How difficult is it to make Banana Fosters?

Question

I had it the other night at a restaurant and it was great. Is it difficult to make?

Answer 1

Bananas Foster

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup dark rum
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 scoops vanilla ice cream
4 bananas, cut in half lengthwise and cut in half
In a skillet, over low flame, stir in butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until brown sugar dissolves.
Add banana liqueur and bananas. When bananas start to brown slowly, add rum. Heat until rum is hot and tilt skillet to ignite. When flame goes out, gently remove bananas and place over ice cream. Spoon sauce over ice cream and serve at once.
Makes 4 servings.

OR

BANANAS FOSTER


A quintessential New Orleans dessert, and a favorite among most locals.

4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 bananas
2 oz. banana liqueur
4 oz. dark rum
Ground cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream (optional)

This dish cannot be prepared in the kitchen. It must be performed, in front of your guests. Use a chafing dish, and some kind of portable heat like Sterno. Don't be sloppy, and keep a fire extinguisher handy. There's no need to burn the house down just for dessert, but this really must be done right. I learned to cook this dish from Chef Joe Cahn at the New Orleans School of Cooking, and he spun dire tales of what befell those who dared sequester themselves in the kitchen when making Bananas Foster. Seriously, bad gris-gris will befall you if you deprive your guests of the spectacle. Plus, they'll talk for years about how cool you are to have made this for their dessert.
First, you should make some preparations. Peel a thin strip of peel from the bananas, and use your knife to slice the banana crossways into coins. Then replace the banana peel so that it looks untouched (as best as you can, anyway). This way, you can pretend to "peel" your bananas, and dump them into the put already cut, as if by magic. Cheesy, you ask? Well, it still looks cool, particularly if you're really nonchalant when you do this in front of your guests. If you insist, you can slice the bananas the classical way, quartering them by slicing thm lengthwise and then in half. I still think the other way is cooler.

Put your ground cinnamon into some kind of non-standard container, or even a little muslin bag, the better to "convince" your guests that it is, in fact, not cinnamon but voodoo dust, scraped from the tomb of Marie Laveau at midnight on All Soul's Day ... some kind of delightfully corny crap like that. Also, I recommend taking a cinnamon stick and grinding it fresh in a spice or coffee grinder instead of using pre-ground cinnamon. Sieve the result through a tea ball strainer to remove the larger pieces which won't grind finely. This will maximize the fresh, aromatic cinnamon flavor. If you use your coffee grinder, it'll also make your coffee taste great.

Now, to business ...

Melt the butter and add the brown sugar to form a creamy paste. Let this mixture caramelize over the heat for about 5 minutes. Stir in the banana liqueur. Heat until the liquor is warmed, about three minutes. Add the bananas, add the rum (preferably warmed), then ignite with a flourish and cook for about 1 - 2 minutes. Here's the showiest way to do this:

Using a long, bent-handled ladle, scoop up some of the warm liquor. Hold it a foot or two above the chafing dish and ignite the liquor in the ladle. VERY CAREFULLY, pour the liquor into the dish. A column of flame will descend from the ladle into the dish, which will ignite with a marvelous *poof*! Keep a pal nearby, subtly wielding a fire extinguisher. Try not to become a human torch in the process.

Otherwise, if you're too chicken (and I would never make fun of you for being too chicken to mess around with flaming alcohol), just ignite the rum in the chafing dish. It's safer.

Agitate to keep the flame burning, and add a few pinches of "voodoo dust" to the flame. The cinnamon will sparkle orange in the blue flame, and looks really neat.

Let the flames go out. Serve over ice cream if you wish, but some hardcores like me like it just like it is. Yum.

Variations: one may substitute any fruit for this dish that has a correspondingly flavored liqueur -- peaches, pears, whatever.

Have fun and good luck.

Answer 2

Banana's Foster Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2003
Show: Good Eats
Episode: Going Bananas

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup (1.75 ounces) dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon banana liqueur
2 under ripe bananas, sliced in half lengthwise
1/4 cup dark rum
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

Melt butter in a 10-inch heavy skillet over low heat. Add brown sugar, allspice and nutmeg and stir until sugar dissolves. Add banana liqueur and bring sauce to simmer. Add bananas and cook for 1 minute on each side, carefully spooning sauce over bananas as they are cooking. Remove bananas from pan to a serving dish. Bring sauce to a simmer and carefully add the rum. If the sauce is very hot, the alcohol will flame on its own. If not, using stick flame, carefully ignite and continue cooking until flame dies out, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. If sauce is too thin, cook for 1 to 2 minutes until it is syrupy in consistency. Add orange zest and stir to combine. Immediately spoon the sauce over bananas and serve. Serve with waffles, crepes, or ice cream.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_27214,00.html

Answer 3

Depending on where you live you can find in most American Liqour outlets and specailty store a small bottle of rum and banana liquer, or you can use instead of Creme du Banane, Pear, Apple or Orange based liquers.

Just becareful I worked in the restaurant business for many years and flambes can get out of hand quite quickly, do it in the kitchen with the fan on.

Answer 4

Fried bananas have a bent to take up a great variety of oil. in case you're able to desire to discover a fashion around that issue that issue, you're able to desire to be superb. perchance baking the bananas extremely of frying.

Answer 5

The recipe itself is fairly simple, you just have to be careful burning off the alcohol.