Chai-Spiced Banana Bread

I’m not sure how you feel about bananas.  I’ve certainly spent far too much time contemplating their value and dealing with my own indifference towards them.

As I said in an earlier post about roasted chocolate banana, “I’m prone to treating them the way that  a cad uses women: I don’t particularly like them (alright, I’ll say it, I’m not that into them), but I’ll eat them anyway because they’re convenient and easy when nothing better is around.”

So like anyone or anything you don’t care that much about, you end up taking bananas for granted and before you know it, they’re too ripe to eat.   (This is where the analogy either stops working or eerily continues working perfectly.)

Anyway, so rather than letting them go to waste and throwing the overripe bananas away, I and your grandmother who survived the depression like to make banana bread.

I’ve consulted a lot of banana bread recipes over the years and I think today I finally perfected a recipe that is just right.  I also decided to spice things up a bit with… spices.  (Pun intended, I guess.  Sorry.)

So without further ado, I present…

Chai-Spiced Banana Bread

3 or 4 ripe bananas (mashed)
1/3 cup melted butter
¾ cup organic cane sugar
1 egg (beaten)
1 tsp almond extract (like handbags, real is better than imitation)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp allspice
¾ tsp cardamom
½ tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350º.  In a large mixing bowl, mix butter into mashed bananas.  Add sugar, egg and almond extract.  Sprinkle baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt over entire mixture and mix well.  Add flour last and mix well.  Pour batter into buttered loaf pan.  Bake 1 hour.  Cool on a rack before removing from pan.

Read Full Post »

Thai pandan brûlée

Finally got some butane for my torch at Bed Bath & Beyond with Erica yesterday. I couldn’t wait to make standard custard for crème brûlée so I “made” this pandan custard mix (i.e., mixed the powder with water) and then burned some sugar on top.

Read Full Post »

Androopy’s Visit

Andrew came to town for 4 short nights and one of the first places we went to was Brighton Beach in search of Kazakh food (he’s leaving for KZ in August). We didn’t find anything but Andrew did find this fantastic Uyghur place called Cafe Kashkar at 1141 Brighton Beach Avenue. I posted some pictures of the manty and the Borjomi water below but I had to start with this picture of the churchkhela we got at Brighton Beach Bazaar. It was walnuts sewn together and then dipped in reduced grape juice until it takes on this sausage shape. I had one only once before when I was in Sevastopol, Ukraine.

Churchkhela

Here is it dangling on the B train.

The next day we went to Nyonya at 194 Grand Street in Manhattan because Joyce had recommended it. It was phenomenal. The Hainanese chicken, served at room temperature, was very tasty.

Hainanese chicken

On the menu, there were many things listed with the warning “Please ask your server for advice before you order!” We ordered the Nyonya rojak, “Nyonya famous fruit salad served w. squid shrimp paste sauce, sesame seed, peanut” (without a warning) and our server tried to talk us out of it saying it was really too fishy for us. I convinced him that we really did want it and that we liked fishy things and he gave in finally. It turned out to be a jicama, cucumber, and pineapple salad coated in a black, squid-shrimp paste. It truly was very fishy, especially for my white American palate, and we wound up finishing it all out of pride.

Rojak

Back in Brighton Beach I was shocked to find that Vyerka Serdyuchka is coming to Brooklyn. HAHAHAAH. She is a drag queen from Ukraine who has found incredible mainstream success in former USSR countries. When I taught in an elementary school in rural Ukraine, the 5th grade straight boys would hum her songs in class. She was always the star on TV Christmas specials. Let me see if I can find something good on Youtube.

Vyerka Serdyuchka

Here’s a video of her speaking English. I love her.

Borjomi water from Georgia

Here’s the Borjomi water I got at cafe Kashkar. It is my favorite mineral water that is from the glaciers at the top of the Bakuriani mountains in Georgia. Delicious, melting glaciers.

lamb manty with celery

I couldn’t figure out what was on top of the manty. Andrew took one bite and immediately recognized it as celery leaves. I’m going to miss that guy.

