Indonesian Bananas Foster Food

CLASSIC BANANAS FOSTER

Steps:

• Peel the bananas and slice them about 1 inch thick on a long bias. Heat the sugar, butter and cinnamon together in a medium skillet over medium heat until bubbling. Add the bananas and stir gently to coat. Add the rum and carefully ignite the alcohol with a stick lighter. Step back and let the alcohol burn off. Continue to cook, stirring gently, until the sauce has thickened a little bit and the bananas are slightly softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Divide the bananas and sauce between 2 small bowls. Top with ice cream and serve immediately.

BANANAS FOSTER

Steps:

• Prepare a grill for medium-high heat.
• Heat a cast-iron skillet over direct heat. Melt the butter until it begins to brown, then stir in the sugar and cinnamon until the sugar melts. Stir in the salt. Add the bananas in an even layer and cook, turning the bananas once to coat in the sauce, until lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes per side.
• Remove the skillet from the heat and add the rum. Light the sauce with a lighter and allow it to flame. Once the flames have extinguished, baste the bananas with the sauce. Add the orange zest. Serve warm over vanilla ice cream.
• (Alternatively, you can cook the bananas over medium-high heat on a stovetop.)

BANANAS FOSTER

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a heavy skillet over a medium-high heat. Add the brown sugar. Stir together and cook for a minute or two. Pour in the cream and stir it around to combine.
• Peel the bananas and slice them on the bias inside the peel. Drop the slices into the pan. Next, add the chopped nuts and stir them into the sauce. Then - and this is where you need to be a little careful - stir in the rum. Let it start to bubble, and then carefully use a long lighter to ignite it. (Be sure to have a lid handy in case you need to extinguish the flame.) Let the fire burn and go out (it'll only take about 30 seconds or so), and then stir in the cinnamon at the end. You may also cook the mixture without flambeing it.
• Spoon it over a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream and enjoy immediately.
• Spoon bananas Foster over French toast, waffles or crepes. Substitute peaches, pears or cherries for the bananas. Of course, then it probably wouldn't be considered bananas Foster.

SUNNY'S EASY BANANAS FOSTER

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Stir in the orange juice, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice and bring to a simmer. Slice the bananas and add to the skillet, stirring to coat. Saute until the bananas are tender and the sauce coats them, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the bourbon. Light the liquid in the skillet with a click lighter and flambe, allowing the flames to subside. Turn on the heat and cook about 1 minute. Serve in bowls, warm, over vanilla ice cream with a sprinkle of nuts.

INDONESIAN BANANAS FOSTER

Steps:

• Spoon 6 tablespoons cream from top of coconut milk and set aside. Pour remaining coconut milk into a large saucepan. Stir in brown sugar, water, molasses, vanilla, salt and pie spice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, until reduced by half, 25-30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large cast-iron or other skillet, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add plantains. Cook, stirring gently, until glazed and slightly softened, 3-5 minutes. Divide plantains among 6 bowls; drizzle with syrup. Top with reserved coconut milk cream.

BANANAS FOSTER

Steps:

• Add the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cream to a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat.
• Allow the butter to melt and continue to whisk while cooking until the sugar has melted and the sauce is smooth (about 3 to 5 minutes). You don't want to cook on too high heat or it will heat too quickly before the sugar fully melts.
• Add the bananas and allow to cook 2-3 minutes, to lightly soften the bananas.
• Remove the pan from heat and pour the rum over the bananas and sauce. Using a long lighter, ignite the rum. Gently shake or swirl the sauce around until the flames burn out, about 30 seconds. The flames will burn blue and can sometimes be very subtle.
• Spoon warm bananas and sauce over ice cream and serve immediately.

BANANAS FOSTER II

Steps:

• In a large, deep skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in sugar, rum, vanilla and cinnamon. When mixture begins to bubble, place bananas and walnuts in pan. Cook until bananas are hot, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve at once over vanilla ice cream.

BANANAS FOSTER

Steps:

• 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.

INDONESIAN FRIED BANANAS

Steps:

• Put the desiccated coconut in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
• Peel the bananas, slice thickly on an angle, then place in the bowl with the coconut and toss to coat well on all sides.
• Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the coated banana and stir fry over low/medium heat until the coconut is lightly browned and the banana slices are heated through.
• Serve hot as an accompaniment.
• Note: you can also quarter the banana's instead of slicing them.

