I went to an interesting wine tasting last night, and sampled a yeasty Veuve Clicquot vintage champagne, some excellent single malts, and a range of fabulous salty sherries. As I've just about recovered, this evening I've decided to write about Bananas Foster. Bananas Foster was invented in 1951 by Paul Blange of Brennan's Restaurant in New Orleans. It's an American classic. Here's my version:
First, catch some bananas. Peel them, and slice them diagonally. In a shallow frying pan, saute the bananas in some unsalted butter. Next, sprinkle on some brown sugar, and some ground cinammon. You want the butter to caramelise in the sugar, so baste the bananas with the sugary, cinnamony butter. After a few minutes, your sauce will go slightly brown. That's how you want it.
Now for the fun part. Pour in a generous slug of rum. I used Mount Gay rum from Barbados. Mount Gay was first produced in 1703, so it claims to be the oldest rum in the world. And I'm sure it is. I don't doubt that for one minute. Tip the pan towards the gas, and the rum and butter sauce will ignite. If you're one of those unfortunates with an electric stove, use a match. The whole point of the flambe is to burn off the alchohol and the fats, so that a delicately flavoured sauce is left behind. After a minute or so, the flames will die down. If they don't, you've got a fire on your hands.
Serve the flambeed bananas over some vanilla ice-cream in individual ice cream glasses. Pour over the remaining sauce from the pan, but let the sauce cool down slightly to avoid shattering the glass. Serve it fast- before the ice cream melts. It's simple, it's excellent, it's delicious.
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