By New Year 2023. The tradition: Rémy makes the peas. Fifth year. The peas are perfect. The boy is twelve in six months and the peas are perfect and the roux is dark and the chain is strong and the new year is here and the old year is done. 2022: the year Luc left. The year Colette won. The year Rémy got his journal. The year the porch was built. The year I turned forty. The year the gumbo went from five to four and back to five on holidays. A year. A full, hard, beautiful year.
Made a pot of turtle soup again — the New Year's special, the once-a-year luxury. Because 2023 deserves turtle soup. Because the family deserves turtle soup. Because Joey loved turtle soup and Mama makes turtle soup and Rémy wants to learn turtle soup and the turtle doesn't care about the year, the turtle just knows it's in a pot and the pot is dark and the sherry is smooth and the love is in the everything.
We ended that night the way New Orleans always ends things — with something warm and a little reckless and sweet enough to make you forget the hard parts. After the turtle soup, after Rémy’s peas, after the sherry and the stories and the weight of a year that gave and took in equal measure, we took the bananas out to the porch — the porch we built in 2022 — and we let the grill do what fire does. Bananas Foster isn’t a fancy thing when you make it outside with your kid watching; it’s just a way of saying the sweetness isn’t over yet.
Bananas Foster on the Grill
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 20 minutes | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 4 ripe bananas, halved lengthwise (peels on)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup dark rum
- 1 tablespoon banana liqueur (optional)
- Pinch of kosher salt
- Vanilla ice cream, for serving
Instructions
- Heat the grill. Preheat your grill to medium-high heat (about 400°F). Clean the grates well so the bananas don’t stick.
- Grill the bananas. Place the banana halves cut-side down directly on the grates. Grill for 3—4 minutes until caramelized grill marks form and the fruit softens slightly. Flip and grill an additional 2 minutes on the peel side. Remove and set aside.
- Make the Foster sauce. In a small cast-iron skillet or grill-safe saucepan set directly on the grill grates, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to bubble, about 2—3 minutes.
- Add the rum. Remove the pan from direct flame. Carefully add the dark rum and banana liqueur if using. Return to heat and stir to combine, allowing the sauce to thicken slightly for 1—2 minutes. Do not leave unattended — the sauce can flame briefly when the alcohol hits the heat, which is part of the tradition.
- Assemble and serve. Peel the grilled bananas and nestle them into bowls. Spoon the warm Foster sauce generously over the top. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream immediately and serve while everything is hot and the ice cream is just beginning to melt into the sauce.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 320 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 48g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 85mg