So I am reading the book The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten and the first chapter talks about how he became the Vogue food editor and how he had to overcome his dislike for certain foods. He recognized that since he was evaluating food he needed to put his own tastes aside and be more open minded about food. I thought that was a really good point as often times when I am searching for a recipe I tend to scroll past those recipes that have an ingredient that I am not fond of. However, what if this given recipe changes the ingredient enough to make me overcome my distaste. So my goal is to start trying those recipes that I think I won't like.

Here are some examples of things I hypothetically don't care for that I am going to force myself to try again:

1. Meat and fruit (ya know like the common pork and apples recipes) just don't care for that combination
2. Fennel
3. Dates/figs, can I put them in the same family?
4. Bananas



Those are the top 4 dislikes that come to mind without any serious thought so I thought I would start with those. I have found that as I got older my "dislike" list has definitely gotten smaller and smaller as my palette has become more refined. I remember as a kid disliking way more food than I cared for as I hated onions, eggs, soup and most fish.

So today I figured I needed to tackle the top dislike first-bananas!!! I am making a chocolate cream banana pie...figure if I can't make myself like bananas hidden in all of that happiness it may just have to be a permanent staple on the dislike list. And let me just say this is a damn good pie...I am seriously impressed....and it makes bananas actually taste good. Now I just have to figure out who to eat banana daily with cream, custard and chocolate to help with the cramps associated with running.

Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie


2 boxes (5.3 oz each) all butter shortbread cookies, broken
1/4 tsp salt
5 T unsalted butter, 3T melted and 2T cold
3 oz bittersweet chocolate in 3 hunks
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
4 large egg yolks
1 T amber rum
1 cup heavy cream chilled
1 tsp vanilla
2 bananas
1T powdered sugar

1. Using a food processor, mix the shortbread with a pink salt; process in long pulses until finely ground and beginning to stick to the sides. Add the melted butter and pulse just until incorporated. Transfer the crumbs to a 9" pie plate and press evenly into the bottom and up the sides. Freeze the pie shell.
2. Place 2 oz chocolate in a small bowl and set aside. In a heavy saucepan whisk together the milk, sugar, cornstarch, and remaining salt. Whisk in the egg yolks over med high heat until the custard boils and is very thick about 5 min. Remove from the heat, measure out 1/2 cup of the hot custard and add to the bowl of chocolate; let sit for a minute (the chocolate will melt by itself). Meanwhile, whisk the remaining 2T cold butter into the custard in the saucepan. Stir in the rum and transfer the rum custard to a heatproof bowl. Refrigerate until well chilled, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours.
3. Meanwhile, stir the chocolate custard, then stir in 1T cream and the vanilla. Remove the pie shell from the freezer and spread the chocolate custard across the bottom. Refrigerate to firm up.
4. Working over the pie shell cut the bananas into 1/4" thick slices, letting them fall to cover the bottom. Spoon the rum custard over the bananas, smoothing the top. Refrigerate for 2 hours to set.

5. Whip the remaining cream with the powdered sugar until it forms soft peaks. Spread on top of the rum custard and refrigerate for at least 20 min or until serving time.

6. Just before serving, using a vegetable peeler, shave curls off the remaining 1oz chocolate onto the top of the pie.