wayfaringwordhack | Entries tagged with recipes

Forgive the weird photo, but this a snapshot of the front of our building, taken by leaning over the balcony railing--in the rain--without letting my phone plummet 5 stories to the ground....

but I needed to give you an idea of what I am going to moan about. :P Let me preface this by saying that I am a fan of electrical storms and have always gotten a thrill when a really good thunderstorm gets going.* Last night, around 11p.m. a doozy of a storm started and went on until 8 am this morning. ** With the valleys running from the mountains to the sea, each thunder peal is a echoing, long-lasting event that makes you think the ruckus can't be natural. That kind of noise is not what bothered me and kept me from sleeping, though. It was the whistling winds and lashing rains and hail that relentlessly pelted those glass windows above, the plasticky aluminium frames in particular. It reminded me a bit of hearing the rains falling on my grandparents' tin roof, only worse because our bed sits just behind some of those windows, the sounds in no way attenuated by a ceiling, etc. And while a seive might let more wind through, those frames do a pretty good job of it, too. So, yes, the windows give us great views and lots of light, but they are not only a blessing. We will see if they qualify as a blessing or a bane in the summer months.

At 5:20, I finally gave up on trying to sleep and got up to another view of a hail-white ground. I worked a bit on my BuJo, and then decided to crochet myself another hat*** as one does when feeling a little punch drunk:

The hat is so warm and matches my mitts/wristies that I made the other day. I then started one for Sprout since I had plenty of yarn left over. However, using a 5mm hook instead of 6mm AND decreasing the intial 15 stitches to 12 was probably not the best idea. I am now adding more rows on hers than I needed on mine. :-/

If you feel like a chuckle, I will share an anecdote to convey just how tired I was: While taking the above photo, I wanted the focus to be on the hat, so in order to make it sharp, instead of tapping on the phone screen, I pressed my head. O.o FYI, it doesn't work. :P

Then I decided to make bread because playing with fire is always a good idea when tired. Because I was exhausted, I forgot to prop open the oven door for a few moments for the gas to really get going. After about about 5 minutes, I went to preheat the Dutch oven only to discover the pilot had gone out. We opened the windows and I waited for a bit, but even so, when I struck a match to finish burning off the gas, the flames billowed out and singed all the hair off my forearm. Luckily, I had my face well to the side.

I don't have any sourdough starter going here, so I used the poolish method and the recipe/method found here. **** (I had started the poolish the previous day)

And while I was at it, I stared another poolish to make some baguettes today following this recipe. I'll let you know how it turns out if I remember.

Since the oven was on anyhow, I made some pumpkin spice bread ***** to use the pumpkin I had cut up to use as a still-life subject. More about that in an post (I hope).

I had planned to get to bed early to catch up on sleep, but J wanted to stay awake as late as possible because he has to work the night shift tonight, so we watched a movie. He of course fell asleep in front of it. :P I am happy to report that while it did rain a bit last night, I was able to get some much needed shut-eye. I hope to buy earplugs today.

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* I believe I already shared many years ago that one of my mother's childhood nicknames for me was "Thunderhead" because I could always hear the thunder coming before anyone else. As an aside, I think of all the other places I have lived, Lebanon has the longest lasting thunderstorms. ETA: I did indeed share this, almost 11 years ago.

** I actually started this post yesterday morning, but Internet problems and then having to share my device with a needy boy means that I am only picking up the thread now while the needy boy sleeps.

*** video tutorial here

**** I used the third method, the one with the pre-heated Dutch oven

***** Living up to my reputation as a food snob, I am here to tell you it has proven hard thus far to get my hands on some decent baking chocolate. Preferring to do without than eat sugar-disguised-as-chocolate, I omitted the chips from the recipe.

