Dinner tonight was salad and leftover steak from last night. Still mmmm good. I ate mine while hustling around the kitchen making Banana Mango Napoleons for dessert. Em had taken Charlie to Tennis lessons so I had about an hour which worked out perfectly. If I make this recipe again, I will double the amount of fruit, increase the cream sauce by about 30% and cut back the 3 layers of puff pastry to one or two at most. I made Charlie the full 3 layers and he couldn't finish it. That may have been because he just got back from Tennis. Other than the fruit shortage though, the recipe was very good and not that hard. The grilling part lasts about 5 minutes so most of the time outside is getting the fire going. The actual cooking is very quick. I used one of those baskets that Webber sells for cooking veggies, shrimp and other stuff that might slip through the grill top. It worked great for the cut up banana and mango.
We had some dried vanilla beans. The seeds were very finely ground but worked out ok. I wonder if you need more than if the beans had been fresh. The vanilla flavor was good but not strong. If you try to make the napoleons don't forget the confectioners sugar and cinnamon on the top. It makes a difference.
I am taking the next two days off. That will give us a chance to finish off leftovers and clear the deck for the next round.
Mark
Yum. That sounds so good! The one problem with living in New York... you can't grill.
ReplyDeleteDad, I'm drooling here... this is a problem!
ReplyDeleteMrs. Grill'n comments here; This was one of the yummiest things I ever ate. Napoleons are made with puff pastry, pastry cream, and whipped cream, so there is already a pile of melt-in-your-mouth ingredients before you add in the grilled fruit. This was serious expert cooking too, since pastry cream is not easy, and this one involved scraping the vanilla seeds out of a vanilla pod. I was not the least help as I was out of the house, but it turned out perfectly. Texture-wise it is like eating clouds. The grilled fruit is of course the critical factor that gets it into this cookbook, and it was indeed good. We voted that it would also be good with other fruit that grills well, such as peaches.
ReplyDelete