Read Full Post »

Mamoncillos, Seoul Station, Stogo, and Kamui Den

Friday was my last night with Aida and Carlos so I took them and Erica out to Kamui Den at 186 Avenue A for shabu shabu.  We had planned to eat at 6:30 because I needed to get to bed super early but they didn’t open until 7 so Erica and I went over to Thompson Square Park to watch the skaters and fantasize about being able to skate.  Aida and Carlos didn’t show up until 7 though because Carlos insisted on walking to the restaurant from the Museum of Natural History (which is like 5 miles away on the Upper West Side)!

Everything was fine until someone (Aida) dropped a piece of beef onto the center exhaust cone of the table top stove.  At first the meat just sizzled as we tried to scrape it off and into the broth but then it started to burn and smoke.  I looked over at our server and she was cracking up, in a cute way.  Eventually the stray piece of beef was burnt to a crisp and its ashes slid down into the water.  I guess I was blushing  terribly during the whole incident.

You can kind of see the ashes in this picture.  It looks like we were not doing a very good job of skimming the scum.

For dessert we went to Stogo, a “gourmet, organic, dairy-free” ice cream shop.  I tried the red velvet ice cream and really liked it.  It had huge chunks of red velvet cake mixed in with the ice cream.  Erica said she didn’t like hers though.  I think she got chocolate hazelnut.  Aida and Carlos got the regular size in order to be able to mix two flavors but I don’t think they finished theirs.  Mine was gone in like 2 seconds.

I forgot to mention that the other day I had Korean tacos for the first time.  I saw on CNN.com this story about two Kogi taco trucks that tweet about their location and how huge lines form in advance.  I guess it sounds like fun but I’m glad there’s a permanent location here in New York, Seoul Station.  I think it’s on Saint Marks near 1st Avenue.  I got two beef and one pork taco.

They were kind of amazing.  I would definitely get them again.  They come with shredded purple cabbage and a cilantro sauce only.  I had to add the sriracha.

I didn’t get to say goodbye to Aida and Carlos before they left on Saturday but when I got home I found that they had left a giant spread of fruit.  Among the fruits was a little green fruit that I assumed was a key lime.  However, when I went to slice one open to add to my (non-alcoholic) spritzer, it turned out not to be a citrus fruit at all!  It’s skin broke like the shell of a longan and inside was a large pit covered by a thin, white membrane that was only slightly sweet but mostly bitter.  I just found out it is a mamoncillo.

Courtney and I found this bottle of Fred water for sale at a Duane Reade today.  It looks like it’s shampoo or astringent or something.

Read Full Post »

In summer, the song sings itself.

Erica and her watermelon water at Taco Bite in Brooklyn

agua de sandía

we got raspados (snow cones) made from ice shaved off a giant block later with Joyce

raspberries and mochi

Brunch at Taco Bite in Brooklyn on Saturday was nutritious.  Erica and I both got the Super Combo Poblano for $7.95.  It came with black beans instead of the refried beans listed in the menu.

We went to Fette Sau in Brooklyn with Courtney, her brother, Erica, and John on Friday and they had pork tails and pork cheeks.  This is the platter that I shared with Erica.

Fette Sau

I’m so happy to be in New York with such lovely people.  It really feels like a homecoming.  I love you guys.

Read Full Post »

water-flavored seahorse and maraschino cherry raviolo

the seahorse

Andrew was over yesterday and we got out the sodium alginate and calcium chloride for another round of spherification experiments.  Almost everything was a disaster — I tried to spherify this Jamaican scotch bonnet hot sauce but it disintegrated as soon as it hit the bath.  Near the end of the session, we gelled some Michigan tap water with the sodium alginate and dropped it in the CaCl2 solution haphazardly.  Andrew fished out this beautiful little seahorse that formed serendipitously and it made all the previous (failed) attempts worthwhile.  I think it is so cute!  The only thing was that it tasted like tap water and the cell walls of brown algae.

maraschino cherry raviolo

This is the maraschino cherry flavored raviolo we made.