The other day, while perusing YouTube, a video about pickling food came up. I decided to watch while I worked on cleaning and blanching brussel sprout leaves and florets just harvested from the garden. After that video was over, I scrolled down to see what else this person had on offer and saw this video. The title mentioned perfect lentils and rice, and well, I needed to make something for lunch that day and thought, "I have lentils and rice and a fairly well-stocked supply of spices. I'll give it a go!" And I did. Without watching the video first. What could go wrong, right?

So, when the lady starts talking about minced meat and how it is optional anyway, I thought, Oh, good, don't have any of that right now and besides Sprout doesn't eat meat...

Then she mentioned needing saffron. Oops, not a spice I keep on hand and I just planted my own crocuses. Won't be able to harvest from them until next spring. Oh well, carry on....

Before placing the layers of rice and lentils into the pot, the lady covered the bottom with a special kind of flat bread which gets crispy and prevents the rice from burning. Whoops again. But not really a problem; I'll just make some tortillas and use one of those.

Finally, in the video, the meal is cooked outdoors over an open fire. With the campfire and many timelapses and cuts, I had no idea how long she let the final dish cook, so I looked up a recipe online to get some ideas. Naturally the recipe I found did things way differently. I did what I do and incorporated some ideas from that site, too, but I did not use potatoes to line the bottom of my pot since I had already made the tortillas. *files the idea for a later iteration of Adas Polo*

I learned my lesson (let's be honest; I probably didn't) and won't start a recipe before at least looking at the whole of it, but boy, what a deliciously tasty bit of culinary recklessness that was. :D

With one car in need of repairs, snow outside, and the cozy-indoors or close-to-home lifestyle that can induce, we have been voyaging in other ways these past few days.

First of all with food.

I don't know if I have shared a recipe for Poulet Coco (coconut chicken) from Mayotte before, but I made it last night and thought I would share the culinary love. Hang tight for a "how to" and not ultra-precise measurements:

If you are not pressed for time, cut up your chicken, salt and pepper it and sprinkle with turmeric powder, then marinate it in the juice of one lemon for an hour. I usually do not do this step and add my spices and lemon juice later. Regarding what kind of cuts you use, that is up to you. I do the whole bird; you can do thighs and drumsticks or just breasts. Cooking time will vary according to your choice.

Brown the chicken in a bit of oil. After browning, remove it to a plate and sauté one diced onion, when translucent add a few cloves of garlic. Add about four fresh diced tomatoes or a can of whole/diced tomatoes, and a bell pepper cut in strips (I often leave out the bell pepper just because I don't always have them on hand and ate plenty Poulet Coco dishes in Mayotte without). Return chicken to pot. Now, if you can, grate your own fresh coconut and make the milk from it, using about 2 cups/480 ml. My next choice is to make my own coconut milk with 1 cup dried shredded coconut (NOT THE SWEETENED kind) and 2cups/480 ml of water, which I blend in my Vitamix and then strain (doesn't have to be through a nut bag). If you can't do either of those things, use a can of coconut milk plus a cup of water. Season with about 1tsp of tumeric, salt, pepper, a bit of thyme, and parsley. Cook until sauce has reduced a bit and chicken is tender. Stir in the juice of a lime or lemon, and serve over rice. I also made a basic rougail to go with it (dice 4 tomatoes--used dried, see below, finely slice one small onion, either finely mince a nub of ginger and one small chile or use a mortar and pestle to make them into a paste. Stir all ingredients together, add the juice of one lime and salt to taste.)

Today, I made Egyptian Ful Medames, with some distinctly seasonal compromises. I made dried tomatoes this summer and preserved them in oil, so those stood in for fresh tomatoes, and ditto for some dehydrated cucumbers. I also made this quick Yoghurt Flatbread (soooo good!) to go with it. However, next time I will add a touch more salt and will have to fiddle with the amount of yoghurt (I had fromage blanc on hand) because the dough was excessively sticky and hard to work with. The resulting flatbreads were incredibly pliable and had a very nice texture for a yeast-less bread.

phone photo:

And OY! I just realized I forgot to serve it with tahini. Ah well, just reason enough to make it again.

