Sunday, June 15, 2014

Ham and Bananas Hollandaise!

McCall's Great American Recipe Card Collection (1973)
If you spend any unproductive time on the internet - since you're reading this, I'll just go ahead and assume you do -  you've undoubtedly seen a link along the lines of "The 21 Most Revolting Recipes Ever" or somesuch, which inevitably includes the shimmering delight pictured above. Then, as one does, you just as inevitably think of yours truly and race to be the first to copy the link to my Facebook page. Well, you can stop sending it now - bowing to the popular will, I've gone ahead and made it for myself.

Here's the recipe, from 1973:

6 medium bananas
1/4 cup lemon juice
6 thin slices boiled ham (about 1/2 lb)
3 tablespoons prepared mustard
2 envelopes (1 1/4-oz size) hollandaise sauce mix
1/4 cup light cream

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly butter 2-quart, shallow baking dish.

2. Peel bananas; sprinkle each with 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice, to prevent darkening.
3. Spread ham slices with mustard. Wrap each banana in slice of ham. Arrange in single layer in casserole. Bake 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, make sauce: In small saucepan, combine sauce mix with 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and cream. Heat, stirring, to boiling; pour over bananas. Bake 5 minutes longer, or until slightly golden. Nice with a green salad for brunch or lunch. Makes 6 servings.

I couldn't find hollandaise sauce mix, so I made a quick mock hollandiase:

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons lemon juice 
1 teaspoon mustard

Mix all ingredients until blended.

Sorry to say, my version didn't turn out quite as pretty as the recipe card version:
But how does it taste?  Well, Dr. Husband is here with special guest Crow to tell us all about it!


Our Ratings:  Three/Four Screaming Husbands!
(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)

3 comments:

  1. I've looked at this recipe many times, and seen several reviews of it. But I still don't understand it... I mean, the jello and mayo in everything makes sense as experimentation, or trying to make canned food better. But I can't make any sense of why someone put these ingredients together! So bizarre!

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    Replies
    1. I guess maybe, it's vaguely Polynesian, and thus "exotic"? Or maybe a holdover from when the US inherited a lot of banana plantations when we got Hawaii....yeah, I got nuthin'

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  2. Plantains instead of bananas, and no mustard would make this much more edible

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