometimes wonder, is fear of a sandwich a normal thing? When I first read about Elvis's Fried Peanut Butter, Banana and Bacon sandwich in Nigella's Trashy chapter in Nigella Bites (my favourite chapter as a lover of kitsch) I actually become a little frightened at the idea of a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Several years on and thinking about it more and I decided that it wasn't such madness after all. Time had indeed lessened my initial revulsion, in fact when I read variations of it suggesting the addition of bacon, so much so was my 180 degree transformation that I though "Wow, that sounds great together!".

Recently we made the mistake of purchasing a loaf of plastic white bread (they were out of everything else) and ever since then, it has sat in the freezer gradually dwindling when used in recipes like the Bread and Butter pudding. I have about 1/3 of a loaf left so it seemed only fitting to use it on this sandwich as I'm fairly certain this recipe wouldn't have used wholemeal or 9 grain.

I added bacon into this sandwich trying it with and without. With the bacon is definitely not as gruesome as it sounds, in fact we both preferred it with bacon as the saltiness perfectly counters the creaminess of the banana and the sweet nuttiness of the peanut butter. Try half a sandwich with and half without if you're not convinced.

I do recall seeing an episode of Oprah where Lisa Marie hosted a dinner for Oprah and Gail full of The King's favourite foods and scoff as people may do about his eating habits, if I had access to that delicious sounding food every day, I'd be in a rather untenable position! Gayle's food adventures are actually among my favourite episodes-if anyone is likely to food blog, its her!

Elvis Presley's Fried Peanut Butter and Banana sandwich

Ingredients

• 1 small ripe banana

• 2 slices white bread

• 2 scant tablespoons smooth peanut butter (don't use extra smooth)

• 2 tablespoons butter

• (Plus I added 1 rasher of streaky bacon)

Step 1 - Mash or slice the banana.

Step 2 - Lightly toast the bread, and then spread the peanut butter on one piece and the banana on the other. Sandwich together then fry in the butter, turning once, until each side is golden-brown. At the same time fry the rasher of bacon. Remove to a plate, cut the sandwich carefully in half on the diagonal and eat.

Serves 1