And my elsewhere finale is the movie Padmaavat. Epic, gorgeous, lush cinematography. The landscapes, architecture and costuming were to die for. The movie apparently (I was not privvy to this before watching, having never heard of it before stumbling across the eye-catching theatrical release poster) caused a lot of protest for various stereotypes, which I understand, one plot element being telegraphed by the disclaimer before the opening credits. But like I said, gorgeous. Not being a Hindi speaker, I watched a subtitled version, so I am sure there were plenty of things lost in translation. As a Westerner, one thing I loved watching was way the male actors express their virility, like the dancing, that are foreign to the cultures I have frequented.

Watch on YouTube

Oh. My. Goodness. I am so glad I have a couple of bags of green tomatoes in the freezer, and at the end of this coming growing season, I will be thrilled to have all those green fruits that never ripen.

I found this recipe on Serious Eats to use with green tomatoes and made it for lunch. The pot was licked clean afterwards (partly because I didn't pay attention to the servings but mostly because it was so delicious). I had to threaten Farmer Boy with never eating another thing for the rest of his life to make him taste it, but once he did, he declared he loved it and begged for more. We really enjoy Indian food and miss both our Indian friends in Egypt and having Indian restaurants who would deliver to our home in Maadi. I love to cook Indian food myself, but often I feel like the recipes turn out "Indian-inspired" more than the taste I associate with "the real thing." This recipe, however, tasted totally authentic to this wayfaringwordhack, who, thanks to getting pregnant at just the right moment, had to cancel the leg of her round-the-world trip that would have taken her to India and has, therefore, never set foot in that enticingly beautiful and incredibly diverse country.

I followed the recipe from Serious Eats very closely, but I will put it here with the changes I made.

Green Tomato Curry with Potatoes and Garlic from Raghavan Iyer's 660 Curries

Ingredients for 2 people :

2 tablespoons oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3 small potatoes, unpeeled because that's how we roll in this house, and chopped into 1/2-inch cubes
320 grams (8 oz ) green tomatoes sliced into 1-inch segments
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric (I accidentally put in closer to 2 tsp)
2 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped (I forgot this, but it would have been even more divine with it, I'm sure)
Directions
1. 1.
  Pour oil into a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook until it is reddish brown, about a minute or so. Stir often. Make sure it doesn't burn. If it does, start over.
2. 2.
  Add the potatoes, tomatoes, garam masala, salt and turmeric. Turn heat down to medium. Stir occasionally, and cook for about 10 minutes.
3. 3.
  Pour in a cup of water (I used homemade soup stock). Scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to dislodge any browned bits. When the mixture comes to a boil, cover the skillet, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the potatoes and tomatoes are tender. Stir every few minutes or so.
4. 4.
  You want the final sauce to be kind of thick, so mash up a few of the potatoes and tomatoes with the wooden spoon. Turn off the heat, stir in the cilantro, and serve.
Bon appétit (or "bhojan kaa aanand lijiye" as Google tells me is the translation to Hindi)

I have made this recipe a few times now, and I thought I would share it in case anyone else has some apples they need to use up (I have a couple of crates!). And posting it allows me to keep a handy record of the changes I have made. One of these days, I'll transfer all my notecard-recorded recipes into a notebook, but until I do, this is a nice way to organize them.

Let me know if you make the crisp and what you think. Bon appétit !

This is adapted from "Potluck Apple Crisp" on tasteofhome.com

Ingredients

Apple filling:

12 medium apples, sliced & peeled ¹
1 cup sugar (200 g)²
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Crust and Topping:

1/2 cup shortening (95g)
1/2 cup butter, softened (113g)
1 cup packed brown sugar (I use 200g raw sugar with 1T molasses)
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (210g)
1-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats (150g)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C) In a Dutch oven or heavy pot, combine apples, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; cook and stir over medium heat just until apples are tender. Cover the pot if the apples are drying out too much.

Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the shortening, butter and brown sugar. Combine the flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture and mix well. Pat half of flour mixture into a greased 13x9-in. baking dish and bake for 10-15 minutes, long enough for the crust to start to set.³

Remove from oven and spread apples over top while still hot. Crumble remaining flour mixture over apples. Bake at 400°F (205°C) for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream if desired.

Notes:

^{1. I use an apple peeler that cores and slices the apples at the same time. I then break these slices into quarters. I also use about four kinds of apples for different flavor notes. If you buy organic apples, save your peels and cores to make Apple Scrap Jam. So easy and delicious.}^↩
^{2. Two cups of sugar is called for in the original recipe, which is just way too much for my taste. Depending on your preferences and apples, I would err on the side of less sugar and work your way up. I put only 1/3 cup the 2nd time I made it and found it fine.}^↩
^{3. The original recipe calls for adding the apples over an unbaked crust, which I did the first time. However, the bottom crust was lost in a total mush with the apple filling and was a bit gritty in the mouth. I much prefer to pre-bake the bottom first. Your tastebuds may disagree.}^↩3)

(copy pasted from LJ)
ETA 08.08.19: The link to the original recipe that I posted below is no longer working. Using Wayback Machine, I was able to snag the recipe, which I have put under a cut below.

Even in my earliest memories as a child, I absolutely hated ketchup (and mayonnaise*), that much loved condiment of lots of people. Oh, how I would hate when some adult would "generously" put a huge squirt of it on my food when serving me.

Then, in Egypt, when learning about fermenting, I came across the idea of lacto-fermenting ketchup. I swore that when I got a garden and grew some tomatoes, I would try it for myself.

And this year I was able to.

I used this recipe and absolutely loved it. I used juice from my kimchi and don't think I added the fish sauce, since that is already an ingredient in my kimchi. I also used the same kind of apple cider vinegar and cut back a tad on the Cayenne so that my kidlings would eat it.

I brag about how good it is every time I eat it. I am a ketchup convert...but only to the homemade, fermented kind.

( Don't let the length of the ingredient list scare you )

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* that's because I was only ever given the Miracle Whip, etc. kind, not REAL mayonnaise. Now that I know how to make it myself (so simple), I love it. Rien à voir with the processed stuff.

I made a galette on Saturday, and it was great. If I do say so myself. :P

This time there were no leaks, it wasn't too sweet, and the crust rose even more beautifully than last time. I tried a method that called for baking 20 minutes at 180 (Celcius), then 20 min at 160, and 20-40 min at 140. As you can imagine, with the oven I have, that wasn't really feasible but I did my best to progressively lower the temperature by propping the door open with a wooden spoon, and then turning off the oven toward the end of the baking process. It takes longer and is a bit more tedious, requiring more attention, but I'll try it for sure when I have a better oven.

I also opted for a freehand design of my own imagining. I should have thought it out a bit more rather than doing it spur of the moment with a 4-yr-old chattering at me and a crying baby hanging on my leg. :-/ Apart from the few places that I cut a bit too deeply, it turned out all right:

I was thinking of olive branches and a little dove of peace. I wanted to do several little animals and leaves, but then the kids started in on me, I decided to keep it simple.

Entry with links to how-to videos (in French) and recipes.

For the second time, I've made a galette des rois (kings' cake) for Epiphany (which is also the Coptic Christmas Eve); acutally I made two. Last year, my puff pastry puffed only moderately; this year, lots of puff--oh glorious flaky layers!*--but both of the galettes leaked, losing quite a bit of filling. Thankfully, I had put in a lot of frangipane. Another thing for me to be thankful for is that these galettes des rois can be cooked at very high temperatures, seeing as how my oven doesn't like to cook anything under 200 degrees C / 400 F.

galette des rois

Next year will be my year! But, I just might make another one in a couple of days to see if I can get it right. ~~I want to eat more!~~ I want to make more pretty designs on the top.

