The Reckless Chef

Okay, as many of you guessed, yesterday’s post was indeed an April Fool’s joke. It wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility - in the past 6 months, I’ve caught my hair, sleeve, several dishtowels, a plastic bag, and some chocolate chips on fire while cooking - but thankfully, nothing tragic happened yesterday. Our kitchen is fine, the landlord still loves us, and my insurance company isn’t going to be footing the bill for a “replacement” KitchenAid mixer anytime soon.

To make up for my cheeky shenanigans, I’m going to share my actual Bananas Foster recipe.

Bananas Foster was invented at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans. Naturally, I used the recipe on their website as a jumping-off point.

Jumping-off point? Yeah. See, I don’t really like regular Bananas Foster because it’s too…banana-y. I’m sure this is a travesty of sorts, but my version is pretty damn tasty even without the banana liqueur.

Click on the picture to zoom in on a potential fire hazard.

The Recipe:

Bananas (Almost) Foster
3 ripe bananas
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 stick salted butter
ittybitty shake of cinnamon
1/4 cup Malibu coconut rum (or your favorite)
1/4 cup Bacardi light rum (or your favorite brand)
1 pint vanilla ice cream
15-20 Nilla wafers, crushed

Do this
Start melting the 1/2 stick of butter in a skillet or large sauté pan over medium-low heat. Spoon in 1 cup of dark brown sugar and mix into the butter until mostly dissolved. Add a shake of cinnamon and pour in the coconut rum. Keep this mixture going on low heat while you cut the bananas.
Peel the bananas and cut in half lengthwise and crosswise - you should get 4 slices per banana, but if you mess up, it’s ok. You’ve probably got more than just 3 on hand, so it’s completely acceptable to snack on the slices that aren’t the right size.
Put the banana slices in the pan, and cook until they’re soft. I like to flip mine a few times to coat them with the sauce.
Measure out 1/4 cup of rum and get your book of matches ready. Pour the rum into the pan and wait for it to heat up. This is where the directions weren’t super clear to me, so I’ll elaborate: wait for the rum-sugar-butter-et cetera mixture to get hot enough that it’s bubbling. If you try to light it sooner, you’ll probably end up extinguishing the match. Trust me, I went through about 15 before I figured this out.
Once the stuff in the pan is bubbly and frothy, strike a match and watch the pyrotechnics.
Scoop some vanilla ice cream into a bowl, put some bananas and delicious sauce over the top, and top with crumbled Nilla wafers. Celebrate that you accomplished something pyrotechnic without burning down your kitchen, and enjoy your dessert!

Click on the picture to enlarge. It’s a little blurry, but it’s pyrotechnics!

There are video clips of this, too. I’m going to try editing out all of the failed attempts to light the bananas, and I’ll post the video later. Check back for that.

Click on the picture to zoom in on the tasty ‘Nanners (Almost) Foster.

I’m a fan of what the coconut rum adds to this dessert. I also made WAY too much of the sauce, so I’ve reserved it and put it in the freezer for something I’m going to bake this weekend.