Well gourmet readers, it hasn’t been an easy week to be the Amateur Gourmette. My computer is still not cooperating with me, which is sad because there are actually some decent food pictures on there (and I didn’t even run out of camera batteries!). On top of that bothersome obstacle, last night my internet wasn’t working. It’s like forces greater than we are forcing me to be bad at my job as interim blogger… Or maybe it’s all a ruse and I’m just trying to make everyone appreciate Adam that much more. The world may never know.
Lucky for us, last week I made Bananas Foster and used Kate’s camera (since Ricky’s camera had run out of batteries) and she was able to email me the pictures for your viewing pleasure.
Did you know that bananas are so popular in Uganda that in parts of the country the word for bananas is the same as the word for food? Yeah, I just learned that too. But it makes sense once you’ve had some good Bananas Foster. I don’t know why a person would need to eat anything else.
I originally decided to make Bananas Foster because when asked what dish they’d like to see on the Amateur Gourmet, not one but TWO of my friends suggested it. I didn’t have a recipe readily at hand, so I looked online and got a recipe from Brennan’s Restaurant (Brennan’s Bananas Foster Recipe – there’s also a history of Bananas Foster on that site if you’re interested).
The process itself was fairly simple, which I found surprising since the whole fire thing makes it a bit daunting. First we combined the brown sugar, cinnamon and butter over low heat.
Once it was all in an even-textured goo, we very carefully stirred in the banana liqueur and placed the bananas in the mixture.
A note about banana liqueur – I couldn’t find a small bottle of it, so I was forced to buy a fairly large one that I can’t think of too many other uses for. We have considered banana daiquiris and perhaps banana martinis (but those sound slightly disgusting to me). If you have any other suggestions for banana liqueur uses, please let me know so I don’t feel that I was wasteful in my purchase.
We wanted our bananas browned on both sides (though I suppose the fire could have browned the top, but we didn’t want to risk it), so we flipped them after a little while. When we thought they were ready, we added the rum.
Ever since a frightening blintz-oil-grease fire incident I had when I was eleven, I’m a little nervous around flames in a kitchen, so I made my friends handle this part. Once the rum was hot, they tipped the pan to set it afire. Check this out (best picture EVER):
It turned out that my flame fears were unfounded. If you have a traumatic experience in your past similar to my blintz fire, don’t let Bananas Foster scare you. You will be completely in control and you won’t have flashbacks.
I forgot to mention – at some point during this process you should prepare a plate with the other ingredients. Brennan’s suggests putting it over ice cream, but we wanted that little something extra, so we put it over waffles AND ice cream (it’s all part of a new fad diet. It’ll make you skinny, I swear).
We had prepared such a plate, so we immediately spooned the goo over the ice cream and waffles and placed some bananas on it. It was hot, the ice cream melted immediately and it turned into mush with bananas on waffles. But YUUUMMMMM.
Once we’d scarfed that down (two minutes, tops) we prepared a second serving that was much more photo-friendly since the goo and bananas had cooled a bit.
Now I know it might have been hard to see this coming, but guess what happened? Kate’s camera ran out of batteries!!! So our artistic presentation had to be captured on a camera phone. And even though Annette’s camera phone had run out of memory (I’m telling you, the forces of nature have been working against me), we were smart enough to have a third roommate whose camera phone captured the Bananas Foster in all of its glory.
I know it would have been better with the digital camera, but I hope you can get a sense of how well it turned out. If you like bananas even the tiniest bit, you should immediately buy some banana liqueur (or come over and borrow some of mine) and make yourself some Fostery goodness.
For your banana liqueur: you could add some to a little powdered sugar and make a lovely glaze for your banana bread. I’m not sure what the proportions are, but I do this with orange juice and rum, and then add some powdered sugar until it looks glaze-y-like.
Ooooh, yummy! And with fire!
Also about the banana liqueur, it’s pretty good in milkshakes or steamed milk. Coffee, probably not so much.
Back in the early 70’s Bananas Foster was a trendy dessert and my dad made it in a chafing dish in the formal dining room with an audience of dinner guests. He left the very black scorch mark on the ceiling for years as an example of “pride goeth before a fall.”
Too. Much. Rum.
You can use banana liqueur to make banana gelato, too. But I think that’ll only take care of another few tablespoons.
you could use the liqueur in a trifle, or make a banana-fied tiramisu-ish concoction. i think i like the first idea more better.
I did a search, and i found a cool looking recipe for triffle that involves banana liquor, on the epicurous website.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/12204
Re: Banana liquor:
http://www.idrink.com/drink_by_ing_view.html?ingid=8
Nice flambe Lisa! Years ago, I used to make Bananas Foster tableside as a waitress at the Top of the Bay restaurant on the 17th floor of the Sheraton Hotel in Mobile, Alabama, my hometown. That final splash of rum never failed to get Ooh’s and Ah’s (and big tips) from my customers. And you’re right. In my book, Bananas Foster is THE only way to eat bananas. Here’s a secret though…instead of banana liqueur, we used Galliano, the Italian anise-flavoerd liqueur, which added that ‘je ne sais quois’ to the sauce. And if you look in the right liquor store, you can sometimes find the tiny ‘mini’ of Galliano, which is just the perfect amount for one batch of Bananas Foster. As for what to do with the leftover banana liqueur…invite the monkeys next door over for cocktails :>)
i believe that you could make a ‘chunky monkey’ type coffee drink with that liqueur.
You could slip some of that banana liqueur into the drink of your sister’s hot boyfriend and get him so toasted that he thinks you are really your sister, and then maybe he’ll sleep with you.
Or not. I’m just saying.
A friend of mine made Bananas Foster on a camping trip a few years ago… a gourmet touch to camping for all you outdoorsy readers. Oh, and what a food wars topic: smores or bananas foster?!
Ms. Safety here to say… I’m REALLY glad you moved the pan away from that multi-plug outlet before you flamed your Foster.
Oh, man, I cannot believe that the younger generation has not discovered the Banana Banshee.
2 oz Banana liqueur
2 oz creme de cacao
2 oz light cream or half and half
Shake with ice and strain into glass OR (better) blend with ice in a blender for a really lovely summer drink. These are so good you can’t believe you’re drinking booze and not a chocolate-banana milkshake.
it looks nice………..ok i lyin it looks disgusting……….but good try.i made it an it came out better…….ha ha