THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 25, 1996 TAG: 9601240039
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Morsels
SOURCE: Ruth Fantasia
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
HERE'S A bit of news to get you fired up.
Flaming dishes are hotter than they've been since the early '70s.
Back then, I worked at a white-tablecloth restaurant in Virginia Beach, and one of my duties was to make baked Alaska. As the waiters - they were all men - came in from the dining room, they'd yell ``Fire me up, Ruthie,'' and I'd pull the brandy off the shelf.
The individual servings of Alaska were made early in the day - a slice of orange cake, a scoop of premium vanilla ice cream and a blanket of sugar-laced meringue - and held in a freezer until serving time.
When an order came in, we'd pull out an Alaska, brown it under the broiler and hand it to the waiter with a warmed pan of brandy. He'd light the booze tableside and pour it over the Alaska with great flourish. The Alaska would burn for several minutes, making, as Ed Sullivan would say, ``a really good show'' and ensuring a sizable tip.
But the display's success depended less on the talents of the waiter than on the method. The trick was to use a liquor of at least 80 proof and to warm the liquid in a small saucepan before lighting.
Home cooks, on the other hand, are timid about lighting fires inside the house, but now there's a book that takes the fear out of flaming.
``The Pyromaniac's Cookbook: The Best in Flaming Food and Drink'' by John J. Poister (Doubleday, 1996) features hundreds of recipes to light up a meal. And he offers these tips for safe burning:
Don't use more spirits than the recipe calls for.
Never pour alcoholic beverages into a pan that is near an open flame or on the stove.
When igniting spirits, do so at arm's length.
When lighting up in the dining room, use a cart or table to keep the flames away from your guests and give you an open work area. Oat boasts
They're B-A-A-C-K!
The purveyors of the biggest health craze of the '80s, oat bran, received a boost earlier this month when the Food and Drug Administration said it may adopt a ruling that allows makers of foods high in oat bran or oatmeal to make health claims.
The proposed rule, if adopted, may allow General Mills, Quaker and other manufacturers to print the following health claim on packages: ``Diets high in oat bran or oatmeal may reduce the risk of heart disease.'' ILLUSTRATION: A new book takes the fear out of flaming for home cooks.
by CNB