Showing posts with label bananas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bananas. Show all posts

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Banana Sweet Bread


With a great sweet dough recipe, variations are endless.  You can make raisin bread or cinnamon rolls or even hot cross buns.  All home bakers should have at least one great sweet dough recipe in their repertoire. The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook is a good place to start. 

Bread is magic and every country has its own way of conjuring yeast and flour and water into nourishment that not only sustains life but also gives many a reason to continue living.  (Thinking of my friend, Carol, here who would probably choose bread if she were only allowed to eat one thing for the rest of her life.)  From the roti canai of Malaysia and the baguette of France to the pão de queijo of Brazil and the aish baladi of Egypt, we have taken bread to heart as we learn to love the places we have called home.  Bread is comfort, from the therapeutic act of kneading the dough and the deep yeasty smell as it rises in a warm place, to the heady aroma while it bakes, drawing the family near.  I guarantee, you’ll never have so many friends as when fresh bread comes out of your oven.

This recipe is adapted from my old standby, Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook, 1980 edition. 

Ingredients
For the bread dough:
1/3 cup or 75g sugar
1 packet active dry yeast (1/4oz or 7g) I use Fleischmann’s Rapid Rise.
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2-3 cups or 315-375g flour
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
1/3 cup or 75g butter
1 egg
1 medium banana

For the filling:
2 medium bananas
3 tablespoons or 45g butter
Good pinch salt
1/4-1/2 cup or 50-100g light brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method
Put your sugar, yeast, salt and half a cup of flour in the bowl of your stand mixer or other bowl if you are going to use hand beaters.

Put the milk and butter in a microwaveable container and heat until it reaches between 120 and 130°F or 49-54 °C.  If you don’t have a thermometer handy, this would feel quite hot to the touch (I mean, put a finger in it.) but you would be able to keep your finger in it comfortably.  The butter doesn’t need to completely melt.

Pour the warm milk mixture into the mixing bowl and beat until combined.


Add in one banana and one egg.   Beat well.


Add one cup of flour and beat well.


Add more flour, a half a cup at a time until you have a soft dough and it’s too stiff to beat in the mixer anymore.   Use a wooden spoon or a sturdy spatula to mix in the last of the flour.



Scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a floured surface.  Knead well for about five minutes.


Wash your mixing bowl out and spray the inside with a little non-stick spray or rub with butter.

Form a ball out of your dough and pop it back in the bowl to rest and rise.  Ideally, you want it to double in size.  This can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour, depending on your yeast.


Cover with a cloth and if your room is colder than 80-85 °F or °C, put the stopper in your sink and fill it part way up with hot tap water.  Set the bowl in the sink.



While the dough is rising, grease your bread pan and make the filling.

Melt the butter in a medium sized non-stick skillet and slice the two bananas into the pan.  Throw in the pinch of salt.

The butter will start to bubble up and the bananas will caramelize a little.

They are done when the milk liquids have evaporated and only the oily part of the butter is left.  Set it aside to cool.



When your dough has risen sufficiently, punch it down.  Spread it or roll it out into a rectangle (about 12x18in or 30x45cm) on top of a large sheet of cling film on a clean counter top.




Distribute the bananas and butter evenly over the rectangle of dough.

Sprinkle with the light brown sugar.  As the dough is already sweet, I used about a 1/4 cup of sugar but if your family loves things sweet, feel free to use more.  Sprinkle on the teaspoon of cinnamon.



Start rolling the dough up on the short side until you have a neat tube.  Fold the sides of the roll under.





Place the dough seam side down in your greased bread pan.  Sprinkle with a little flour and, use a sharp knife or lame´ to cut some slits in the top of the dough.  Set in a warm place - this could be the kitchen sink with hot water again, if necessary - and allow to rise until doubled.


When it’s getting close, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Almost flowing over the sides of the pan! 

Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the crust is a nice golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped.  Turn it out on a wire rack to cool a little before cutting.  This stuff is great just as it is but it is even better when slathered with some butter.



For breakfast the next day, assuming there is any left, toast it and apply butter liberally.  Delicious!



Enjoy!


Sunday, August 25, 2013

Pisang Goreng or Deep Fried Bananas

Just ripe bananas dipped in a thick batter are deep-fried till golden, creating a crispy outside and a soft sweet inside – a truly delectable treat called Pisang Goreng in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. In English that translates to fried bananas.




“Pull over!” she’d cry.  It might be a fruit stand selling durian or a little roadside café or a hole-in-the-wall frying hot wontons filled with shrimp.  No matter, my mother was (and is) always game to stop and try whatever is on offer.  I get my food adventurousness from her.  When we lived in Trinidad, we ate curried who-knows-what at shacks by the side of the road.  (My favorite is goat.)  The other expat ladies thought she was crazy and that we’d get sick.  We never did.  In Venezuela Mom would buy me homemade cheese, called queso de mano, from peddlers who would dart between cars at the big roundabout near our house.  Even when we moved back to Houston, she would seek out the little local markets in the ethnic areas, driving clear across town to drink yogurt lassi and eat spicy samosas or to perhaps buy Middle Eastern sweet treats like baklava to bring in to work.

Through all the countries we’ve lived, I’ve tried to do the same.  Street food, when cooked hot and fresh, is the very best.  Get in line at the stall with the most people waiting to be served and you are guaranteed something tasty and worth waiting for.  All those people can’t be wrong, right?

My mother-in-law, me and my mom, at a hawker center in Singapore, 1 June 2009.
This is where Mom chose to go for her birthday lunch! 
This week our Sunday Supper group is celebrating global street food and I cannot tell you how long my list of possible recipes from myriad countries was.  It took me three days to settle on just one.  I don’t remember where I first tried fried bananas but I can tell you that my daughters fell in love with them in Brazil, where they are often served as the dessert at the end of a churrascaria meal.  Fried bananas are also typical market or street food all over Asia.  Turns out that the Portuguese are probably responsible for both.  If Wikipedia is to be trusted, up until 1511, Malaysians ate bananas in their natural state.  When the Portuguese arrived, they brought with them the flour necessary to make batter and their method of frying bananas, which then spread throughout the region.  So hats off to the Portuguese and let’s fry some bananas!

Many thanks to the Google+ Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia Cuisine Community, led by the talented and kind +Azlin Bloor, who generously allow me to be part of their group and who helped me settle on a recipe for the batter.  You all rock!

Ingredients
3/4 cup or 95g all-purpose flour
1/4 cup or 40g rice flour (not glutinous rice flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1 -1 1/4 cups water, or just enough to make the batter thick enough to stick to the bananas
Oil for deep frying – I use canola
4-5 medium-sized ripe - but not too soft - bananas

Powdered sugar – optional but not traditional – for serving
(Some fancy restaurants in Asia also serve these now, sometimes with ice cream.)

Method
Combine your flours, baking powder and salt in a big mixing bowl.


Beat your egg with a little water to loosen it and pour it in the mixing bowl.



Keep stirring and adding water until your batter is thin enough to drip off the whisk but still thick enough to cling to a banana.



Heat oil in pan or wok over medium flame to about 365°F or 185°C.  This is the temperature on my candy/deep frying thermometer which is suggested for doughnuts.

Peel and slice bananas in half widthwise then lengthwise.


Coat bananas in batter, and deep-fry in the hot oil for just a few minutes, or until bananas are golden brown and crispy.




Drain on paper towels.


Sprinkle on a little powdered sugar, if desired.  I did because I think it looks pretty.


Enjoy!

Be careful with that first bite.  The banana inside will be hot!



