Seeing my recent photo’s of grilled sticky rice and banana parcels in Phnom Penh got me thinking to create a dessert inspired by these ingredients. I absolutely love spices and had to think of a way to incorporate a few into this dish as well without going overboard. Here’s what I came up with …

baked coconut rice pudding with caramelised banana

original recipe by hnf

ingredients 

• 1 cup short grain rice
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
• 300 ml milk
• 1 large strip lime rind
• 1 kaffir lime leaf
• 60 g palm sugar
• 50 g butter
• pinch of ground star anise
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
• banana, cut into 2mm rounds
• caster sugar 

spiced coconut cream 

• 3/4 cup coconut cream
•  1/4 tsp Indian chai masala*
•  1/2 tsp palm sugar

method

1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Mix the rice with the coconut milk, milk, lime rind and leaf and 60g palm sugar.
3. Pour rice mixture into a 1.5 litre shallow ovenproof dish and dot the surface with the butter.
4. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, stirring once during this.
5. Remove and discard the strip of lime and the leaf.
6. Stir the rice well, add the ground star anise, stir again and return the rice to the oven and cook a further half hour, also stirring once during this. All the milk should have been absorbed and the texture should be very moist yet crumbly.
7. Allow to cool for ten minutes while you prep the moulds.

1. For a prefectly-sized individual portion I used empty 125g tins from sweet corn which I decantered then removed the top and bottom. A much cheaper way to get moulds than buying them from kitchen stores.
2. Cut strips of waxed baking paper and line the inside of the moulds. Spray with a little cooking oil so the rice doesn’t stick.
3. Drop spoonfuls of the warm rice into the moulds, pressing gently as you go.
4. Sprinkle the top of the rice with a little toasted sesame and then top this with a fan of banana rounds.
5. To make the spiced coconut cream, combine all the ingredients in microwave safe jug, stir well and heat in microwave for 1-2 minutes.
6. Stir well and allow to cool for a few minutes.

• Sprinkle the fanned banana with caster sugar and caramelize using a blow torch.
• To dish up place the rice pudding gently onto your serving dish and drizzle some of the spiced coconut cream around, finishing with a light sprinkle of toasted sesame.

* Indian chai masala is the spice blend used for making chai, available at Indian spice markets or good spice shops.

Tagged as: Dessert, Recipes