Rice pudding brûlée with caramel bananas

Method

1. Melt the butter in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat. Once sizzling, tip in the rice and stir well, then cook for 3-4 minutes. Don’t worry if the butter browns a little – that’s all good flavour.
2. Add the milk, 420ml of the double cream, 110g of the sugar, the vanilla and a pinch of salt. Stir well, bring to a gentle simmer, then turn the heat down and let it cook, stirring regularly, for 30 minutes.
3. Heat the oven to 140°C/ 120°C fan/gas 1. Pour the contents of the pan into a heatproof dish, cover tightly with foil and transfer to the oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so. Once the rice is cooked, stir in the remaining double cream, then leave to cool completely before decanting into 6 serving glasses or bowls (make sure they’re strong enough to cope with the kitchen blowtorch later). Chill in the fridge.
4. Carefully sprinkle the chilled rice puddings with half the remaining 50g sugar. Use a blowtorch to caramelise the sugar; you may notice some rice browning too but that’s fine, it’s all flavour! Once that layer of sugar has been brûléed, add another and repeat – this ensures a good crack. Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes or so.
5. For the bananas, melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the bananas, let them brown gently in the butter, then add the sugar, syrup and a splash of rum (if you like). Keep cooking and watch as the sugar dissolves and caramelises in the butter. You can cook the bananas up to 30 minutes before you serve and keep them warm in the pan until needed. Serve the rice pudding topped with the warm caramel bananas.