Ashleigh’s Caramelized Plantains with Frozen Rice Milk

Ashleigh Shanti is an Asheville chef, known for her Good Hot Fish pop ups and recently starring on Top Chef. East Fork CEO, Connie Matisse, hosted a dinner celebrating a collaboration with Diaspoa Co. and Ashleigh prepared a meal that included this dessert, caramelized plantains with frozen rice milk.

The sensations of hot and cold and textures like creamy and crunchy make this fun dessert feel alot like Japanese kakigori. Surprising Diaspora Co Spices round things out making it feel super decadent.

Recipe Yield: 4-6

Ingredients:

4 ripened plantains, peeled and sliced into thirds (if you can't find plantains, bananas also work)
1/4 cup Butter
Juice and zest of 3 lemons
1/4 cup Brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp Diaspora Co Chai Masala
1/4 tsp Diaspora Black Mustard Seed, ground
1/4 tsp flaky salt
Garnish with mint

For the frozen rice milk
3 cups plain rice milk (oat or almond milk also works)
3 tbs honey
Juice of a lemon

Prep Method:

In a small sauce pot, brown sugar and lemon juice and zest over low heat. Simmer for 10 minutes.

While the sugar simmers, melt butter in a sauté pan. Add plantains and sauté for 2-3 minutes per side until each side is golden brown. Pour brown sugar mixture over and carefully stir as to not smash plantains. To serve, add a few pieces of plantain in a bowl with a spoonful of warm caramel sauce. Finish each bowl with a generous helping of frozen rice milk and a little sprinkle of chai masala, black mustard seed and flaky salt. Top with torn mint.

For the frozen rice milk:
In a large mixing bowl, slowly whisk honey into rice milk. Freeze mixture in a shallow glass dish, stirring and scraping with a fork every 30 minutes, until firm but not frozen solid, about 2-3 hours. Keep in glass dish until ready to use.