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Banana Saute
1 tablespoon butter 3 bananas Flour Sugar 3 to 6 slices sponge cake Melt the butter in the blazer. Peel the bananas, cut in half lengthwise, roll lightly in flour and brown on both sides in the hot fat. Sprinkle with sugar and serve on oblongs of sponge cake.
A chafing-dish dish meant to be cooked in front of guests, which explains the very short ingredient list and the absence of any oven. It works just as well in a skillet.
- The blazerThe blazer is the upper pan of a chafing dish, set directly over the flame rather than over the hot-water pan. Any 10-inch skillet over medium heat does the same job.
- Butter quantityOne tablespoon for six banana halves is thin coverage and can scorch before the last piece browns. Two to three tablespoons gives a more even film; add it in stages as the pan dries out.
- Choose firm fruitUse bananas that are yellow with no brown speckling. Fully ripe fruit collapses in the pan and cannot be turned in one piece.
- Flour and sugarNeither is measured because both are applied by hand. Dust the cut faces lightly with flour, shaking off the excess, and use roughly a teaspoon of granulated sugar per half once the fruit is browned.
- TimingTwo to three minutes on the cut side, then a minute or two on the rounded side. Turn once, with a thin spatula rather than a fork, or the halves break apart.
- The sponge cakeCut sponge into oblongs about the length of a banana half. Slightly stale cake tends to hold its shape better and absorbs the buttery pan juices without going to paste.
- Serve at onceThe sugar melts into a thin syrup as the fruit comes out of the pan and is best before it stiffens. Three bananas yields three to six servings depending on whether each plate gets one half or two.