We invited some French friends over to enjoy them with us, and their youngest daughter got la fève. I had made a crown for her but forgot to take a picture. If you go to this Wikipedia page and scroll down to the section about the French king cake, it'll tell you about the tradition.

For this year or next, for my own record, here is a list of sites and videos I used to study the recipe and techniques:

Recette pour pate

Recette technique de la pâte feuilletée par Chef Philippe (video and recipe; butter trick since "beurre de tourage" is not readily available to lay bakers: Put softened butter on baking paper or plastic wrap and, using a rolling pin, flatten it into a 20X20 cm square, about 1.5 cm thick. Put back in fridge to firm up a bit.)

Recette façon grand chef : la galette des rois (YouTube video about how to put the galette together and make the frangipane. This link writes out the recipe for the frangipane and provides slightly different instructions than the one I usually use for the puff pastry, adding 100 grams of melted butter to the détrempe. Might make it too rich for J. :P)

Pour chiqueter la galette

Some notes:
- Make sure to work the détrempe well so as not to have lumps in it that will cause the dough to crack upon rolling it out (yeah, learned that one the hard way).
- Re frangipane: Equal parts butter/sugar/almond powder didn't work for me. Way too sweet. Scale back on the sugar. Did not use a recipe that called for a thickener like cornstarch and the frangipane was fine. For two cakes, I did 250 each of b/s/ap and four eggs and had plenty left over.
- Do NOT crowd the border with filling; otherwise, a good seal will be impossible.
- Start the pastry the eve (at least) of baking day to save time and headaches. Dough keeps 2-3 days in fridge.
- By following the two-washes-with-egg procedure in the "grand chef" video, my galettes were shiny and did not need to be brushed with syrup. I brushed them anyhow, but maybe it would be better not to to cut back on sweetness

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* The angle doesn't do the cakes justice, making them look flatter than they were. :P

Been a busy week here, but not on the house cleaning front. Still haven't finished that, and what with the dust, it looks just as bad as when we arrived. I'll get to it. Soon. Soon.

In the meantime, I've been making:

- sourdough starter (let the other one die while struggling through the first trimester)
- kimchi
- dilly beans
- makdous (combined this recipe and this one)
- homemade body butter (riffed off this recipe)

And I started a little sketch while S does her art. And the blanket. Slow progress, but I think I finally have a suitable join-as-I-go technique down. Took me many false starts to find something I'm OK with. It isn't perfect, but I think it will do.

I wanted to post about our sea-filled Sunday, but I have to make some room on my laptop hard drive before I can play with photos. Instead, have a post about something else. How about food? You good with that? OK.

I've been wanting to make this delicious-sounding recipe for "Chilli Chicken"

khiemtran posted about a while back. However, I could never conspire to have all the ingredients on hand at the right time. The other day, after having chicken three days in a row, I thought, "To heck with it, I'll make Chilli Chicken with pork instead."

Only I didn't have dried chilies. No problem; I had fresh ones. I didn't have soy sauce, neither light nor dark. No sweat. I had miso. I just mixed that with a bit of water. No Shaoxing wine to be had either. No worries. A splash of Genmai Su did the trick. And I didn't really know how much sichuan peppers to throw in there, so I guestimated based on

khiemtran's photo.

Thank goodness, I remembered to drizzle on some sesame oil just before serving. Otherwise, the dish might have been too far from the original. ;) Despite all the changes, it was verrrrrrry tasty. J was relieved, though, when I told him he could stop eating the chilies. "You could have told me that earlier," he said, dabbing sweat from his forehead. >:}

In other spicy news, I made another batch of kimchi based on

barry_king's recipe, linked to by

asakiyume. It isn't fermented yet, but I had a bit that wouldn't fit into the jar and decided to eat it today.

S asked for a bite, and I told her it was spicy. She insisted she wanted some (she regularly tastes my "spicier*" food, like the Chilli ~~Chicken~~ Pork above), so I dipped the very edge of the spoon into the juice and let her lick it, thinking that would be enough to suit her.

"'picy," she said. "More!"

