Recipes by Vicki Ravlich-Horan Images by Ashlee DeCaires
Several years back I began my quest to grow bananas in the Waikato. The palms flourished, in fact, too well, growing over three metres tall. Too tall to protect from the inevitable frost which decimated them. I went up to Northland to seek advice from the guru himself, Hugh Rose, who pointed out the obvious “grow smaller bananas!”
Armed with a number of different varieties, I headed back to Hamilton to try again. My banana grove is now flourishing in its sheltered spot beside the house, and this year I produced two big bunches of lady finger bananas. The challenge was then to eat them all!
Banoffee Pie
Caramel and banana are a winning combination. Over the years I have made many different versions of banoffee pie, from little pastry tartlets in my catering days to bigger versions for family get togethers. Store bought caramel makes this an easy dish to throw together.
In this version, though, I make the caramel, similar to one you would make for a caramel slice. It is then baked in a biscuit crumb base. Before being topped with a generous amount of banana and lashings of whipped cream.
2x 250g packets of Chocolate Wheatens
100g butter, melted
395g can sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp golden syrup
¼ cup soft brown sugar, firmly packed
75g butter, cubed
5–6 large bananas
300ml cream, whipped to soft peaks
chocolate shavings for garnish
Crush the biscuits or put in a food processor and whizz until they are fine crumbs. Mix in the 100g of melted butter then press into a lined 18cm spring form tin. Be sure to create an edge around the tin from biscuit crumbs to contain the caramel.
Place the condense milk, golden syrup, brown sugar and 75g of butter in a saucepan and cook over low heat until melted and well combined, stirring the mix constantly to prevent it from catching.
Pour the caramel over the biscuit base and bake at 180°C for 15–20 minutes or until the caramel starts to bubble and turn golden. Remove from the oven and cool.
Layer sliced bananas over the caramel, then top these with whipped cream. Finally, finish with some chocolate shavings for garnish.
