There’s a time and a place for summer baking. It’s usually on a lazy, rainy afternoon, when you can get lost in the long stretch of making an unbearably delicious blueberry pie. On other summer nights, however, when weather is tight and temperatures (and tempers) are high, dreams of homemade cake must give way to a desert that’s unfailingly easy and deceptively extravagant. Cue the Foster from any fruit.
This riff borrows a page from Bananas Foster’s flagship fine-dining table, concocted in the 1950s for Owen Brennan’s restaurant, Vieux Carré, and later continued at Brennan’s in New Orleans. Bananas Foster needs little introduction. It’s a classic that managed to stay up to date thanks to a straightforward ingredient list and simple preparation. The end result has a consistently high wow factor: flaming caramelized fruit topped with a mound of good vanilla ice cream will never go out of style. Here we keep the process and the main players (butter, alcohol, and brown sugar), but swap out the bananas for other sun-drenched fruits. This is how it is combined.
choose a fruit
When it comes to any fruit, texture and flavor typically go hand in hand; the softer and more ripe the fruit, the sweeter it tends to be. When making a Foster, you want to choose fruits that are neither too ripe nor too soft so that they can withstand direct flames and do not overpower the sweetness. Plums, blueberries, and peaches with their floral sweetness and mild flavor are best suited for this task. Plus, those euphoric, crunchy first corn kernels of the season are a standout addition to Foster’s game.
choose the drink
Here comes the fun: A general rule of thumb when considering which alcohol to ignite is that if you don’t like the taste of it, neat or in a cocktail, you probably won’t care too much when you top the fruit. ablaze. You also want to choose something high in ABV (keep it around 40 percent) so that the liquor does what it’s supposed to do: combine its latent flavors, while burning the fruit and delivering the most exciting edible entertainment possible. imagine.
stay safe
A great dinner can come to a catastrophic halt if a few simple but essential safety protocols are not followed. When fostering fruit, keep all liquor bottles and easily flammable materials, like kitchen towels, as far away from the stove as possible. It’s a good idea to keep a fire blanket or large heavy pot lid nearby to extinguish any stubborn flames. Plus, a long-handled lighter does everything to save your eyebrows and ego. The burner should always be turned off before adding the liquor. And this is probably the most important lesson: never pour alcohol directly from the bottle into the pan, as the alcohol droplets from the bottle can ignite and travel up the bottle and cause the whole thing to explode. There’s no reason to fear: with the right precautions, flambéing fruit will be your new party pocket trick.
Your Foster formula (for two)
In a skillet, melt 1 tablespoon. butter. Then add 3 tablespoons brown sugar and cook for 30 seconds, until the sugar is incorporated and the mixture bubbles slightly. Then add a pinch of salt and a heaping handful of fresh fruit like sliced ​​peaches or plums, or blueberries, or vegetables with corn. Stir the fruit into the butter-sugar mixture for another 30 to 60 seconds until completely coated. Turn off the heat. pour in ¼ cup of liquor, such as Grand Marnier, St. Germain, whiskey, or dark rum. Using a long stick lighter, light the corner of the pan. The flames will burn for about 30 seconds and then stop on their own. Serve over ice cream. And kindly receive your well-deserved applause.
In fashion:
We thought we could predict the winner. (We were wrong.)
