This Brennan’s Houston Bananas Foster recipe, with fresh bananas and ice cream covered in a buttery, brown sugar, rum-laced sauce, is from the famous Creole fine dining restaurant, Brennan’s, in Houston, Texas.
I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to attend a Houston Food Blogger Collective Event at Brennan’s Houston to sample and learn about their 777 menu, which is their Courtyard Bar Menu, for happy hour, which offers 7 appetizers, 7 cocktails, and 7 wines for $7 each and is served from 2:00pm-7:00pm 7 days a week.
This is a fantastic opportunity to nosh on some scrumptious Creole food, drink some cocktails and wine at this quality fine dining Creole restaurant at a very reasonable price. It is a perfect place to meet your friends and coworkers after work, or to grab a light bite before a show.
Brennan’s is located near downtown in a red brick building and has all the charm of a New Orleans home, with crystal chandeliers and white tablecloths, and friendly people to greet you as you arrive. It has classic elegance yet is comfortable and not stuffy.
The event was held in the elegant, light-filled event room overlooking their pretty courtyard. It was filled with beautifully arranged tables covered with a variety of Gulf seafood and Creole dishes.
The Brennan’s Chefs worked overtime creating a beautiful seafood table, with fresh Gulf seafood, and some incredibly delicious Creole-inspired dishes, including Island Shrimp Ceviche (my favorite), made with Victor’s Tostones and a splash of Tito’s Vodka, Tuna Crudo, Honey Roasted Crispy Duck with Crawfish Fried Rice and Texas Blueberry Duck Sauce, Acadiana Boudin Link made in-house and served with Zatarain’s Creole Mustard, and the Creole Smoked Catfish Dip.
After dinner, the Executive Chef Danny Trace told us about some of the dishes and how they use the freshest Gulf seafood when available, and the owner, Alex Martin-Brennan and spoke to us about the history of the restaurant and his family and their restaurants, such as Cafe Adelaide in New Orleans, which honors his Aunt Adelaide, who was the life of the party. After a fire in 2008, Brennan’s Houston added the Courtyard Bar and the upstairs event room.
Afterward, they gave the group a tour of the restaurant. Unfortunately, I had to leave the event early and missed the tour. However, they were so kind to invite me back and gave me a private tour, which included the main dining room (look at that wall of wine bottles.)
And I love the Terms of Endearment room, named after the movie with Jack Nicholson and Shirley MacLaine, that had a scene filmed in this room. Do you remember that movie? I called it Tears of Endearment because it is a tearjerker.
Fern Casio, Brennan’s Marketing Manager told us about the many events they host on a regular basis, such as bridal luncheons. They have a number of rooms to host events.
In addition, on the first Friday of the month this summer, Executive Chef Danny Trace hosts a date night cooking class for $150 per couple. This sounds like so much fun!
There’s more! Brennan’s has its Big Easy Dinner with Southern Fried Chicken on Thursdays during the month of July.
While we were there, Mr. Flavor Mosaic and I enjoyed our lunch with an amazing salad, a catfish po’boy, and Creole Roasted Chicken with an amazing bread pudding with fresh berries.
What I missed at the blogger event was when Executive Chef Danny Trace demonstrated how to make Brennan’s Houston Bananas Foster dessert. I was so disappointed. However, the frown turned to a smile when I saw the Bananas Foster recipe on their website!!
I made the Bananas Foster at home and so can you! It is really very easy with only a few simple ingredients yet it is impressive and delicious.
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Brennan's Houston Bananas Foster
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons light or dark rum divided
- 4 ripe bananas (peeled, sliced lengthwise and halved again into quarters)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 scoops vanilla ice cream
Instructions
- In a flat sauté pan or medium skillet, add butter, sugar and 2 tablespoons rum; cook over medium-high heat while stirring to melt. Add bananas; use a table fork to lightly prick bananas while cooking. Sauté about 1 minute, or until bananas start to soften.
- Carefully tilt the pan towards you to get the top half of the pan hot, then remove from heat.
- Pour remaining ¼ cup rum over bananas. To flambé bananas, carefully ignite rum by either tilting the pan towards flame on a range or cautiously lighting with a long taper match.
- Gently shake the flaming pan with one hand and sprinkle cinnamon over the flame with your other hand. This makes the cinnamon sparkle and glow.
- When flames die out, immediately spoon bananas and sauce over ice cream.
- Chef’s Tips: NEVER, ever pour liquor straight from the bottle into a hot pan. Refrain from even leaning toward the pan to protect yourself from any burns.
- While the rum is lit, we sprinkle cinnamon from a small spice shaker directly into the flame to produce Fourth of July sparks effect that is pure food magic! If you want more cinnamon, adjust to taste after the flames subside.
- During December holidays, use butter pecan ice cream to add another tasty element to the festivities.
Notes
Nutrition
Thanks to Brennan’s Houston and the Houston Food Blogger Collective for the invitation to the blogger event. Thanks to Brennan’s for the private tour and complimentary lunch. All opinions are 100% my own.
If you like this recipe, be sure to check out my other Cajun / Creole recipes, and this popular variation on Bananas Foster.
The bananas foster sounds so good. I can’t wait to try it.