March recipe: Baked bananas in rum

Early spring is traditionally known as the ‘hungry gap’, when produce stored for the winter would either be running low or starting to spoil and the new year’s crops would be nowhere near ready to eat. I rather wonder if Lent evolved the way it did to make a virtue out of necessity. The traditional solution is to eat nettles.

Living in our modern technological paradise of efficient food preservation and international transport, most of us probably no longer notice the ‘hungry gap’. I like seasonal cooking, and since there’s not a lot of home-grown produce around at this time of year, I find it a good time to eat tinned and imported foods that I can’t grow myself no matter what the season.

Bananas fit the bill nicely. Most are transported by ship rather than air freight, as they’ll obligingly ripen in the hold on the way, and the Fair Trade foundation promises to pay reasonable prices to the producers. Baked bananas in rum makes a delicious dessert to remind you of sunnier climes when it’s cold outside. It’s hot, sweet, not too heavy, and simplicity itself. Here’s the recipe.

Baked bananas in rum

Serves 2.

2 large ripe bananas
2 tablespoons (2 x 15 ml spoon) demerara sugar
2 tablespoons (2 x 15 ml spoon) dark rum
About half an ounce (about 10 g) butter

Butter a shallow ovenproof dish.
Halve the bananas lengthwise and put in the dish, cut side up.
Sprinkle the sugar over the bananas. Pour the rum over.
Dot with butter.
Bake for 15-20 minutes in a hot oven (180 C, about 375 F) until the bananas are soft.
Serve hot with cream, whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

If you don’t like rum, you can use the juice of half an orange instead.