Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Loaf A-peel

Canada’s official July 1rst moving day has come and gone, with the cardboard boxes, duct tape and the moving trucks finally in the clear, my apartment building has officially gotten that much cooler with the arrival of my new neighbors Eric Choueke and Naomi Rabinovitch.

Having been in the big apple the weekend that Eric and Naomi moved in, we bumped into each other only a few days later on the street. No standard small talk here, Eric told me straight up that he was already disappointed in me as his neighbor – he said that he expected more from me (picture me in shock) then he went on to list numerous varieties of baked goods that he was expecting to have received as a welcoming gift and that I clearly had not delivered. (now picture me laughing – The chutzpah! Although the little ballubusta in me wanted to plutz)

I told Eric not to worry and promised him that I would deliver, this dessert became top priority and knew right away that my Signature Chocolate Chip Banana Bread would be just the thing to mend this neighborship.


Ingredients:

2 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
¼ tsp Salt
½ cup Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)
¾ cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs Beaten
3-4 over ripe Bananas
½ -1 cup Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 350

2. In large bowl combine Flour, Baking Soda.

3. In another bowl cream together the Butter, Sugar and Eggs. Stir in the mashed bananas to the Butter/Sugar/Egg mixture.

4. Combine both mixtures together and add the chocolate chips.


5. Pour the batter into two greased loaf pans and bake for 60-65 minutes. Stick toothpick in center until clean to see if the loafs are ready. Once the loafs are out of the oven, leave them to cool on the counter for 10 minutes.

The great thing about the recipe is that it makes two loafs – one can be kept in the freezer for any unexpected company. Since the gifting of the Chocolate Banana Bread, the Chouekes have given me a second chance at allowing me to be the best neighbor that I can be and they even invited my roommate and I over for a BBQ this past week. Turns out that I’m not the only ballubusta in the building, Naomi makes a mean guacamole and Eric is working on his BBQ skills (he was a bit distraught that he lost three out of six salami slices in the BBQ).

Canelés de Bordeaux

As with all things, there are pros and cons to owning just 10 canelé moulds. The cons: My recipe for canelés will fill about 16 moulds. And because these copper moulds need to be seasoned and frozen for at least 6 hours before baking, you’ll have to wait at least 7 hours between each batch. But that’s assuming you’re a bit of a canelé expert. For a canelé virgin such as I, the 10 moulds proved to be a godsend. It meant I could make mistakes with my first batch and then correct them with my second — and that was not intentional, I assure you. In my mind, my maiden batch of canelé would be beautifully burnished, crisp on the outside and custardy on the inside. I never imagined I would yield beeswax-flavoured pucks of deep, dark brown — okay, black — shelled… things.

As anyone who’s ever made a canelé will tell you, it’s not really hard work. It is simply an amalgamation of several elements which require time and patience. Once you’ve made that initial outlay of effort, your subsequent experiences will then be a cinch.

For starters, new canelé moulds need seasoning — not unlike how you would season a new cast iron grill pan by brushing it with oil and sealing it in with heat. Canelé moulds however, require an initial seasoning with vegetable oil, and then further seasonings with “white oil”, which is made from 1 ounce of beeswax and 1 cup of safflower oil.



First, you have to find a beeswax supplier, which in Singapore, is no mean feat. (Especially not if you don’t want to buy 2kg of it — which is the minimum amount the wholesalers will sell you). So I ordered my soap-bar-sized beeswax through the internet; and shipping from the US to Singapore cost more than the beeswax itself. Safflower oil is much easier — it is available from organic supermarkets.

Before each use, the moulds should be brushed with the white oil, inverted onto a rack set atop a foil-lined baking sheet and baked for a minute to allow the excess oil to run out. You remove the moulds, let them cool to room temperature and then freeze them before filling and baking. In this way, your caneles moulds will remain mercifully non-stick.

The batter is much easier, requiring only that you heat milk to 183 degrees fahrenheit, pulse butter, cake flour and salt in a food processor; add sugar and egg yolks, and finally the hot milk. The batter is then strained through a fine sieve before the addition of rum and vanilla. A day or two later, it is ready to be poured into those gorgeous copper moulds.

Paula Wolfort’s The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen contains the full recipe and everything you need to know about making canelés. I love that she writes each recipe and story with such lyricism and care.



As you can see from the picture above, by the time I was done with first try at canelés, only two emerged edible. In my initial excitement, I baked my first batch of white-oil-brushed canelé moulds crown-side down, which meant I was baking AND filling my moulds with white oil. We had wax flavoured canelés for petite fours at dinner that night.

I prepared four more moulds the next morning (the correct way, this time) and baked the canelés for almost 2 hours at 200 degrees C. They were almost good — the interiors were suitably custardy, but the shells just a bit charred. So this time, we had soot flavoured caneles with our post-prandial coffees.

