I'm starting a new feature here at Emily's Hot Dish. Guest Chef Mondays: Wherein I Convince Other People To Do The Blogging For Me. Our inaugural guest chef is my dad, George. He stayed at home with my brother and I while my mom went to work, so I grew up leaning to cook from him. My earliest memory is sitting on the kitchen counter while he cooked dinner, watching as he added things to the pots on the stove. At the time it seemed like alchemy; he has the wonderful skill of being able to go into a fridge that others find nothing worth eating in and 30 minutes later there's a delicious meal on the table. Chickpeas and blueberries in a salad? Oddly delicious.
He writes:
OMG! TBO! . . . NSM.
I was reading through the March issue of Esquire a couple of weeks back when I turned to page 106 and actually said to myself, “Oh Em Gee, Tee Bee Oh.” There was a picture of a stack of Banana Bread French Toast. My mother, Emily’s grandmother, the home-ec teacher, mom of the 50s and no-nonsense Midwestern cook had a failsafe recipe for banana bread that she passed to me. If you’ve got buttermilk and at least three old bananas, you’re in pig heaven. She said it was really banana cake but if you called it banana bread you could eat more of it. Practical, my mother. So, I like banana bread.
And I like French toast. All the better since A) we came across the Cooks’ Illustrated version of French toast dip with milk, sugar, and egg, of course, but also melted butter, flour, and vanilla, and B) we decided to (actually, Emily suggested that we) make it with Italian panettone instead of bread. This is not difficult living in Italy, as we do, and makes really amazing French toast.
But not like in the Esquire picture. I mean, French toast made of banana bread? With syrup and lemon-flavored sour cream on top? It just screams “TBO”.
When we lived in Germany our family friend Trudy was visiting us. A day with her was like three with a mere mortal. She made things funnier, events more significant, and life more special. We were cooking, talking, and recording a tape to her brother who was out at sea and we got to the chocolate soufflé portion of the evening. It came out rather well and upon the first mouthful Trudy exclaimed, “Oh. My. God. Major TBO.”
An Army major? Time Between Overhauls? I must have looked puzzled as she translated: “TBO? -- Taste Bud Orgasm.”
Ahhhhh, it made perfect sense. The soufflé met the description so much so that we decided we should really make another just to prove the first wasn’t a mistake. And the term entered our family’s lexicon.
And seemed to fit the concept of Banana Bread French Toast. I mean, what’s not to like? Bananas, walnuts, butter and sugar, then everything French-toasty, then syrup and then sour cream whipped with lemon zest. . . the sum just had to be better than the parts, and all of the parts were really good to start.
Plus, it was an Esquire recipe. Esquire is a men’s magazine but not a “cheesecake mag.” It has more pictures of male Italian models wearing $3000 suits without socks than any undressed women. But it does do one thing well every so often: recipes that appeal to guys.
Which is why I thought I’d give the Banana Bread French Toast a try. So we did. Karine and Stuart, our upstairs neighbors, were having Eva and Jose over and Stuart’s sister was visiting so we thought it was a perfect opportunity to test-drive a new recipe. They are friends that deserve something really special but will laugh and forgive you if it’s a spectacular failure.
And it was good. Really good. But not great. Banana-y, walnutty, French toasty, sour creamy? Yup, all those things. Did the masses clamor for more? You bet they did, and demanded the recipe, too.
But OMG, TBO? Not So Much.
A lot of flavor there, but somehow it didn’t all come together. It didn’t seem as if we’d done it wrong, it just seemed like there were a lot of separate flavors on the plate. Good. OK, very good. But not great.
Maybe we just expected too much.
Give it a try and see what you think.
Helen’s Banana Bread
½ Cup butter
1 Cup sugar
2 well beaten eggs
3 mashed bananas
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ Cup buttermilk
2 Cups sifted flour
½ Cup chopped pecans or walnuts(or not)
**********************************************
Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and bananas and blend.
Add and blend the buttermilk
Sift together flour and soda
Add banana cream and blend.
Pour into floured loaf pan.
350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour.
The top should be brown and cracking, the sides should be just starting to pull away. Test center with spaghetti at 50 minutes. It should come out bone dry when done.
French Toast Batter
1 egg
2 TSP melted butter
¾ Cup milk
1 TBS Vanilla Extract
2 TBS Sugar
1/3 Cup flour
Pinch salt
*****************************************
Beat egg. Whisk in butter, milk, vanilla, sugar, flour, and salt.
Do not refrigerate, trust me on this. The butter solidifies, separates out, clumps up, and ruins your morning.
Just heat your pan (cast iron or pancake griddle), butter it, turn to medium heat, and fry your toast. First, of course, soak your bread for a couple of seconds. The original recipe suggests you soak it for 30 seconds or more. That assumes you are using a yeast bread that has some tensile strength. Banana bread, however, is a heavy cake that when wet, tends to fall apart easily. Dip it with your whole hand and remove it using your spread fingers to support the entire slice. Once it’s on the griddle, you’re OK.
The Esquire Suggestion
Before frying the toast, whip some sour cream with the zest of a lemon or two. Esquire claims that artificial (Mrs. Butterworth’s) syrup is better in that it is thicker on the toast and plate. Real syrup is thinner and soaks in. This is, of course, heresy, foolish, and totally wrong. And with all these flavors on the plate maybe it’s just possible that you couldn’t tell the difference, but why take the chance?
Toast on the warm plate, a dollop of lemony sour cream, and syrup over everything.
If you’re serving it to guests, pretend you do this all the time.
If you're interested in Guest Cheffing, leave a comment or shoot me an email. All are welcome.
RSS Feed