Mix together 4 oz. maraschino cherry juice, 2 oz. water, and 2 teaspoons sodium alginate in a bowl.

Drop the liquid into a bath of 32 oz. cool water mixed with a teaspoon or two of calcium chloride.  Remove the balls from the bath after they have gelled (10 seconds – 1 minute) and rinse with cool water before serving.

the elephant

There were some other creatures swimming around in the bath with the seahorse!

the bunny

Read Full Post »

Mofongo in curried scallion cream

My friend Kristen took me to Mariscos Veracruzanos in Grand Rapids, Michigan last week.  When we first drove by it looked like an abandoned building. Then we saw there was a sandwich board on the pavement advertising shrimp tamales so we parked and went in.  There were a lot of things on the menu that I didn’t recognize.  I Googled “gorditas de jaiva” on my phone but I wasn’t 100% sure what it was so we asked and our waiter instantly reappeared with a little plate of two complimentary gorditas filled with marinated surimi.  We still couldn’t decide what to get so we asked our server what she would recommend and she said something about the burritos.  I was a little disappointed but I thanked her and then read the dry erase board where the daily specials were written.  I couldn’t quite make out the first word.  It looked like of like mato-go or moio-go – someone’s elbow had probably rubbed the letters off.  Then it came to me.  Mofongo.  So I ordered the mofongo with shrimp and when the owner and chef, Doña Mica, saw what we ordered she called to us from the kitchen to tell us we made a good choice.  She also said that even though she is from Mexico she likes to prepare Caribbean dishes because many of patrons in Grand Rapids are from the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico.  I sipped on my horchata and Kristen enjoyed her lemonade while we listened to the pork chitlins sizzling on her gridle.  The mofongo was fantastic but the chitlins (chicharrones) were a little too crunchy (I honestly thought they were cherimoya seeds at first) and I kind of felt like I was going to crack a tooth chewing on them.

shrimp mofongo at Mariscos Veracruzanos in Grand Rapids, MI

 

When I got back here to Livonia is couldn’t stop raving about it so Andrew and I made up our own meatless version yesterday for dinner.  It turned out really well so I’ll post the recipe here.

oil, garlic, white onion, 2 plantains, 1 cassava root, 1 scotch bonnet pepper (seeds removed), salt, pepper, butter, brown sugar 

Peel and cut up the cassava into small pieces.  Boil until soft (25 minutes) and then drain and reserve.  Brown onions and garlic in oil and then fry plantain until browned.  Remove from heat and mash with cassava and minced pepper.  Add butter, salt, pepper, and brown sugar to taste.  When cool to the touch, form the dough into balls and then fry until golden in oil.  Let drain on paper towel and then serve with curried scallion cream sauce (below).

garlic, onions, heavy cream, green curry paste, brown sugar, scallions, cilantro

Sweat onions and garlic then add heavy cream and reduce heat.  Mix in curry paste, brown sugar, and cilantro to taste.  Cut scallions into long strips and then add and simmer for 10 minutes.

mofongo in curried scallion cream

Read Full Post »

Potato Kale Soup Cook Off (part 2)

Henry’s was such a disappointment!  I was excited to try something sophisticated and celiac-friendly but I got served something that tasted like stone soup. 

Here is my submission for the potato kale soup contest:

olive oil
1 white onion
1 large black radish (Raphanus niger), peeled and halved
2 small potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 salsify root, peeled and cubed
1 smoked pork hock
1/4 cup fresh marjoram
1 small bunch of kale
1 cup soy beans
pepper

Brown 1/2 of the onion in a pot with a little olive oil.  Add 2 quarts of water to the pot.  Drop in the black radish, potatoes, salsify root, marjoram and ham hock and bring to a boil.  Once the water begins to boil reduce heat and simmer (covered) for an hour or until the meat on the hock can be pulled away from the bone.  Remove the  ham hock and let cool on a plate.  Separate the meat and skin from the bone and then discard the bone.  Return the meat and skin to the pot.  Add the kale and soy beans and cook for 10 more minutes.  Serve with a crusty bread.

