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Last updated: June 21. 2006 5:06PM
SOUTHERN MAKEOVERS
Banana Republic
But the banana pudding most people know – instant pudding layered with store-bought vanilla wafers and topped with white chemical glop instead of whipped cream – is nowhere near the real thing or what the dessert can be. Deluxe restaurant chef Keith Rhodes, who grew up here, will always remember his grandmother’s banana pudding, a homemade baked custard topped with meringue. It was similar to British milk puddings of the 1800s. “When they’re made well, they’re made well,” says Rhodes. “It’s something you won’t forget.”
For a long time, bananas had to be imported from the faraway tropics to America, making the fruit too expensive. Then, in the 1870s, two American entrepreneurs began shipping bananas from the Caribbean to Boston, New York and New Orleans. A decade later, banana recipes were showing up in American cookbooks. By the early 1900s, many listed banana pudding and a Southern classic was born.
Of course, that was the old banana pudding. Today’s version arrived in the 1950s, the convenience-food age. Everyone wanted to use instant puddings and packaged cookies for banana pudding. Rhodes, 33, liked that kind, too. Old-fashioned banana puddings were too unpredictable for children to enjoy, he says.
Sometimes they were perfectly creamy, other times lukewarm and soupy and weird, under spongy meringue. “I was always looking for a good banana pudding – even as a kid,” he says.
Young Rhodes strived to recreate banana pudding served at the former Ballentine’s Cafeteria in Longleaf Mall.
“It was a refrigerator, store-bought kind,” he says, chilled and creamy, with sweet ripe bananas, vanilla wafers, whipped cream and “just some good old banana pudding, Jell-O pudding.”
“That secret formula is right on time – time tested,” Rhodes says.
Rhodes created a low-fat version of Ballentine’s pudding, and he “deconstructed” banana pudding into a coconut-roasted banana over a cookie crust alongside frozen banana custard under a spun-molasses cage.
Either way, one step is timeless: the use of soft-to-the-touch fruit, just like Rhodes’ grandma put in her banana pudding.
“It’s not pretentious. It’s fun. It’s casual. It’s comfort food,” Rhodes says. “It’s what we all love.”
Old-fashioned Banana Pudding With Custard and Meringue
For the pudding:
¾ cup sugar
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
Dash of salt
3 egg yolks
1¾ cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ripe bananas, sliced
About 18 vanilla wafers
For the meringue:
4 egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
6 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Prepare pudding: In a double-boiler over simmering water, mix sugar, flour and salt. Beat egg yolks and combine with milk. Add yolks and milk to sugar mixture, stirring constantly to blend well. Cook uncovered, stirring frequently, for 10 to 15 minutes, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
In a Pyrex loaf pan, spread one-third of the cooked custard. Top with one-third of bananas, then one-third of vanilla wafers. Repeat for two additional layers or more, if ingredients permit.
Prepare meringue: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites until frothy with an electric mixer. Add cream of tartar. Continue beating until the whites stand in soft peaks that fall over when the beater is removed. Then beat in the sugar a tablespoon at a time. After all sugar is used, beat in the vanilla.
Assemble pudding: Spread meringue over the pudding, covering the entire surface and the edges of the pan. Bake for about 15 minutes or until meringue is slightly browned. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serves 4 to 6.
Deconstructed Banana Pudding With Caramelized Banana and Frozen Banana Custard
For the banana custard:
⅓ cup Turbinado sugar
2 large brown farm eggs
1 cup half-and-half
1 ripe banana, mashed
For the vanilla tuile:
¼ cup melted butter
1 egg white
½ cup of flour
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the vanilla–Marsala crumb:
½ cup ground vanilla wafers
¼ cup Marsala
For the caramelized banana:
1 ripe banana
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup Meyer rum
1 tablespoon shredded coconut
For the garnish:
Fresh pineapple and/or other tropical fruit
Prepare banana custard: In a small stainless bowl, whisk together Turbinado sugar, brown eggs and half-and-half. Place bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water and whisk mixture until thick and smooth. Cool. Stir in mashed banana. Line 4 small ramekins with plastic wrap. Pour custard into ramekins. Freeze for 3 hours.
Prepare tuile: Melt butter. Cool. Whisk together egg white and flour. Slowly add melted butter and vanilla extract. Spread mixture onto a non-stick baking pan, using the side of a spatula to shape into 4 small triangles. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. Remove tuiles from pan and cool.
Prepare Marsala crumb: Use a fork to mash together vanilla wafer crumbs and Marsala until mixture is smooth. Set aside.
Prepare caramelized banana: Place a small non-stick saute pan over medium-high heat. Place banana in pan (pan should sizzle). Add rum, wait five seconds, then sprinkle banana with brown sugar, swirling pan. Quickly sprinkle coconut over banana and remove. Cool. Cut banana into four pieces. Assemble dessert: Shape Marsala crumb into a 2-inch round cookie at one side of serving dish. Place caramelized banana on top of crumb. Remove custard from freezer and unmold on opposite side of serving dish. Top with vanilla tuile. Garnish middle of platter with fruit. Serves 4.
Mother and Grandma’s Quick Banana Pudding, Lightened
14 ounces low-fat sweetened condensed milk
1½ cups cold water
3 ounces fat-free vanilla pudding mix
2 cups Cool Whip Free, thawed
36 reduced-fat vanilla wafers
3 medium bananas, sliced
Combine condensed milk, water and pudding mix in a bowl and blend until smooth. Fold in Cool Whip. Spoon one cup mixture onto the bottom of a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with one-third each of wafers, bananas and remaining pudding mixture, in that order. Repeat layers two times. Chill several hours before serving. Refrigerate leftovers. Serves 4.
To serve, spoon layers in a martini glass and rim the edge with thinly sliced bananas. Top with a cherry.
–Recipes courtesy of Chef Keith Rhodes,
of Deluxe restaurant in Wilmington
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