Murdoch books – 365 Challenge: Banana split up and down

I have wanted to renovate my kitchen for the longest time, but you know… everything gets priority over the kitchen. Now, because I consider myself a resourceful woman I think to myself,  perhaps we need a better reason than ‘the kitchen is a little dated’ to renovate it so when I saw ‘flambé’ in this recipe I knew this might be the very incentive we need to renovate. How you ask? Set the kitchen on fire! Hehe Well yes this is a little drastic even for my taste, but if anything was to go wrong I prefer it go wrong in my old kitchen rather than my new beautiful (even if still imaginary) kitchen.

I love how this recipe felt like it gave me ‘permission’ to set food on fire, how exciting. Ooo I feel so chef like! I was prepared though, fire blanket on hand for the ‘just in case’ scenario.

This recipe is called ‘Banana split up and down’ it is basically for ‘Banana flambé’ with some added yummies. Flambé meaning flame in French and is a product of adding alcohol to your pan, in this case rum, and setting it on fire! Woot!

The difference about this Banana flambé is that Reynaud has reinvented it by accompanying the banana flambé with ice cream, cream and caramel and calling it Banana split up and down. Yum! I absolutely love the combination of banana, caramel, cream and ice cream. And once again, as yummy as it was, my waist line was feeling very guilty after sharing this with my husband. He wasn’t feeling too guilty though!

Ingredients:

2 bananas

50g butter

100g sugar

3 tablespoons rum

150ml pouring cream

Whipped cream

Sorbet and ice cream

How to:

• Peel the banana. Gently cook the butter with 50g of the sugar in a frying pan, cook one of the bananas for 5 mins: it should be caramelised. Flambé with the rum. Some tips: don’t add the rum while the pan is on the flame, just remove it for this little bit then set alight with either a match or if you are very clever, by tipping the pan a little and making contact with the flame, this way you might be needing your fire blanket :)
• In another saucepan, make the caramel with the remaining sugar then add pouring cream, cook for 2 mins to get a creamy caramel. Some tips: Take your time doing this bit, this is where I rushed it. I should have known better and the result wasn’t 100%. Runny caramel was the result!

• Arrange the bananas on a dish, add ice cream and sorbet, whipped cream and a little caramel sauce and share it with someone special!

Thanks Stéphane for another great installment!

Voila Banana split up and down! Enjoy.

My previous Murdoch books 365 Challenge posts

Lamb Knuckles

Chicken with Truffles

Witlof with Ham

Support the team cooking up a storm for the 365 Challenge but checking out all the other great posts at Murdoch books 356 Challenge.