Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes From the New York Times - Mark Bittman [132]
2 large pears, peeled, halved, and cored
4 teaspoons unsalted butter
4 teaspoons brown sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the pears, cavities up, in a baking pan filmed with a little water.
2. Fill the cavities with a dot each of butter and sugar. Cover the pan and bake until very soft, about 30 minutes; after about 15 minutes of cooking, brush the surface of the pears with the butter-sugar mixture, which will have softened. Serve warm or at room temperature.
SAUTÉED BANANAS
MAKES 4 SMALL SERVINGS
TIME: 15 MINUTES
THE DEAL BANANAS for cooking are just ripe, yellow with barely any brown spots. Double this recipe if you want a more substantial dessert or serve with vanilla ice cream.
2 bananas, ripe but not too soft
1½ tablespoons unsalted butter
Flour for dredging
1 tablespoon sugar, plus more to pass at the table
Fresh lemon juice
1. Peel the bananas, cut them in half crosswise, then lengthwise, so that each banana has been made into 4 pieces. Put the butter in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Dredge the banana pieces lightly in the flour, shaking them to remove the excess. When the butter foam subsides, add the pieces to the skillet. Cook, turning frequently, until they are golden and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with the sugar and cook 1 minute more.
3. Serve, passing additional sugar and lemon juice at the table.
FIFTEEN-MINUTE FRUIT GRATIN
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
TIME: 15 MINUTES
IF YOU TAKE soft, ripe fruit, top it with a fancy sauce like crème Anglaise, and run the whole thing under the broiler, you have a four-star dessert. But if you top the fruit with something like sweetened heavy cream, whipped just enough so that it holds some body when broiled, or sweetened sour cream—which hardly needs to be whisked—you can produce a similarly glorious dessert in less than half the time.
Although this preparation is lightning-quick, it has to be constantly watched while cooking. Get the broiler hot, put the dish right under the heating element, and keep your eyes open. You want the topping to burn a little bit—it will smell like toasting marshmallows—but obviously not too much. When the topping is nearly uniformly brown, with a few black spots, it’s done. The fruit will not have cooked at all.
1 to 1½ pounds perfectly ripe, soft fruit, such as peaches and/or berries
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Preheat the broiler; set the rack as close to the heat source as possible (even 2 inches is not too close).
2. Wash, pit, stem, and peel the fruit as necessary. Cut stone fruit in halves or slices as you prefer. Cut strawberries in thick slices; leave smaller berries whole. Put the fruit—there should be at least 2 cups—in a baking or gratin dish just large enough to hold it.
3. Whip the cream with 2 tablespoons of the sugar and the vanilla until it is thick and just barely holding soft peaks. Pour it over and around the fruit. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
4. Broil carefully, allowing the cream to brown all over and even burn in a couple of spots; rotate the baking dish during broiling if necessary. Remove and serve.
VARIATION
Using sour cream in place of cream will produce a strikingly different result. Sour cream is thick, rich, flavorful, and (obviously) sour; sweet cream becomes thinner and saucier in texture: Combine 1 cup sour cream with just enough milk—about ¼ cup—to allow you to whisk it smooth. Add 2 tablespoons sugar and proceed as directed, using 1 tablespoon brown sugar for the topping.
GRILLED FRUIT SKEWERS WITH GINGER SYRUP
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
TIME: 30 MINUTES
I MAKE THESE SKEWERS, the creation of my friend Johnny Earles, several times each summer. The bananas, especially, drive everyone wild.
½ cup sugar
¼ cup thinly sliced fresh ginger (don’t bother to peel it)
2 large or 3 medium bananas, not overly ripe