"More?"

"More 'picy." She grabbed the spoon with a bit of cabbage on it and shoved it in her mouth. "Mmmmmm. More!"

"More kimchi?"

She dropped the spoon, snagged the almost-empty bowl of kimchi from me, tipped it to her lips, and slugged down the rest of the juice...then used her finger to scoop the remanents into her mouth. "Mmmmmm, kiiiiiiimchi!"

Needless to say, the jar I made is not going to last long...

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* She's always eaten the same things we eat, but if we are eating something spicy, I make sure hers isn't as piquant as ours, and I'm using "piquant" in the true French sense of "stinging/hot."

Current Music: Wilco - Heavy Metal Drummer

I saw a twist on hibiscus tea the other (sweltering) day and just knew I had to make it. Score that I had all the ingredients on hand. The only problem was that I didn't read the directions all the way through and didn't realize it needs a night of chilling before being ready to drink. I cheated and tasted it after a couple of hours, when the chia seeds had had time to gel, but the beverage really is best when very cold. So think ahead!

Hibiscus Chia Fresca
Adapted from recipe by Heather Lionelle via Real Food and Health

What you need:

1 T hibiscus flowers, dried
1 t lavender flowers, dried
2 t mint, dried
1 T organic orange peel, dried
1 quart/950 ml water
1-2 T honey, depending on how sweet your tooth is
1/2 cup fresh or frozen berries, mashed
2 T fresh lemon juice
3 T chia seeds (you could actually omit these and just make Hibiscus Fresca. Different texture, but the taste would be the same)

NOTE: All the dried ingredients could be substituted with fresh, just increase the amounts a tad.

How you do it:

Bring 1 quart of water to a boil. Remove from heat, add first four ingredients, cover and allow to steep for 20 minutes.

Strain liquid and stir in honey. Once it reaches room temperature, stir in mashed berries, lemon juice, and chia seeds.

Refrigerate overnight.

Shake before serving.

The Sprout really loved it, so I think next time I'll have to double the recipe. I'll also add a cinnamon stick to the mix. (ETA: I did add a cinnamon stick to my last batch, and while it was tasty, next time, I will take it out of the steeping ingredients after 10 minutes so it doesn't overpower the other flavors.)

By the way, I think the tea is better served without ice, but since I slurped down so much of it, there wasn't enough for another full glass...after I knocked over the one I was photographing. >.< Hence the ice cubes to fill it back up. :P

A perfect gift for me would be a guided walk with a botanist/forager extraordinaire. I know there are so many plants all around me worthy of my plate (80% of plants are comestible; not all 80% are delectable, though), but I just don't know how to identify them.

However, I do know alliums when I see--and smell--them; so during a drive with S and my mil, when I spied beautiful globes of clustered flowers bobbing amidst the tall grasses, I knew I had to go back with a trowel for a little wildcrafting.

In the prairie behind my mother-in-law's house, I also stumbled upon some fennel. Perfect for mixing with that wild garlic. Along with some narrowleaf plantain and wild violet* leaves, we had the makings of what I call my Poor Girl Soups. Wild Garlic and Fennel Soup probably sounds more appetizing to most, I'm sure.

If you'd like to make something similar, first go a-gathering:

( Recipe under the cut )

taste tester

I think she approves. :D
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* With all plants, know what you are gathering! If you can't make a positive ID, don't eat it, and don't consider me an expert or use my photos as your only guide. Don't confuse violets with lily-of-the-valley, a plant that likes similar growing conditions to violets and has a similar leaf. The best way to identify violets is wait until the plant is in flower.

I'm always saying that I'm going to post recipes and then don't get around to it. Not this time, I decided.

The problem is that I usually want to do a fancy photo post, and I don't always feel like getting the camera out while I'm cooking. First, food stylist I am not. Second, baby underfoot. Third, lighting and tidy kitchen issues. Julien believes in the clean as you go method, whereas the kitchen looks like a bombsite as I go. :P

Still, I gave it a shot last night with these pots de crème à la lavande, not getting enough photos for a step-by-step recipe but just a few to put you in the mood.

