INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

A quintessential New Orleans dessert, and a favorite among most
locals. 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 and rum. Heat until the
liquor is warmed, about  three minutes. Add the bananas, cook for about
1 - 2 minutes, then  ignite with a flourish. Here's the best 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.
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. Walt MM
Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V3 #260  Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 00:05:06
-0400  From: Walt Gray <waltgray@mnsinc.com>

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Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients)
----------------------------------------------
Calories: 430
Calories From Fat: 103
Total Fat: 11.7g
Cholesterol: 30.5mg
Sodium: 17.9mg
Potassium: 289.7mg
Carbohydrates: 67.7g
Fiber: 1.7g
Sugar: 60.6g
Protein: <1g