How to make Caramelized Bananas

After the very warm, encouraging comments from readers in response to my homegrown bananas post, I decided to go on with one more banana post. This time, a recipe. Something that will knock your socks off.

 A bounty is meant for sharing. After the 15 dozen haul of sweet bananas, I ended up giving away lots to my house help, gardener, relatives and friends. I was still left with quite some. The thing is, because I put them away in the spare refrigerator, they turned all black on the outside, but the flesh was still perfectly white and in no way overripe. But you cannot possibly giveaway bananas that look like they're ready for the compost bin, to friends. So I was left thinking of all possible ways to use them.

I was cooking a brunch a couple of Sundays ago for us and a dear friend and I thought "pancakes". Then I thought "Oatmeal Pancakes". Finally I ended up making oatmeal pancakes topped with caramelized bananas and a caramel sauce. 

Sharing the pictures on Twitter and Instagram and what have you, got me so many ooohs and aahs that it reaffirmed my faith in shameless self promotion. 

Bananas or Sausages?

It also got a few people commenting how shocked they were to see me, the writer of a vegetarian food blog, frying up sausages for Sunday brunch. These bananas did look like sausages once they got on a golden hue in the pan!

Jokes aside, it inspired me to share this on the blog. There's really no recipe to it. It's amazing how 3 ingredients and a pan can lead to something that is truly worthy of the 'foodp0rn' tag. I rarely ever use this word, because it's so done to death on social media, but these caramelised bananas I would totally label as foodp0rn.

I wont claim that this recipe is entirely my brainwave because it is not. I watched a Donal Skehan video and checked out a Jamie Oliver recipe and combined the two to make a recipe that asked for less butter and lesser effort (but naturally!).

Now tell me you want the recipe for the most epic Oatmeal Pancakes too! Fluffy, golden brown and reasonably healthy too - I think I will just marry these pancakes and live happily ever after. I'm saying such reckless things, knowing fully well that my blog is the last place the husband will poke around on the internet :D :D 

Recipe for Caramelised Bananas
Serves 4
Time taken: 20 minutes

Ingredients
8 small sized bananas (3")
4 tbsp sugar
1-2 tbsp butter

Equipment required:
Large Non-stick pan
Tongs

Method

1. In a plate, spread out the sugar. 
2. Peel the bananas and slice lengthwise into halves.
3. Coat well on all sides with sugar. If the sugar doesn't suffice, add some more, so all the bananas are well coated.
4. Add butter to the pan, place on heat and swirl to melt and coat the pan.
5. Gently place the sugar coated bananas in a single layer on the hot pan. Allow to caramelise on medium heat
6. Do not shake the pan for 4-5 minutes. The side of the bananas touching the pan will turn glistening golden brown. This may take shorter or longer depending on the variety of bananas, do not allow them to fall apart or turn mushy.
7. Using tongs, flip over to the other side gently. Allow this side to caramelise as well, another 4-5 minutes. If the bananas are still firm, you can caramelise them for some more time so they turn a deep golden.

Remove on to a dish and keep covered with cling wrap until use. 

Caramelized bananas on Oatmeal Pancakes

So your caramelised bananas are ready. What can you do with them?
If you can resist the urge not to eat them as it is, tongue-scaldingly hot off the pan, making you jump on one foot screaming expletives as your tongue burns, but savouring the intensely caramel taste, here are a few things.

• Top pancakes with caramelised bananas. Ensure that there's not much sugar in the pancakes, so that the intense sweetness of bananas will pair well with them.
• You can top vanilla ice cream with finely chopped caramelised bananas. And may be top that with a salted caramel sauce. Sinful.
• You can add this to homemade ice cream in the final stage of churning, to give you a caramelised banana ice cream.

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(c) Nandita Iyer 2006-2015

Posted in: Veg-Recipes