Banana Blueberry Bread

One month and then some. Stop rolling your eyes, you! If only you knew... I've moved cities, and am now back home with my family. And I'm temporary housekeeper/cook/maid/chauffeur all rolled in one. Hence no time to blog. But I'm back and thats what counts!!

Anyway, I was settling into my parents kitchen (again) and found half a bag of blueberries that had been around long enough.... And bananas.. Plus, as always, I had butter, sugar and eggs on my mind (don't ask, food is ALL I seem to think of most of the time. Not very conducive to my new diet I'm afraid). So the answer was kind of obvious right? 

So here goes, I've taken this basic recipe for banana bread from my first EVER cookbook (thanks sid!)- The Big Book of Breakfast (haha! I can SO see you were expecting something fancy! sorry :P lol)

You will need - butter, eggs, sugar (I've used demarara, but castor is fine), all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, water, baking soda (i HAD to forget something in the photo, didn't I? Need to run true to form and not disappoint my readers and all) and of course-bananas and blueberries!

Preheat oven. In the meanwhile, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

Mash the bananas. Add the flour, bananas, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix until blended. I know, I know, it looks terrible now, but wait until its done!

Now you could either mix in the blueberries at this stage, or do as I do (yes, yes, obviously my way is the right way) and layer the batter and blueberries into a greased loaf tin (I have this fun red non-stick one as you can see :)

Bake until its done! Slice, serve warm with tea (or coffee, but only if I'm not there). MAJOR YUM! I promise!!

Recipe

Ingredients:

Butter - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Eggs - 2 large

Bananas - 1-1/2 cups when mashed, thats 3-4 (ripe!)

Water - 1/3 cup

A.P. Flour - 1 & 2/3 cups

Baking Soda - 1 tsp

Baking Powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Blueberries - 1/3 - 1/2 cup

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar, Add eggs, bananas and water and beat for a few minutes. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix until blended. Stir in the blueberries (or layer them). Pour mixture into a greased loaf tin/pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in a pan on a rack for about 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges and remove bread from pan. Serve warm. You can store this wrapped in foil!

Oh, and also, my book says that this bread freezes well, but I must confess, its never lasted that long when I've made it!!

Bacon Noodles

I know that you're thinking! Pasta, carbonara, italian food... things like that right??? haha! Thats about as far from this dish as it gets! This is one of those really mixed up fusion cooking dishes, Mixed up because I had this (or to be honest, a slightly different version of this) in Hong Kong years ago, and they called it Singapore noodles. I honestly don't remember eating anything quite like this in Singapore, but I will promise you, its yummy!! As always the recipe's been tweaked a little bit, so please feel free to do the same!

The bacon is what makes the noodles special, because we're going to be using bacon fat alone to cook the noodles, every mouthful should be a miniature bacon flavored explosion! mmm....

You will need-Chinese noodles (any kind you like), ginger, garlic, carrots, green beans, celery, spring onion, peppers (i had red), dry red chilis, tomato ketchup (haha, didn't see that one coming, did you?), soy/teriyaki sauce, any other veggies you might have lying around that you'd like in your noodles and if you're lucky enough to have it (and I'm not) Sriracha sauce! Oh, and most importantly, BACON!

Julienne/slice/fine dice the vegetables...

Cut up the bacon into medium sized dice, and on a heavy bottomed pan, medium flame, get it nice and crisp. You can either remove the bacon (if you'd like it real crisp) and add it at the end, (and use the bacon fat to cook with) or just leave be. Add the dry red chillies (after you've cut them in half) and cook for a minute or 2 on a low flame, so that the bacon fat absorbs some of that heat.

Mince the ginger and garlic.

Add it to the bacon fat, let it cok for a few minutes.

All the vegetables go in at this point, high flame, stir fry for a while. I like the veggies to have a bit of a crunch, but thats up to you. Then, add the soy/teriyaki sauce and ketchup. Adjust seasoning.

Julienne the spring onions. Cook the noodles. How? Just follow the directions on the packet! It isn't rocket science, I promise you.

Then add the noodles to the wok/pan of stir fried vegetables and give it a good mix. Check seasoning again. You can add more soy/ketchup/sriracha at this point as well.

Serve garnished with the spring onion and crisp bacon (if you've reserved it).

Sigh... I LOVE bacon. Don't you?

RECIPE:

Noodles - 1 medium sized packet

Bacon - 6 to 10 rashers

Green Beans - quarter cup, julienne

Carrots - quarter cup, julienne

Celery - half a stalk

Spring Onions - 3-4 stems

Red Pepper - quarter cup, julienne

Dried Red Chili - 1

Ginger - 1 tbsp

Garlic - 1 tbsp

Soy/Teriyaki sauce - 2-3 tbsp or more.