Lavender is in bloom and I can't walk by a shrub of it without wanting to eat crème à la lavande. I do not give into the temptation on a regular basis because a) just wait until you see the amount of cream in these puppies, b) I read that pregnant and nursing women should avoid lavender (the article didn't state WHY and because I know the "dosage" I get from this dessert is minimal, I choose to still eat it. Just FYI).

Pots de crème à la lavande, (Lavender Cream) recipe by French chef, Marc Veyrat.

Ingredients:
25 cl or grams (1 c) milk (We use whole milk, fresh from the farm)
1 T dried lavender buds (We have used fresh flowers, gathered in the courtyard of our first apartment. Ah, those newlywed days)
4 egg yolks
40 g (about 1/4 cup minus 1 T) caster sugar
330 g cream (You can use whipping cream, I would imagine. We use cream fresh from the farm, which is very thick--the ingredient called for in the French recipe is "liquid cream"--but as the dairy farmer pointed out, leave cream at room temperature and it will liquefy)

Julien's variation (pictured above): Add a couple of chunks of dark chocolate to the ramekins before the cream for a surprise OR grate chocolate on the top. Chocolate and lavender get along famously.
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Bring the milk to boil in a saucepan, then add dried lavender flowers, cover, remove from heat, and let steep for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 150°C / 300°F.

Vigorously whisk egg yolks and caster sugar until the mixture is pale and thick. Fold in the cream. Pass milk through a filter to remove lavender flowers as you add it the other ingredients.

Place parchment paper, paper towels, or a dishcloth at the bottom of a dutch oven (in French, the recipe calls for a dutch oven, but we use a casserole dish, too, and it turns out fine). Place 4 ramekins on the paper/towel (We've found that it makes closer to six ramekins) and fill them with the cream. Pour water into the dutch oven, halfway up the ramekins. Put dutch oven on the hob and bring water to a simmer. Cover and bake in oven for 30 minutes.

Note, if using a casserole dish BOIL THE WATER first! Cover casserole dish with foil and bake as above.

Chill at least 4 hours before serving.

Bon appétit!

I love to cook, but I don't tend to share recipes. That is because I am LAZY, capital from the L to the Y, not because I don't like to share the goodies wealth. I thought I would rectify that today. Because, you know, I don't have enough other things to accomplish today.

During our last English lesson, I asked my student Charlotte what her favorite dessert is. A wonderful topic for English class, non? She replied, "Banana cake." Now, I've eaten banana nut bread aplenty, frozen banana desserts, my gran's bowl-lickin' good banana pudding with vanilla wafers and whipped topping and even her banana split dessert, but I cannot remember ever having banana cake.

Charlotte obligingly gave me her recipe, and I decided to try it out before we leave Mayotte. We do have delicious bananas here, after all, much better than one can get back on continental France.

I shall test it for you now.

First, gather together:

6 bananas, nice ripe ones
3 eggs, shells optional and not at all recommended
a goodly splash of (homemade with vodka and fresh beans, if you please) vanilla extract
125 g of sugar
the juice of one lemon, freshly squeezed, none of that bottled crap
250 g of flour
1 packet of baking powder (about 3 tsps)
1 pinch of ginger, or if you only have fresh on hand, like I do, a 1/4 tsp of the finely-minced aromatic wonder will do
1 pinch of salt
100 g of butter (I used softened, but you can probably melt it)
4 T of rum, the kind you keep on hand for medicinal purposes and visiting pirates.
chopped bits of bittersweet chocolate, though I guess you can use choc. chips if you really must. I'll leave the quantity up to you.
___________________________________

Peel the bananas and squish the living daylights out of the suckers. Don't worry if yours aren't a lovely yellowy orange like mine. It's because you have to use store-bought and can't get them fresh off the plant in more varieties than I have fingers. (C'mon, let me gloat while I can; I'll soon be buying them from the store myself):

In the same bowl and using the same fork,* add the eggs and mix in. Toss in the sugar. I used brown because that's what I have on hand and need to use up before we move:

Add the lemon juice. Stir, then sift (if you want) in the flour, baking powder, salt, and ginger if you are using powdered. Mix that in and then add the butter while you are at it. I did it in that order because that's how Charlotte gave it to me. Next time, I'll likely beat it in with the other liquid ingredients first.

