Banana Fish

The Café is sharing a delicious recipe from a favorite cooking friend today............
My sweet friend Karen, and her husband Joel, have lived all over the world which has greatly influenced her culinary style, creativity and repertoire. A dinner invitation to their house is always a wonderful treat, not only for the fabulous cuisine but also their fun and delightful company. Recently, Karen shared this wonderful and unique Banana Fish recipe with me and I couldn't wait to share it with you!

Banana Fish? What in the world is that? Is this a new type of fish crossbred in the depths of Central America? Not really. You see, for me every recipe I fall in love with seems to boil down to the how much I like the sauce on top of it. Coming from a German background, I used to be a meat, bread and potatoes kind of girl but I think I have crossed over to the French side. Sauce on fish, sauce on cake - whatever! I love a great sauce. This one I had at a dear friend’s house many years ago. Seems her husband was a sauce man too and she had some great ones. Of course, anything made with Frangelico, a hazelnut liqueur, is sure to be tasty.

This simple yet delicious sauce can be used on top of many types of fish. I frequently use Halibut or Tilapia. It was nicknamed banana fish by my husband who absolutely loves it and everything else I put in front of him. It sure makes cooking fun when you have grateful consumers. He actually is quite the cook himself and even better than all of that, he loves to wash dishes!

Of course after eating this a few times my mind started to wonder; I decided to try adding a little brown sugar and serving over ice cream. Yum! Very similar to Bananas Foster. Wait, now I'm thinking that this might even be good on green beans? No, maybe I'm going too far but you can certainly try it for yourself and find new adventures. Maybe just start with a good white fish...... ~ Karen

Banana Fish

Ingredients:
4 Halibut fish fillets (approx. 8 oz. each)
6 ounces Frangelico liqueur
4 tablespoons chopped macadamia nuts
3 teaspoons chopped parsley
5 tablespoons butter
2 bananas, sliced
flour
olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Lightly coat fish with flour. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. When hot but not smoking add fish and sauté until golden brown. Sprinkle with salt and pepper while cooking. Remove fish from the pan and place in a warm oven while you make the sauce.

2. Add Frangelico to the same skillet you used to sauté the fish and simmer for several minutes to reduce the sauce while scrapping the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the nuts and bananas. Swirl in the butter until it is melted. Do not boil. Add parsley and spoon over the warm fish fillets.

Serves 4

PRINTABLE RECIPE