Yet the next morning, I prepared two more moulds. And this time I baked them at 180 degrees C for about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Magic — well, almost. There was the crunchy burnt sugar shell and the sweet luscious filling perfumed with vanilla and rum. But because I had filled them almost to the top, as the recipe implied — and likely because mine is a small oven — the bases of my canelés were slightly burnt.

So those bases were shorn off with a sharp knife and the new pretty canalés were placed on a plate after dinner. Again. No one seemed to mind — and by no one, I really mean my dear lab rat and loving partner C.

Next time, I reckon I’ll fill my moulds just three-quarters full so the batter doesn’t rise out of them, and hopefully, doesn’t burn. And thankfully, the next time around, the white oil is all mixed up and ready to use.

A Midsummer's Night Dream

This week has been all about new things. I taught my friend, Jay, how to cook for his new wife, Jennie, via email and cell phone. He went from Kraft Dinner (EW) and eggs to espresso and chili rubbed steaks and roasted asparagus in a few emails. This from someone who once said that my blog was useless! His calls were all day entertainment.

Q: "How do I buy asparagus"
A: "Umm, walk up to the asparagus sign, choose asparagus and pay for them"

Q: "Can I get ebola from the filet mignon?"
A: No, that's e. Coli

Q: "What do I do with the garlic?"
A: Open up the head, take out some cloves and peel them (I will show him how to smash like on Food TV at a later time!)

At the end, he e-mailed me telling me it was a total success and he was so proud. So proud that he is cooking again tonight!

Next, I got on a bike for the first time in years and ended up biking for 3 hours all over the West Side Highway with my friend, Todd.

Then, I decided to order gazpacho at 'WichCraft and loved it. Until last week, gazpacho was of no interest to me. I came right home & found Ina's recipe for her bestselling gazpacho from her days at Barefoot Contessa in East Hampton...I made it yesterday for the first time and it was chunky with a bit of a kick. It's perfect to take for lunch with a sandwich during the summer and looks beautiful for entertaining as well (bonus- you can make it day before and it looks great in martini and shot glasses).

Ina Garten's Gazpacho- The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
Serves 4 to 5

1 english (also called hothouse) cucumber, halved & seeded, but not peeled
2 red peppers, cored and seeded
4 plum tomatoes
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups tomato juice (the Contessa highly recommends Sacramento brand, I used Campbell's)
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/2 tbsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp ground black pepper
few drops of Tabasco (I added!)

Roughly chop cucs, peppers, tomatoes and red onions into 1 inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it's coarsely chopped. Don't overprocess- it shouldn't be pureed.

After you process each vegetable, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, juice, vinegar, olive oil, s&p, Mix well and chill before serving. The longer it sits, the better it is. I also added 4-5 drops of Tabasco.

Salsify- a rare find!

A couple of months ago, I was ordering dinner at CraftBar & asked the waiter what roasted salsify was. It came with grilled scallops and I immediately thought it may be a chutney or salsa. That night, I discovered salsify for the first time.

Salsify is a root vegetable that is uncommon in the United States, but apparently very popular in Europe. As soon as I got home, I did some research and got on chowhound to see where I could get the stuff. Someone told me I could get it at the Union Square Farmers' Market, but I never really looked that hard. Turns out you can find it at the Paffenroth Gardens stand at the Greenmarket. I have had the dish at CraftBar a few times since and it turns out their chef is on a mission to get this vegetable out of obscurity.

Anyway, yesterday after a brutal workout (I have been on vacation for 2 weeks, which meant my running shoes were in my suitcase, but they didn't get used! Next time, I may pack a bit lighter!), I met Geneve at Chelsea Market. Considering we both love food so much, we found it quite surprising that we both don't spend more time there...After brunching at 202 and sampling some mint chip gelato and fatwich brownies, we stopped by the Lobster Place & The Fruit Exchange. Emeril is always in these places on his show (Food Network tapes upstairs), not that I am a fan.

We were looking around with amazement- such amazing variety (star fruit, rare chilis, all varieties of eggplants) and great prices when BANG! SALSIFY!! I introduced Geneve to salsify and she took out her trusty Canon Elph to take a pic for my blog....

Tonight, I roasted it with my favorite swordfish recipe (roasted with lime juice, olive oil, s&p at 425 and then take it out of oven and refresh with a bit of the same) and it was delicious.

Roasted Salsify

1. Wash & Peel & cut salsify (4 large stalks is perfect for 2!)

2. Place on baking sheet with olive oil, kosher salt & pepper at 350 degrees for an hour.

When it came out, I sprinkled some za'atar on it. Za'atar is a Middle Eastern spice that I picked up in Israel...it's delicious, they eat it on pita.

You could easily include carrots, beets and/or parsnips as well!

Thank you Manhattan Fruit Exchange.

