A Few Feet of Flames
Here’s another favorite from America’s Test Kitchen, Bananas Foster. It’s a New Orleans classic.
Wikipedia says:
The dish was created in 1951 by Paul Blangé at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was named for Richard Foster, a friend of Owen Brennan’s and New Orleans Crime Commission chairman.
America’s Test Kitchen makes the recipe easy, but they don’t call for any banana liqueur. I’m not sure if that’s because it’s not required or because it doesn’t meet their mandate of easy at home. Buying an entire bottle of liqueur for one dessert might be silly. However, we’ve now made this enough times that we could have been justified in doing so.
If you are the type to keep bananas and vanilla ice cream in the house, this is a perfect dessert. It’s quick and uses everyday ingredients. This was also the recipe that drove us to cube our unsalted butter. When we buy a block we cut it into tablespoon-sized pieces and put them in the freezer. They are perfect for dishes like this.
The flambé is also quite exciting. The fire reaches up to the microwave, but hasn’t caused any damage.
UPDATE: I just noticed this is our 100th post. That deserves a glass of bubbly.