← Nouns Cooking · Thai

Ingredients

• 10 small baby (lady finger) bananas, just ripe, peeled
• 1 tsp pickling lime paste (optional)
• 300 g Sugar
• 300 ml Water
• 1 pandan leaf, knotted (optional)
• 150 ml Coconut cream or cream of coconut
• 1 tsp Rice flour
• ½ tsp Salt

Method

1. If using pickling lime, stir it into 1 litre of water, let it settle and pour off the clear water. Soak the bananas in it for 30 min to firm them, then rinse.
2. Bring the sugar, water and pandan to the boil in a wide pan, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
3. Add the bananas in one layer and simmer gently for 15–20 min, turning once, until they turn translucent amber and the syrup is thick. Don’t stir, or they’ll break.
4. Meanwhile whisk the coconut cream, rice flour and salt in a small pan over low heat for 2–3 minutes until it thickens slightly. Don’t let it boil hard.
5. Serve the bananas warm or at room temperature with some syrup and a spoonful of the salty coconut cream on top.

Tips

• Use small, firm, just-ripe bananas; big Cavendish bananas collapse in the syrup.
• Leftover syrup is lovely in iced tea.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

She Simmers ImportFood