~~Water it down with rum~~ Add the four tablespoons of rum; stir in while singing Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum:

Toss in a generous helping of chocolate, mix well, and pour into a baking dish. I opted for one lined with wax paper. Easy to get out of the pan, easy to clean up:

Now, if you are like me and forgot to preheat your oven, do that now. Set the thermostat to 210°C and make yourself an iced expresso. Drink it while sitting on the terrace, enjoying the view of the lagoon and Grand Terre hazy in the distance, or in any location of your choice:

When the cup is empty and the oven is hot, stick the cake in and bake it for 15 minutes. When the timer dings, lower the temperature to 170°C and reset the timer for 30-40 minutes. Mine was done after 30.

But wait! You aren't done yet. Not if you are a gourmand like I am. What this cake needs is frosting. The French sometimes do glaçage (icing-style) but they don't really get the joy of frosting. If you don't want this cake sans, scrounge up the usual suspects:

Mascapone (or cream cheese if that is your bent. I swing both ways), butter, lemon, and powdered sugar. Give the fork and bowl from the cake a cursory rinse* and use them to mix the above ingredients to your taste; personally, I like quite a bit of tart with my sweet. Don't forget the zest of that lemon!

Be sure to find an excuse to pass through kitchen several times while the cake is in the oven to enjoy the smell of bananas, rum, and melting chocolate. That odorous delight alone is worth the time spent mixing the batter.

Let the cake cool, slather it with frosting and (hopefully) enjoy.**

__________

* Miquela's philosophy of baking and cooking in general: Use as few utensils as possible. Washing up is a pain!

**Miquela's verdict: Hmmm, tasty enough, but...
It isn't fluffy with a light crumb like a cake (perhaps this is normal?). This could have several causes:
1) I guestimated the amounts, not having my kitchen scales
2) I went down the list and mixed the ingredients as they were presented since Charlotte's recipe had no instructions.
3) I didn't spend enough time beating the batter. A cake needs so many strokes, right? *despite her love of baking, rarely makes cakes*
4) I have no earthly idea what temperature I actually baked the cake at. Lio's dial has all the numbers rubbed off, no temps, no thermostat.

However, my frosting was a good addition. *g*

I'll try again another time. Anyone want to try it out and let me know their success, tricks, thoughts?

Another day/week, I'll post some recipes that I've tried out and can actually vouch for.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Damien Rice - Coconut Skins

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Page Summary

Both a Blessing and a Bane
Adas Polo, A Story of Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Elsewhere
Recipe: Green Tomato Curry with Potatoes and Garlic
Recipe: Apple Crisp
Food Snobbery - Ketchup
Third time's a charm
Galette des Rois
Snippet Sunday
Same Same But Different
Cool off with Hibiscus Chia Fresca
Wild Garlic and Fennel Soup
Pots de crème à la lavande (Lavender Cream)
Charlotte's Gâteau à la Banane

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The Wayfaring Wordhack

Valises in Lebanon

Entries tagged with recipes

Both a Blessing and a Bane

Adas Polo, A Story of Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Elsewhere

Recipe: Green Tomato Curry with Potatoes and Garlic

Recipe: Apple Crisp

Food Snobbery - Ketchup

Third time's a charm

Galette des Rois

Snippet Sunday

Same Same But Different

Cool off with Hibiscus Chia Fresca

Wild Garlic and Fennel Soup

Pots de crème à la lavande (Lavender Cream)

Charlotte's Gâteau à la Banane