Bread on the Boulevard
  • Martabak (stuffed pancake or pan-fried bread)
from The Urban Mrs
  • Pao de Queijo
  • from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
  • Socca
  • from Curious Cuisiniere
    Hand-Held Savory Eats
    To-Go Containers
    Sweets on the Streets
    Grab a Thermos

    Monday, July 8, 2013

    Banana Walnut Muffins #MuffinMonday


    With apologies to David Attenborough and the BBC Natural History Unit

    (Cue hushed voice)  If we observe closely, we can witness a natural phenomenon of the expat life.  Preparations for the Great Expat Migration, likened only to the circular migration of the wildebeests through the Serengeti for sheer volume of participants, begin in March or April with bookings on public conveyances.   Historically, this meant ships, but now, more likely, airplanes.  In the Northern Hemisphere the actual migration begins in early June, as formal institutes of learning close for an extended period through the heat of the summer months. 

    We can observe the migrants in various states of readiness.  The elder females clear out stockpiles of clothing that no longer fit their young and make donations to the local community.  Farewell rituals are observed with parting gifts and potlucks.  Graduates are feted.  Tears are shed and bags, one inside another, are packed with skeleton wardrobes:  a few pairs of shorts, shirts and underwear, plus a possible indigenous hostess gift or two, because supplies can and will be purchased along the circular migratory path.  

    Migrants en route are readily apparent by the almost complete lack of male adults on the initial leg of the journey, as mothers and their young board airplanes to reconnect with their original countrymen and home cultures for the duration of the summer season.  We follow the migratory path for the next two months as these wanderers traverse borders, staying a few days or a few weeks at a time with obliging relations and friends, gorging on favorite foods and imbibing excessive libations of a celebratory nature, and, most essentially, stocking up on necessary supplies for the return journey and the nine months before the next migration.  

    Old friendships are reaffirmed and local dialects are used again.  Bewildered offspring are immersed in the culture of their parents’ heritage, which often includes being obliged to kiss aged relations in the matriarchal or patriarchal line and permit the pinching of young cheeks.  These family rituals are an attempt to transmit family values, history and culture from one generation to the next.  Male adult members often join the migration at some point, upon which the ritual or tradition called Family Holiday (BritE) or Family Vacation (AmE) ensues.  This is met by much jubilance among the youngsters and relief from the older females.  Varying from family to family, seasonal migration traditions may also include family reunions, with inexplicable matching t-shirts for all participants, adults and children alike. (Which would make a whole 'nother post.)

    St. George's Island, Florida, circa 2002

    First cousins

    Then finally, with suitcases at capacity and appetites sated, more tears are shed and farewells are exchanged as our travelers complete the migratory circle, returning to their expat homes just in time for the start of the new school year.  

    According to a United Nations projection, there might well be over 200 million expats in this big world, depending on your exact definition of expat.  How many are in the migration circle, even as I type?  Are you?  Leave me a comment!  I finished my circle early this year and Dubai is feeling pretty empty. 

    But enough fun with social anthropology.  Since it’s Monday, you know I’ve got a muffin for you.  

    Ingredients
    2 cups or 250g flour
    2 teaspoon baking powder
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    5oz or 140g light brown sugar
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    2 eggs
    1/3 cup or 80ml canola
    1/2 cup or 120ml milk
    2 large, ripe bananas
    About 3/4 cup or 75g walnuts
    12 walnut halves and powdered sugar (optional for decorating)

    Method
    Preheat your oven to 375F° or 190°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing or lining with paper muffin cups. 

    In a large bowl mix together your flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and brown sugar.  



    In a smaller bowl, whisk your milk, canola oil and eggs, along with the two ripe bananas.  




    Chop your walnuts.  


    Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  



    Now fold in the chopped nuts. 



    Evenly distribute the batter among the muffin cups.  



    Top with one walnut half per muffin, if desired. 



    Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.



    Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Remove the muffins from the muffin pan and finish cooling on a rack.  


    Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar – optional, but look how pretty! 


    Enjoy!