Sometimes, when there is nothing on TV that hubby and I can agree on, we turn on FoodNetwork. I can’t watch another “How Things Are Made” on the Science Channel and he can’t stomach another viewing of “Keeping Up Appearances” on BBCAmerica. So we compromise and watch something that neither one of us is terribly crazy over but we don’t hate it either. Usually, that lucky show will be “Good Eats” but as it happened the other night, we caught “Throwdown with Bobby Flay”. Now, I’ve been a Bobby Flay fan for years but I’ve really gotten off the whole reality TV/food as a contact sport kind of entertainment. Throwdown though might change my mind.
The premise is that the show finds someone who is the acknowledged expert at making one dish – say crepes – and unbeknownst to that person, Bobby Flay is going to challenge them to make their signature dish up against his. Sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses, but it is interesting to see what he comes up with as the challenger to his rival’s work.
Ok, so we were watching this and the challenge was crepes. Me, I love crepes. I never make them, but I love them. Why don’t I make them? Well, I…I just don’t. Mainly because I don’t think about them. My crepe maker is always tucked away, out of sight and I never get inspired for them unless I see a show about someone making some chocolate/banana crepes and then I say “Oh yeah, crepes would be good.” The other sticky thing about crepes is I generally need hubby to make them. Why? Well, I…I just do. I never get them thin enough on my own and frankly, I lack the patience to practice. Give me the #$%^& crepe already, how many do I have to tear or undercook in the process??!?? (My inner voice can be a bit salty, sorry.)
So luckily for this crepe story, Hubby watched the same episode and was similarly inspired. I brought home a bunch of bananas from the store today and said, in my best come hither voice that applies generally only to produce, “Wanna make some crepes?” Surprisingly, that pick up line worked and he set to work making the little wonders for my filling.
While he was dipping and flipping, I was improvising a filling. There was butter, brown sugar, bananas, a dash of nutmeg and oh yeah, banana liqueur.
Things were going along swimmingly until I added the liqueur. Now, apparently I was absent that day in science when the teacher might have explained that the boiling point of alcohol might be a bit different than sugar or butter, or that said sugar and butter might decide to treat the new ingredient like it was rocket fuel and begin to scorch for launch. Luckily, my cat-like reflexes whisked the pan off the heat and saved the sauce from total destruction. Close call, but I’ve always been a believer that a big scoop of
can solve just about any cooking booboo. The cream may look a little too stiff but I like my whipped cream to stand up and say “Howdy”. So the final dessert looked something like this:
The crepes were definitely better than the filling but I know what I did wrong on that, so I would try it out again. I might also do a chocolate filling with bananas, rather than just the chocolate on top. Are we ready for Flay? Oh, perhaps not. The only throwdown I’m ready for right now is one directly on my sofa to sleep off this sugar rush. Wonder what’s on TV?
Nostalgic Home 