BANANAS FOSTER CAKE

Steps:

• Cake: Preheat oven to 350°F Butter/flour three 9-inch cake pans. Sift flour, soda, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl. Peel bananas and mash with a fork, set aside. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, scraping bowl thoroughly between each addition. Beat in vanilla and lemon zest. Add in 1/3 of flour just until combined. Add 1/2 of sour cream just until combined. Repeat with 1/2 of remaining flour, then remaining sour cream, ending with flour. Beat in bananas. Divide batter evenly between pans and bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool cakes on a rack for 20 minutes before removing from pans.
• Pastry Cream: Heat half-and-half, 3 tablespoons sugar, and salt in small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until simmering, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar.
• Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in medium bowl until thoroughly combined. Whisk in remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and whisk until sugar has begun to dissolve and mixture is creamy, about 15 seconds. Whisk in cornstarch until combined and mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 30 seconds.
• When half-and-half mixture reaches full simmer, gradually whisk simmering half-and-half into yolk mixture to temper. Return mixture to saucepan, scraping bowl with rubber spatula; return to simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until 3 or 4 bubbles burst on surface and mixture is thickened and glossy, about 30 seconds. Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla. Transfer mixture to medium bowl, press plastic wrap directly on surface, and refrigerate until cold and set, at least 3 hours or up to 48 hours.
• Buttercream: Whisk egg whites and sugar together thoroughly in a heat proof bowl. Set bowl over a pot of boiling water. Whisking constantly, heat mixture until sugar has dissolved and mixture is just too hot to dip your finger inches (Careful not to scramble the eggs!) Pour into bowl of a standing mixer and beat on high speed to make a stiff meringue (this is a swiss meringue). Continue beating on slow speed until cooled to room temp, about 10 minutes. Gradually beat in butter a few cubes at a time until all is incorporated. Beat in vanilla and rum. You can refrigerate this for up to 10 days or freeze up to a month. Bring to room temp and whisk before using.
• Caramel Sauce: In a small to medium saucepan, combine the sugar and water and cook over medium heat stirring until sugar dissolves. Stop stirring, increase heat to high, cover and bring to a full boil. (The steam will wash the sides of the pan to remove any sugar crystals.) After a minute or so, remove the lid and cook without stirring until it begins to turn a golden brown around the edges (it should take 5 to 10 minutes depending on the size of your pan). In the meantime, heat the cream until it begins to simmer. Set aside for a moment. As soon as you start to see the sugar syrup turn golden, carefully swirl the pan to redistribute the caramel. (Do not stir! The sugar will crystallize.) A few moments longer is all it will take -- just until it is an even golden color. Now, remove from the heat and slowly pour in the cream while stirring with a long-handled wooden spoon. It will bubble up furiously, so be careful not to let it overflow. Stop for a second and let it die down if necessary. Keep stirring until the mixture is smooth. Stir in salt and let cool to room temperature.
• Assembly: Spread cold pastry cream between cake layers. Ice sides and top with buttercream. Pipe a decorative border around the top edge of the cake to create a dam for the caramel. If the caramel has cooled too much to pour, warm it just until it's more fluid, but not warm enough to melt the buttercream. Pour an even layer of caramel onto the top of the cake. Save the rest for serving along side or over ice cream, or eat it with a spoon -- it's amazing!
• Decorate the cake however you like -- I use sliced bananas dipped in lemon juice and candied walnuts.

BANANAS FOSTER

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed 12-inch skillet over medium heat.
• Add the brown sugar, cinnamon stick, and lemon zest; stir to dissolve the sugar, about 1 minute.
• (If the heat is too high, the butter and sugar will separate instead of combining to form a sauce).
• Add the bananas and spoon some sauce over each piece.
• Cook until the bananas are glossy and golden on the bottom, about 1 1/2 minutes.
• Turn the bananas and continue cooking until they are very soft but not mushy or falling apart, about 1 1/2 more minutes.
• Remove the skillet from the heat.
• Add the rum and wait until the rum has warmed slightly, about 5 seconds.
• Wave a lit match over the pan until the rum ignites, shaking the pan to distribute the flame over the entire pan.
• When the flames subside (this will take 15 to 30 seconds), divide the bananas and sauce among the four bowls of ice cream and serve.