Read Full Post »

Cuy

Ever since I saw this painting of the Last Supper that is on display in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo in Cusco, Peru, I’ve been dying to taste cuy, Andean style guinea pig. 

I considered just picking one up at PetSmart but I was worried about what they might have been injected with and I didn’t want to break any animal cruelty laws.  A friend suggested substituting squirrel.  The subsitution solution was a slippery slope though – sliding from guinea pig to squirrel to rabbit to chicken to those ersatz Chick’n Nuggets by VeggiePatch.  I wanted the real thing.

A few weeks ago I posted this question on Yahoo! Answers and some guy replied that he had found some restaurants in Chicago that served guinea pig.  I searched and found the same blog entry that he found, but my excitement was just a flash in the pan because the next blog I found said that there was a “city wide ban on serving exotic animals about a year ago [in Chicago].”  The author went on to say, “Cuy fell into the banned category.”  I was so upset.  I called every single Ecuadorian and Peruvian restaurant in Chicago and they all made the same claim — no more cuy.

I was about to give up when I came upon this glimmer-of-hope blog comment:  ”[T]here is always an Ecuadorian (or Peruvian) waiting to take [a cuy] home on the orders of a jonesing granny.”  I imagined all of the jonesing grannies in Chicago and hoped that they wouldn’t let the FDA come between them and their cuy.  I realized I was going to have to take my search for caviidae underground — Chicago’s black market.

After two fruitless days of driving up and down the streets of Chicago looking for Ecuadorian and Peruvian groceries (Andrew scanned the right side of the street and I scanned the left side, since I was driving), I was ready to cry.  I’d walk into a shop and shopkeepers’ smiles quickly turned into suspicious frowns as soon as I’d ask if they sold cuy.  One man looked me up and down and I think he thought I was some kind of health inspector.  On the morning of our third and last day in Chicago, we found a small Ecuadorian grocery that seemed to only sell phone cards.  I asked the man working there if he knew where I could purchase cuy in Chicago.  He gave me an inquisitive look at first but then revealed that he had a huge stash of them in the back room!  I was such a doubting Thomas — I didn’t believe it until he popped open a huge freezer full of beautifully packaged, imported cuyes from Ecuador!  They were 17 dollars each and the shopkeeper suggested I use a $3.99 achiote (annatto) oil to flavor the cuy while roasting it.

This is how the cuy was packaged.

Here is a photo of the prepared cuy.  It is brightly colored because of the achiote oil.  The other small pieces are crushed garlic.  I baked it at 350 degrees F for 1 hour and broiled it for a few minutes at the end to make the skin extra crispy.  I would describe the flavor as reminiscent of duck or fatty pork.  I have read in other blogs that cuy tastes like frog, but mine certainly did not.  I served the cuy with yams, prawn ceviche, potato bread and ají (the “official” sauce of Peru), rice and steamed huazontle

It looks a lot like the one in the painting.

Read Full Post »

Chạo tôm / prawn mousse on sugar cane

The fresh sugar cane at Joe Randazzo’s wasn’t moldy this week so I bought four sticks of it.  I’ve been wanting to make these grilled shrimp mousse things every day for the past two weeks (ever since we bought The Complete Vietnamese Cookbook at Borders for $7.99).

I didn’t follow the recipe and so the mousse didn’t stick to the sugar cane as well as I was expecting.  I would have used lard instead of butter when frying the onions and garlic next time.  Also, I might have added a little more cornstarch. 

Fry some onion and garlic in lard in a pan until lightly browned.  Remove from heat and mix in an egg, a dash of fish sauce, a little bit of ginger, some chopped scallions, and some honey/brown sugar/agave nectar.  Then combine this mixture with 15 big shrimp and grind it with a mortar a pestle until it forms a chunky paste.  Now mix in about a tablespoon or more of cornstarch to thicken it up enough to stick to the quartered sugar cane skewers.

I grilled them for about 6 minutes and served them with a chili vinegar dipping sauce.

Read Full Post »