Grilled bananas may still be something of a novelty in North America
but in Southeast Asia, you find them on street corner push carts everywhere
Tonight, grilled bananas Thai style, basted with coconut caramel sauce. I bet you can't eat just one
First, the sauce. I've heated a sauce pan over our hibachi, and to it add one half cup of light brown sugar or palm sugar
They'd use palm sugar in Southeast Asia. What you want to do is melt the sugar and cook it until it starts to caramelize
That's about five to eight minutes. Add your coconut milk and the mixture may hiss and sputter
a good thing. And the stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves in the coconut note
Then place it back on the fire to melt the sugar. And while that's working, let me show you the bananas
So we're using these tiny finger bananas. And what you want to do is just cut the banana off the stem
and peel it. ideally right before grilling. And if you can't find finger bananas
use the smallest conventional bananas you can find. And the sugar is melted
The sauce is bubbling away. So what you want to do is just close this vent a little bit
That turns the heat down. Now let me show you how to prepare the grill for the banana We want a screaming hot fire so we open the vent here Okay last of all
arrange the bananas on the grate in a neat row. Why a neat row
So they cook evenly. And you can remember which one needs turning
This recipe was inspired, by a street vendor who grills off of a push cart
behind the Thai Orchid Sheraton Hotel in Bangkok. Her bananas are so famous
she's been written up by guidebooks around the world. And now as the bananas grill
what you want to do is base them with this coconut caramel sauce
The aroma is absolutely incredible. And if the heat gets too hot, simply close down this damper
And the beauty of these finger bananas is they're supernaturally fruity and sweet
When the bananas are golden brown, they're done. It's really quick. So here are your grilled bananas
And you can just take a little bit more of the coconut caramel sauce and spoon it over the bananas
and serve the remaining sauce on the side. And there you have it
Thai grilled bananas with coconut caramel. Let's see how we did. Mmm, this is like banana coconut candy