Tomato ketchup - 2 tbsp

Sri Racha sauce - 1 tsp

Cut bacon into medium sized dice. Cook until crisp. Remove bacon.

Cut the dried red chili in half and add to the bacon fat. Cook for a minute or 2.

Finely mince ginger and garlic and add to the bacon fat. Cook for about 2 minutes.

Then add the julienned vegetables (carrot, beans, red pepper) and cook for about 3-5 minutes.

Add the soy/teriyaki sauce and the tomato ketchup (and Sriracha). Cook for 30 seconds.

Cook the noodles. Drain, and mix with the vegetable stir-fry mixture.

Adjust seasoning.

Julienne the spring onions.

Serve garnished with spring onions and crisped up bacon!

Chowder!!

Can you tell I'm excited about this post?? (don't miss all the exclamation marks!) Chowder is my favorite soup, period. Its one of those really filling, main course soups and I love how comforting a bowl of chowder can be at the end of a long day. Talking of which, I apologize for the quality of the photos, I made this late in the evening, and the light, to be honest, sucked big time.

The other reason I love chowder is because you can play around with the recipe so much! The recipe that follows incorporates a lot of things i found lying around in the kitchen and refrigerator... You can add or remove things as you feel right...

You will need- butter, milk, potatoes, an onion, celery, sweet corn, paprika, a sausage, pepper corns, a bay leaf and parsley (which I don't have) and A.P.flour (which I forgot to photograph)

Chop the onion-a nice fine dice should do.

Do the same with the celery.

AND the potato! (ok, it gets more interesting after this, I promise!)

Melt some butter in a pan, and add the onions once it foams.

Then add the celery, sweat the two for a couple of minutes. The kitchen should start smelling heavenly just about now..

Bung in the potatoes. Cook for about 4-5 minutes.

Then add the parsley, (I'm pretending I am, because I hunted all evening and couldn't find any fresh parsley anywhere :( can you feel my pain?) a bay leaf, the peppercorns and about 2-3 cups of water. Let the water boil, then lower to a simmer.

Cook until the potatoes are tender.

In the meanwhile mix about half a cup of milk with a couple of tablespoons of A.P.flour. First remove the bay leaf and parsley sprigs. Then pour the milk and flour mixture into the pan.

After that add the rest of the milk. Bring to a boil. Let the chowder get as thick as you would like it to be.

Chop and add the sausage.

And then the corn.

Serve hot in individual soup bowls (no, don't be greedy and try sampling right out of the pan/soup pot) garnished with smoky paprika. :)

RECIPE:

Butter - 25g

Flour - 2 tbspns

Milk - 300ml

Potato - 2 medium sized

Onion - 1 medium sized

Corn - 1 small can

Sausage - 1 or use tuna/bacon anything you like

Celery - 2 stalks

Bay Leaf - 1

Parsley - 1 sprig

Paprika, salt - as required

Peppercorns - 8-10

Water - 2 or 3 cups.

Finely dice onions, celery and potatoes.

Melt the butter.

Sweat the onions and celery.

Then add potatoes and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the herbs, water and cook until the potatoes are tender.

Remove the bay leaf and parsley.

Mix half a cup of milk with the flour.

Add the mixture to the pan.

Add the remaining milk, bring to a boil.

Simmer until thick enough. Adjust seasoning.

Add the sausage (chopped up) and corn and cook for 3 minutes.

Serve garnished with smoky paprika.

Let me know if you liked it. (this is the MOST important step.)

Blanched Almonds

When I mentioned in the last post that I would do a post on blanched almonds later, I really didn't think I'd be doing it anytime soon...

So I was quite surprised when two people told me that they were waiting for this post so they could make the pesto!

R and V-this is for you. And you'd better have made that pesto now!

There are two ways of doing this, the Julia Child (and the rest of the world) way and MY way. My way obviously factors in the possibility that you might want to make a call while you're cooking, or read that last page, or whatever... So stick with me here people!

Almonds, in a bowl.

Thats boiling water from my kettle (well, my mother's, but its on loan. Permanently. Shhh...don't tell her I said so!) Pour enough to cover the almonds.

Wait for a minute or two, (yes, now is when you get to drink the iced tea) drain the water. And, as Julia says-squeeze each almond between the thumb and forefinger, and the almond will slip out of the skin. Or if you're me, then you went to check your e-mail, and forgot about the almonds for a good twenty minutes. which basically means that you'll have to repeat the whole boiling water step.

Discard the skins.

Spread out the almonds on a hotel/roasting pan/sheet. Five minutes at 350 degrees F should have them nice and dry...

And now you can get started making that pesto!

Pesto!

We're talking about one of my favorite foods ever!! I have this thing for pesto, can't keep my hands off it!! And ever since I discovered that basil pesto isn't the only kind, well, lets just say I can't stop experimenting, or eating!

