Banana Foster/Caramel Bananas with Ice Cream, Honey and Nuts

Banana Foster is a typical American dessert made caramelised bananas, ice cream and flambé with rum. Slightly Indianised verson here, has honey and nuts instead of rum flambé.

Last September, we had a family get togetherat our home. We also had the local variety of Kadali(Elakki) Bananas grown in abundance in our home garden. For dessert, I thought of making Banana Fudge with Ice Cream but Ajoy Prabhu, an online foodie friend drew my attention towards Banana Foster. I thought, that would be the surprise dessert for our family get together. They all loved the cool treat and exclaimed that this is indeed a Five Star dessert!

Tried making it following an online recipe for caramel bananas and succeeded. Topped the caramalised banans with vanilla ice cream scoop, drizzled pure Coorg honey and sprinkled cashew bits to make this addictive dessert. As you relish each spoonful, you will get the unmistakable medley of tastes and flavours in your mouth. The biting taste of caramalised bananas with the aroma of clarified butter, sweetness of honey, crunchy roasted cashew bits, and the smooth delicious vanilla cream. A hint of cinnamon lingers on till you have the next spoonful. You can go on and on exploring the vivid tastes and flavours till the caramalised banana bowl and the ice cream pack are virtually empty!

Ingredients:
Cashew bits - 25gm
Butter - 60g(Adjust according to requirement)
Brown Sugar/Demerara Sugar - 1/2 cup(Adjust according to taste)
Cinnamon powder/Cardamom powder - A pinch(Optional)
Bananas - Cavendish/ Nendra Bananas 4 or Elakki Bananas 16 ripe, peeled and cut in thick slices or wedges
Vanilla ice cream - 1 liter pack

Method:
Dry roast the cashew bits till golden and keep aside.
Melt butter in a pan over medium heat, add brown sugar and stir.
Add optional cinnamon/cardamom powder.
Heat for 3 minutes or so, stirring, until caramel starts rising and foaming.
Add sliced banana and continue to cook until banana is soft and golden.
Remove from heat.
Arrange 2 tbsp of the caramelised bananas each, in dessert bowls.
Drizzle any extra caramel from the pan.
Serve topped with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream, roasted nuts and a drizzle of honey.

Note: You can also serve just the caramelised bananas topped with roasted cashew bits.