Banana Parfait

Although, I've promised myself not to end up again with over-ripe bananas, I did. However, I had no lust to cook jam or bake banana bread or to make those delicious beignets. I was kind of hopeless about finding a solution. Then I remembered Heston Blumenthal's Baked Alaska, that contains a banana parfait, so I thought why not. This parfait has an amazing consistency, the best I have ever prepared!


Ingredients:
115 g hazelnuts
375 g sugar
500 g very ripe bananas
20 g butter
30 g unrefined sugar
50 g rum
375 g double cream
6 egg whites


Preheat the oven to 150°C and roast hazelnuts until golden brown. Then caramelise the hazelnuts in a hot pan with 115 g sugar. Tip the caramelised nuts on to a baking paper and let cool. Once cooled smash or grind them into coarse pieces.


Peel the bananas and slice into slices about 1 cm thick. Melt butter and add the unrefined sugar and stir until a caramel forms. Add the sliced bananas and sauté. When the bananas are coated add rum, and light the alcohol and countinue to cook until the caramel becomes thick enough to coat the bananas again. Pass the caramlised bananas through a sieve and set aside. Whip the cream until it becomes thick and refrigarate until needed. Whisk the egg whites until frothy, add about one-quarter of the remaining sugar and countinue whisking while slowly adding the rest of the sugar. Whisk for about 5-10 minutes until soft peaks form. Add the hazelnut praline to the banana puree, then fold in a third of the meringue to loosen the mixture. Fold in the rest and the whipped cream. Freeze for 2-3 hours depending on the size of the portions.