I heArt-ichoke

In prepping my lunch in the cafeteria I often get a few “ohhh’s” and “ahhh’s” from my co-workers admiring my special of the day. In an effort to be healthy, I find its important to re-invent the wheel so that when 12’oclock strikes that you’re excited about your dejeuner.

As an alternative to the salad bar, I’ve added a steamed artichoke to my repertoire of lunches. The nutritional information is in: one large artichoke is fat free, contains only 25 calories, 170 milligrams of potassium, and is a good source of vitamin C, folate, magnesium and dietary fiber. In keeping the artichoke healthy, it’s important that the accompanied dipping sauce is as well.

Its not the traditional lunch and according to my co-workers it seems very high maintenance – I’m here to prove them wrong! Given that it’s not as easy as a microwaveable frozen lean cuisine, both the preparation of the artichoke and the dipping sauce are fairly simple.

Ingredients:

1 Large Artichoke
1 Lemon

When buying your artichoke from the grocery store the tighter and more compact the artichoke, the fresher it is. Prep Time: Fill up a sauce pan with water and half a lemon and let the water come to a boil. Trim the stem of the artichoke and add it whole to the boiling water with the lid on, leave it in the water for 40 minutes. Once the 40 minutes have passed, discard the water and you artichoke is ready.For the finishing touch – the low fat Ginger Dipping sauce only requires three ingredients to be combined!

Ingredients For Sauce:

1. 5 tbsp Low Fat Mayonaise

1 tsp of Fresh Ginger or 1 Cube of Frozen Ginger
1-2 tsp of Tamari Sauce (similar to Soya Sauce)

Artichokes are intimidating and for those of you who haven’t yet encountered an artichoke, how one eats an artichoke is not obvious from its appearance so here is a helpful diagram (instructions & pictures courtesy of http://www.elise.com/):

1. Pull off outer petals, one at a time, starting from the base. Dip white fleshy end in the sauce.

2. Tightly grip the other end of the petal. Place in mouth, dip side down, and pull through teeth to remove soft, pulpy, delicious portion of the petal. Discard remaining petal.

3. Continue until all of the petals are removed.

4. With a knife or spoon, scrape out and discard the inedible fuzzy and prickly parts (called the "choke") covering the artichoke heart. The remaining bottom of the artichoke is the heart. Cut into pieces and dip into sauce to eat.

Sherri and Lee are traveling to Israel and Greece this week, which coincides very well with this post since artichokes are very popular dishes in both of these countries! Looking forward to SB’s next blog, hopefully it will be on her new international culinary discoveries….

Cara

I Heart Cherries!

But in these tropical climes, fresh, juicy red cherries are fleeting, not to mention expensive. But hey, a girl’s gotta live a little, no?

Recently C and I passed a fruit stall along Geylang where we journey to every now and then for our fix of pomfret charcoal steamboat. The pile of gleaming, rubescent fruit were simply impossible to resist — well, that and the durians that C carted home in a pungent Styrofoam box.

We had cherries, stoned and sliced into our bowls of yoghurt and cereal at breakfast; we ate them for dessert, and then for supper. They also found their way into this deceptively delicious cake from Mich Turner’s Fantastic Party Cakes.



Now there are books I buy for the recipes and those I pick purely for aesthetic inspiration. This book falls in the latter category. So until I read a review of the book in last Sunday’s newspapers, I’d never actually thought try out any recipe from it. But the reviewer said something about the author’s recipe yielding the best butter cake that had ever come out of her oven. And in our house, the quest for the perfect easy-to-make butter cake is a never-ending one.



Indeed, Turner’s recipe for a basic vanilla butter cake yielded one of the best that’s ever come out of my oven. And a few pages away was the recipe for this gem. It is moist, soft, fluffy and just downright delicious. The crumble on the top also gives it a nice, light crunch. It is a cake that needs no accompaniment — not ice cream, not crème fraiche, not whipped cream, nothing. Well, maybe just a steaming cup of coffee or tea.

Cherry & Almond Cake
(adapted from Mich Turner’s Fantastic Party Cakes)

For the cake:
140g self-raising flour
50g sugar
1 large egg
4 tbsp milk
85g unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp almond extract (I used vanilla instead)
350g cherries, stoned and cut in half or quarters (I got away with using about 200g)

For the crumble topping:
25g butter
25g ground almonds
25g sugar
1/2 tsp almond or vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line the base of a shallow 20cm tin.
2. Measure flour and sugar into a bowl and mix well. Make a well in the centre and add the egg, milk, melted butter and almond or vanilla extract.
3. Beat with a wooden spoon till smooth.
4. Spoon into the tin and spread evenly.
5. Scatter the cherries over the cake mixture and gently press them in.
6. Make the topping by measuring all the ingredients into a clean bowl.
7. Rub the butter in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs gently clumped together. Scatter this over the cherries.
8. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake emerges clean.
5. Allow the cake to cool and then remove it from the tin to cool completely on a wire rack.