Sous Vide Banana Mille-Feuille | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Caramelised Banana Mille-Feuille with Praline Ice Cream and Toffee Popcorn

COOK TIME: 2 hours
PREP TIME: 8 Hours
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
SERVES: 4

Ingredients

Banana tuile

2 bananas, overripe
1 dash of lemon juice

Praline ice cream

300ml of whole milk
300ml of double cream
8 eggs yolks
150g of praline paste

Mille feuille sheets

250g of puff pastry
100g of icing sugar

Vanilla cream

200ml of double cream
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped

Caramelised bananas

2 bananas, ripe
2 vanilla pods, seeds scraped
100g of caster sugar

To serve

100g of bitter chocolate
hazelnuts
maple syrup
popcorn, toffee-coated

Equipment

EQUIPMENT

Method

Recipe courtesy of Mark Jordan from www.greatbritishchefs.com

METHOD

To make the banana tuile, lightly mash the bananas and mix with the lemon juice, then purée in a blender. Tip the banana purée onto a sheet of baking parchment and smooth with a palette knife to create a thin, even layer. Using a dehydrator, dry the tuile for at least 8 hours (overnight). It is ready when it becomes crisp and brittle.
Next, prepare the praline ice cream. Gently heat the milk and cream in a saucepan. At the same time, place the eggs yolks in a bowl and beat with a whisk until light and fluffy.
When the milk and cream mixture reaches the boil, take the pan off the heat and gradually add the hot liquid to the egg yolks, whisking to combine. Stir in the praline, then strain the custard through a fine sieve and chill until completely cold.
Using an ice cream machine, churn the cold custard until it is set, then transfer to a freezer-safe container. Seal the container and store in the freezer until needed.
Preheat the oven to a temperature of 180⁰C/gas mark 4.
To make the pastry layers for the mille feuille, dust the work surface and a rolling pin with icing sugar and roll the puff pastry to a thickness of 3-4mm. Once rolled, transfer the pastry to a baking tray lined with baking parchment and cover with a dusting of icing sugar.
Lay another sheet of baking parchment and a second tray on top of the pastry, then bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the oven, lift off the upper tray and set aside to cool.
When the pastry has cooled down, cut out 4 rectangles measuring 2.5cm by 10cm. To do this, carefully saw through the pastry with a serrated knife.
To make the vanilla cream, combine the double cream and vanilla seeds in a bowl. Using a whisk, lightly whip the cream. When soft peaks start to form, stop whipping and spoon into a piping bag. Store in the fridge until needed.
Preheat the water bath to a temperature of 52⁰C.
Next, make the caramelised bananas. Remove the bananas’ skins and, using a chamber sealer, seal their flesh inside a vacuum bag with the vanilla seeds.
Place the bag in the water bath. Leave to cook for 10 minutes. After this time, take the bag out of the water and keep it sealed until the bananas have cooled completely.
Once cool, halve the bananas lengthways. Carefully cut each half into long, thin slices. Do not separate the slices: leave them stuck together in the half-banana shape.
Keep the slices together at the base and separate at the top to create a fan shape. Cover with a sprinkling of caster sugar, then scorch with a blowtorch until the sugar has caramelised.
To serve, drizzle some melted chocolate over the base of each plate, then pipe a stripe of vanilla cream in one corner and top with a pastry rectangle. Pipe another stripe of cream directly onto the pastry, then balance a slice of caramelised banana on top of that. It is advisable to use palette knife to pick up and move the banana slices.
Scatter hazelnuts all over the plate and place a quenelle of praline ice cream in the corner opposite mille feuille. Break the banana tuile into jagged pieces and insert the shards into the ice cream. Finish the dessert with a drizzle of maple syrup and a handful of toffee popcorn.

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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