One recipe adapted from “La Bonne Cuisine Végétarienne de Babette” with a creole inspiration. Who doesn’t like rum, vanilla and orange juice? I have never really cooked plantains before, maybe once or twice in a savory dish, but I never really got much inspired by it. In my mind, a plantain is just like a banana, a fruit, therefore more suited in a dessert type of dish.

Needless to say I loved this dessert, any fruit based desserts are my favorites. In the original recipe, there is a cinnamon stick, I didn’t add it since I am not a huge fan of cinnamon. I think usually cinnamon over powers the natural flavor of the fruit, but that’s just a personal preference. I changed the quantities a bit by adding less sugar, but you can play with that too. The great thing about this recipe, is that it’s quick to prepare, yet delicious, so definitely a winner.

I would serve this with a scoop of coconut ice cream (in the original recipe, they suggest some lime sorbet). I found some really good coconut ice cream a while ago, with candied ginger, that was incredibly good, but they stopped selling it, so I need to find a replacement for that. I found it strange that anytime I love something, they stop selling it or producing it. As we say in French, les bonnes choses ont une fin, good things have an end, so let’s enjoy them while we can!

Ingredients for 2 or 3

• 1.5 tbs sugar
• 1 ripe plantain, diced
• 1 ripe mango, diced
• 1 vanilla bean, cut in half and bean scraped
• 1 cinnamon stick (optional)
• 3 tbs rum
• juice of 2 oranges
• zest of one lemon
• Coconut ice cream (optional)

Preparation

Melt sugar in a pan to obtain a caramel (not too dark). Add mango and plantain, let cook for a few minutes, then add vanilla beans. and the scraped pod. Stir and cook for a few additional minutes. Add orange juice, rum and lemon zest and let cook for about ten more minutes.

Serve warm with a scoop of coconut ice cream