Bananas Foster
Quintessentially New Orleans' fare, Bananas Foster originated at Brennan's Restaurant in the French Quarter in 1951.
This is really an easy recipe that just looks complicated. I made it hundreds of times when I was a Maître d' at a swank hotel restaurant in the '70s where I also engaged in tableside preparations of Steak au Poivre, Caesar's Salad, and Wilted Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing, all of which are now archived in Kitchen Tapestry.
A Word of Caution
One of the steps in this recipe (which can be omitted) is to flambé it. This is a dangerous step and you can hurt yourself or worse if you're not paying attention and exercising extreme caution. But it begs the question, do you have a Class K fire extinguisher in your kitchen? These are specifically designed for kitchen fires involving oils, fats, and grease. And if you don’t have a fire extinguisher in your kitchen, why not? It’s far better to have one and not need it than to need one and not have it. Buy one and make a date on your calendar as to when it expires.
The Bananas Foster originated at Brennan's Restaurant in New Orleans in 1951. It is named after Richard Foster, a good customer of Brennan's and personal friend of the restaurant's founder, Owen Brennan. Richard and Owen also served together on a civic board that had been created to clean up and improve the reputation of the French Quarter, called the New Orleans Crime Commission. Besides crime, New Orleans was also known as the entry point for imported bananas from Latin America in the '50s and this dish was created for a magazine article about the restaurant. Owen wanted to promote the newfangled fruit for the article and challenged his chef, Paul Blangé, to create something with bananas. The rest, as they say, is history.
You can skip the flambé part if you want to, but the drama is in the presentation, rather than the ingredients, which are few and simple. It does prove a culinary point, though: you can make anything taste great if you put enough butter, sugar and alcohol in it, so remember that, even if you do not care for bananas.
If you are going to flambé the dish, do not use a skillet with a non-stick surface. Use your trusty cast iron skillet since it is not likely you will have a restaurant-quality flambé pan lying around your kitchen cabinets.
Bananas Foster
Ingredients
- 4 bananas, peeled and cut in half lengthwise, then halved
- 1/2 stick of unsalted butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup banana liqueur (like, DeKuyper)
- 1/2 cup dark rum (like, Pyrat)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 4 scoops of premium vanilla bean ice cream
Instructions
- Over medium low heat, melt the butter in a cast iron skillet.
- Add the brown sugar and cinnamon, and stir until the sugar melts and becomes bubbly, a couple of minutes.
- Remove the pan from the stove and carefully add the banana liqueur. It has a relatively low alcohol level, but it can still catch fire, so wait a minute or so for the alcohol to evaporate, then add the bananas to the mixture and return the pan to the stove.
- Cook for about 3 minutes until the bananas soften and begin to brown.
- Remove the pan from the stove again, and carefully add the rum. Return the pan to your stove and using a stick lighter, stand back and ignite the rum. It will catch fire in a burst and the flames will likely rise two feet above the pan, so be careful. You can turn the heat off on your stove at this point.
- Allow the flames to subside, which will take a minute or so, and serve four pieces of banana per scoop of vanilla ice cream. Spoon the sauce liberally over each serving and serve immediately.
- If you do not wish to flambé the dish, forego lighting it and leave the pan off the heat for 3 minutes while the alcohol evaporates, then return the pan to the stove and cook another 2 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Whether you choose to flambé the dish or not, you should own and maintain within its expiration date a kitchen grade fire extinguisher known as a Class K Extinguisher. These are specifically designed for kitchen fires involving oils, fats, and grease.
