Making my way around the world, one rice pudding at a time... Riz au lait de coco et bananes caramélisées

 

 

Or coconut rice pudding with caramelised bananas if you will. You may or may not remember (or, in fact, care) that I bought a French recipe magazine in Calais on my way back from my hols as a way of keeping my French language knowledge ticking over until I return again. Well, this is another recipe from it that I have tweaked a little

 

All the family adore rice pudding, and whilst I am certainly not averse to opening a tin (or two) of the stuff to make everyone happy, it is nice, and no less importantly for me, easy to make your own. I like the idea of making it a bit tropical with the addition somewhere of some coconut, and I liked the way that this recipe suggests at tropical fruit as a 'compote' to replace where we might put a dollop of jam. The original recipe suggests caramelising mango slices but I settled on bananas because that is what I had to hand. And coconut and bananas is really quite nice.

 

The addition of the yolks I think makes this a bit more custard-y. Unfortunately my yolks weren't that golden sunset colour that you can get and I think if they were it would have turned the rice pudding a pleasingly happy primrose colour. Next time I will 'go for golden', so to speak. 

 

Riz au Lait de Coco et Bananes Caramélisées, or Coconut Rice Pudding with Caramelised Bananas, adapted and translated from 'La cuisine a Grand Mere' magazine.

 

Serves 4 - 6

 

Ingredients:

 

150g pudding rice

a vanilla pod, split in two (though I used a teaspoon of vanilla extract)

25g shredded coconut

80g caster sugar (or to taste, I would suggest - this  is not a sweet rice pudding, though the banana topping is)

Two egg yolks

800ml semi skimmed milk

 

For the topping

2 ripe bananas, sliced

15g unsalted butter

30g light brown sugar

Method:

 

Split the vanilla pod in half (if you are using a vanilla pod, that is)

 

 

 

Rinse the rice under cold water. Boil the milk with the grated coconut, vanilla (extract), add the rice and cook over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 

Stir in the sugar and egg yolks in the end.

 

 

 

In a frying pan, melt the butter and add the sugar and stir to combine. Add the bananas and coat in the butter and sugar mixture. Leave to cook a minute or so on each side, but allow the slices to retain their shape.

 

 

Serve the rice pudding in bowls with the banana slices on top.