In Good Taste Recipe: Caramelized Bananas with Coconut Ice Cream

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Caramelized Bananas with Coconut Ice Cream

By Josie Ross

In Good Taste Recipe: Caramelized Bananas with Cocnut Ice Cream

Recently, Leena Ezekiel taught a wonderful class on Indian Street Foods. I love Indian foods of all kinds, but especially street foods like pakoras and samosas. India has a rich bio-diversity of banana and plantain, and is the largest producer and consumer with estimated production of 16 million tons of bananas annually (from www.foodreference.com). India's domestic production of bananas alone exceeds the entire world trade. This neat fact started me thinking about bananas, and with the warm weather this weekend, I cranked up my ice cream maker to make Caramelized Bananas with Coconut Ice Cream. The combination of tropical flavors, hot, gooey bananas and cool, creamy ice cream was perfect for an early summer dessert after a busy day.

For the Ice Cream

4 cups unsweetened coconut milk

½ cup superfine sugar or granulated sugar, or to taste

1 ¼ cups unsweetened coconut flakes

Dissolve the sugar in the coconut milk. Stir in the coconut flakes. Combine the coconut milk and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Stir in the extract and the coconut flakes. Pour the mixture into in the freezer compartment of an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions.

For the caramelized bananas

4 large bananas, peeled and sliced
1/4 cup dark rum
¼ cup unsalted butter

½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

½ cup dried sweetened coconut, toasted

Place the bananas in a medium-sized mixing bowl with the rum and toss to coat. Set aside to let macerate at room temperature while you prepare the caramel.

Heat a heavy-bottomed frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the butter to the pan, allowing it to melt, but not sputter. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter so that it melts. Cook for a few minutes, until the sugar and butter form a sauce. Add the bananas and rum and spread evenly in the pan. Continue to cook until the sauce has thickened a bit. Sprinkle the mixture with cinnamon.

Remove from the heat. Divide the bananas between four bowls of coconut ice cream and garnish with a sprinkling of toasted coconut

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