The little tag that came belted around the grocery store coconut had a recipe for something called Baked Bananas With Coconut Flambe. The whole thing sounded easy enough until I got to the part that read, "be careful, a flame will shoot up above the pan."
I remember that an old college roommate of mine once lit a pan of chicken with cognac on fire, and we all survived.
So how hard could this be, really?
So we got to it.
We melted 1 stick of butter in a large skillet with 1/2 cup brown sugar.
We sliced bananas lengthwise and cooked those in the yummy syrup.
We added the last of the shredded coconut (about 1/4 cup) and let it get good and caramelly.
Then we poured in the 1/4 cup dark rum, and attempted to light the stuff.
Several times.
No flambe.
Oh well. The whole thing was ultra rich. So rich, we wished for the vanilla ice cream that the recipe suggested to serve with it, but we did not have. Nonetheless, we were all warm and happy after this, the last of our coconut adventures.
Have you ever made flambe anything? Do you still have your eyebrows?
We have done flambe. The trick is to heat the alcohol separately in a pan, let it get warm and then light it. Also, make sure it has a high alcohol proof. Once it's lit, you can pour it (flames and all) on to what it's supposed to go on. We've done it lots of times and still have our eyebrows. :)
ReplyDelete