I was cleaning out my fridge today and boy, do I have a lot of cheese for a single girl living alone! So the goal is to use it all up in the next 3 weeks. I'm hoping to find some interesting recipes, so wish me luck! I thought I'd begin with the parmesan. So moving on to the other ingredients...

Thyme (which is DIVINE with tomatoes), garlic (but of course), extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes, and almonds (you could use cashew nuts as well, but i have about 2 pounds of these lying around, so...) 

Quarter the tomatoes.

Stick them in a big sheet/roasting pan or something similar.

Peel and rough chop the garlic. Make sure the pieces and nice and chunky. We'll be roasting it all later, and trust me when i tell you, there are few things worse than burnt garlic.

Sprinkle some thyme. Be generous! Especially if you have only the dry kind-like I do.

A quarter cup of olive oil. Drizzle that over the tomatoes.

Add some salt. Give it a good mix with a spoon/your hands, don't worry, I won't judge you :)

Stick it in the oven, 30-45 minutes.

Blanch the almonds. No, I shall not tell you how. Be proactive and look it up! Or wait for me to do a post on blanching almonds.

Grate the cheese. (Yes, I have an amazing cheese grater. And yes, I am showing off!)

Now go read a book/take a shower, whatever.

In about 30 minutes or a bit more your tomatoes should look like this... No, you CANNOT eat them now. Control yourself for god's sake!

Put it all in the blender, Blend until smooth. 

Put it in a pretty bowl, or, if you're anything like me, put it in the only presentable bowl you have in the kitchen. Drizzle some olive oil on top. 

P.S.-Yes, I have this really cool pink lighter (you can see it in the background can't you. And no, I don't smoke, its for my incense sticks!)

Recipe

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 2 pounds

Garlic - 6 cloves (or more, if you're brave!)

Thyme - 2 tablespoons

Parmesan Cheese - 1/2-3/4th of a cup, grated

Almonds - 1/2 cup

Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1/4 cup, plus 1 tablespoon for the end

Salt - you decide.

Quarter the tomatoes.

Peel and roughly chop the garlic.

Put the above two on a roasting sheet. 

Sprinkle thyme, salt and the 1/4 cup of olive oil on top.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-45 minutes (or until your tomatoes look like the ones in my photo).

Meanwhile, blanch the almonds and grate the cheese.

When its all done, blend until smooth.

Serve with the rest of the olive oil drizzled on top.

Oh, and this is probably perfect eaten with bread or really light crackers (that i shall make you in the next post)... But until then, I suggest you try the pesto with these yummy crackers that my friend, Shaheen makes.

AAAARGH

No posts this week. Both my parents are visiting and we've been *discussing* my future (read I've been telling my father that im planning to be a cook instead of a doctor). Need I say more?

Sauce Rouge

Yes its the same picture! But its a different recipe, so keep reading! I realized that at every party I go to, when it comes to finger food, the dips are always so repetetive. As dips go, this one is SO not run of the mill! No wonder it is by far my favorite!!! Its fattening, yes, but so are most dips! (well, the ones I like anyway!) Its simple to make, and the flavors are SO good, you'll keep making this ALL the time!

Here's what we need: 

125 ml (4.5 oz) Heavy cream (what would life be sans heavy cream? really),

 1 (or many) cloves of garlic, 

salt, 

pepper,

 20 ml (0.75 oz)olive oil and 300 gm (10.5 oz)red/yellow/orange peppers.

 (whatever you have-red peppers will result in a sauce rouge obviously) I have some red and yellow peppers here that I'd cleaned, chopped and frozen last week (thank god for freezers!)

Heat oil in a pan.

Add the chopped peppers in. Let them sweat for a few minutes.

Now for the garlic (i LOVE the stuff, can you tell?:) ) Peel and chop roughly.

Bung in the garlic, count to 5 and take a good sniff! You might want a chair at this point-in case your knees buckle, I always hope that there will be a place in heaven that smells like this :) Allow it to cook for about 3-4 minutes.

Add about 3 tablespoons of water.

Cover with a parchment paper lid. Make sure the flame/heat is medium low.

No peeking!

Now as that cooks, take out another pan and pour in the heavy cream

Let it reduce to half the original quantity.

In about 20 minutes, the peppers should be soft. Put the mixture in a blender. Add salt and pepper.

I was REALLY in a hurry, so I took a shortcut. I added the cream in and just gave everything a whiz until I had a smooth creamy mixture. But the REAL way to do it would be to puree the peppers, then put them back in the sauce pan, allow the mixture to reduce and then add the reduced heavy cream little by little until you're happy)

But being the disorganized person I am, I had 20 people waiting for lunch and NO time. 

Blend away! And we're done!!!

I served this with the crumb fried mushrooms, but this tastes great with just about anything!