Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 bananas
2 ounces banana liqueur
4 ounces dark rum
Ground cinnamon
Vanilla ice cream (optional)
Preparation
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. This way, you can pretend to “peel” your bananas and put them in already cut.
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. Heat until the liquor is warmed, about three minutes. Add the bananas, add the rum (preferably warmed), then ignite and cook for about 1 - 2 minutes. Using a long, bent-handled ladle, scoop up some of the warm liquor. Hold it 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! Otherwise, just ignite the rum in the chafing dish. It’s safer.
Agitate to keep the flame burning, and add a few pinches of cinnamon to the flame. The cinnamon will sparkle orange in the blue flame and looks great.
Let the flames go out. Serve over ice cream if you wish or just like it is.
Variations: one may substitute any fruit for this dish that has a correspondingly flavored liqueur – peaches, pears, etc.
