Original recipe of the week: Grilled bananas with butterscotch sauce

With the weather starting to turn, we are forced to say goodbye to lovely summer fruit. Yet, it’s not all doom and gloom: step in the humble banana, the sort of evergreen fruit that can be enjoyed all year. This dessert is the perfect combination of wonderful banana with sweet, soft and crunchy, and fits right into this not-quite-cold-yet time of year. 

Grilled bananas with butterscotch sauce

Serves: 2

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

What you will need:

50g butter, plus a little extra for frying
50g sugar
60ml cream
Pinch of salt
A squeeze of fresh lemon juice
2-3 medium sized bananas (just ripe)
Optional: small handful of nuts of your choice (we’ve used cashews), vanilla ice cream 

What you need to do:

1. Start with the butterscotch sauce: melt the butter, add the sugar and stir until light golden in colour.  Remove from heat, stir in the cream and pinch of salt. Add lemon juice to taste.  Set aside.
2. If using nuts, preheat the oven to 180°C and when ready roast the nuts until golden brown and crisp. Allow to cool and roughly chop.
3. For the bananas, heat a heavy grill pan and slice the bananas lengthways, then butter lightly.
4. Place the bananas on the grill pan, cut side down, and allow to caramelise.
5. Once the bananas have a nice colour, turn over onto peel side for 30 seconds. This will help with peeling.
6. Drizzle the plate with butterscotch, place the banana slices on top of each other and serve with ice cream. 

Jessica Spiro