Foster Care

As a kid ordering in restaurants, I was a sucker for anything that came with the promise of fire: pu-pu platters, sizzling steaks, even baked Alaska--despite being warned each time that I wouldn’t like it, and I never did. But my favorite was Bananas Foster. Those soft, creamy bananas swimming in a rich, warm caramel and served over melting vanilla ice cream were every bit as good as the dessert’s presentation.

Bananas Foster was invented at the famed Brennan’s restaurant in New Orleans’ French Quarter in 1951, when that town was the port of entry for bananas imported from Central and South America. Owner Owen Edward Brennan challenged his chef at the time, Paul Blange, to create something to use up all those cheap bananas. Much to Brennan’s delight, Blange created a dessert that was then named for Richard Foster, a regular customer and good friend of Brennan who served with the restaurateur on a civic commission dedicated to cleaning up crime in the French Quarter. The dessert became a mainstay at Brennan’s and beyond. Today, Brennan’s sets fire to some 35,000 pounds of bananas each year. At Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney in Anaheim, the classic New Orleans dessert is served as it should be, tableside--and is unquestionably the restaurant’s most popular dessert.

Considering my early penchant for flaming food, it’s probably good that I didn’t try setting fire to my own bananas until I’d reached a mature, fire-fearing age. After slicing ripe bananas and sauteing them in butter and brown sugar until they were a delicious golden brown, I doused them in liquor and set the liquor afire. Or tried to anyway. I hovered for so long over the pan, afraid to strike the match lest the whole kitchen go up in one Hollywood-style explosion, that the cooking fire apparently burned off the alcohol necessary for my flambe. I struck match after match to no avail and ended up with bananas swimming in a rum-soaked syrup, which wasn’t bad either, though it would require proof of age to serve in a restaurant.

After repeated efforts, I learned that as long as I struck the match within 30 seconds of pouring on the alcohol, lighting the pan was not at all difficult. And it’s one of those things that makes you feel, as you swirl the pan, afire with an ethereal blue flame, like a real pro.

Once I’d gotten my technique down, I decided that swimming-in-rum-soaked-caramel was by far the best way to eat any dessert, and that it shouldn’t be limited to just bananas. I’ve since taken to “fostering” pineapple, mango, figs, peaches, pears, apples and nuts--basically anything in my kitchen that stands a chance of tasting good on top of vanilla ice cream. The apples are good and will certainly do if that’s all I have in my fruit bowl, which is often. Pears are also enjoyable, if a bit grainy. But tropical fruits, especially during the winter months, still work best.

Carolynn Carreno last wrote for the magazine about the pastel de tres leches dessert.

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Pineapple and Bananas Foster

Serves 4

1/4 cup butter

2 3/4-inch thick slices pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into one-inch wedges

1/2 cup dark rum

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 firm bananas, sliced into 3/4-inch thick rounds

4 scoops vanilla ice cream

Place one scoop of ice cream in four separate bowls and place bowls in freezer while preparing fruit.

To prepare fruit, melt butter with 1 tablespoon of water in a heavy-bottomed skillet over low heat. Add pineapple pieces and saute, turning occasionally, until they begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in brown sugar and cinnamon and cook until sugar dissolves. Add half the rum and the bananas and saute about 2 to 3 minutes longer, shaking the pan occasionally, until the bananas begin to brown and soften. Add remaining rum and cook for about 30 seconds, just to warm it. Carefully stand back and tip the pan slightly to ignite the rum using a long match or fire starter. (Keep cover handy to extinguish if necessary.) When the flames subside, lift the pan off the heat. Distribute the fruit and sauce evenly over the four scoops of ice cream.