What to do with all those Bananas?

Make Banana Bread!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-banana-bread/

Or turn them into muffins.

I put a chocolate icing on top. Icing is a pretentious word for melting 1/4 cup of chocolate chips with 1 Tbsp of skim milk in the microwave for 30 seconds ... or until it's smooth, liquid and easy to spread. Stir patiently and thoroughly and spread it on the cake immediately. The chocolate will harden quite quickly (in about 5 minutes or so).

And OFCOURSE I substituted half the butter for unsweetened applesauce.

(source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ rakratchada torsap)

Chicken Soup куриный суп

A simple, healthy soup.

What you will need:

4 Whole Chicken thighs, washed
2 medium onions, peeled
2 large potatoes, peeled
1 large carrot, diced
1 stick celery, diced (optional)
1-2 tsp oil or butter
salt
pepper
2 tbsp dill
a dollop of sour cream to serve

1. Take a large soup pot, fill with approximately 12-15 cups of water. Place the chicken in the pot, make sure the chicken is submerged in the water. Add one whole onion in the pot. Cover pot and boil for 40 minutes.
2. In a separate pan, warm some oil. Dice the second onion and add it to the pan. Mildly fry for 5 minutes on medium heat. The onions shouldn't get any colour, they should just soften. The recipe doesn't call for celery, but I added one diced celery into the pan to saute as well.
3. Add the sauteed onions and celery to the soup pot. Add salt, pepper, dill and carrots.
4. Immediately after step 3, Take the chicken out of the pot but keep the soup boiling still.
5. Peel the potatoes. You can add them whole to the soup pot or dice the potatoes and add. Boil for another 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
6. Finally shred the cooled chicken and add to the soup pot. Let the soup come to a boil once more.

And you're done. I've managed to make the recipe look difficult, but it's the simplest thing ever. Enjoy!

Here's a couple of good videos for it:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fTUlJ-lAmk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wVffxH08Eg

Good Eats at Banff

I actually took some pictures of the food I ordered...

So the first place was the Wild Flour which is a wonderful place that serves wholesome, earthy, tree-hugger type food. The food is very delicious. The bakery is attached and you can see the bakers at work while you wait in line to order your food.

The day I took this picture I got the Swiss Cheese, Arugula, Ham and Tapenade pressed panini sandwich. I ended up taking the ham out because I didn't feel like eating meat that day. The sandwich was warm and deeelicious!!

 

The next morning I decided to try something other than a chain for my latte. I chanced upon the first of 3 cafes, all called Evelyn's. Despite there being three of these on the same street that only spans about 5 blocks, I was very happy with what I received. The food was delicious, the view from my chair was perfect for people watching, and the weather was phenomenal... how could I possibly complain? I also ordered the Vegetable Puff Pastry. Little did I know that it was Indian inspired and turned out to be so spicy that I couldn't handle it more than 1 bite every 5 minutes. But it wasn't bad. The filling was ok, but the texture of the pastry was perfect.

 The view I enjoyed...

The Secret to Soft Dough that rolls easily

Well, it took me a while to figure this out, but here it is...

If you want a soft dough using plain, all-purpose flour, then whether or not you add egg, milk, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oil, anything.... doesn't matter... to get soft dough.... (drumroll)....

... Mix the dough with
........................WARM WATER.

The dough will form easily, then let it rest for 15 minutes. The dough will be soft, pliable, easy to work with and will have a very pleasant texture.

Finally! Successful Empanada & Chibureki Dough

This dough comes out flaky when deep fried; the surface is crispy and the inside is soft. Just perfect texture. Don't try anything else. This is it.

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour (unbleached)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp oil/butter
3/4 to 1 cup of luke warm water (tap water is fine)

Method:
1. Mix the dry ingredients.
2. Mix in the oil thoroughly. It should be distributed throughout the flour.
3. Add 1/2 a cup of water and start mixing the flour. Depending on your flour, you could need between 3/4 to 1 cup of water. The dough should NOT be hard.
4. Let rest for 15 minutes.

Tip: When frying Empanadas or Chibureki, the oil has to be quite hot. All this time, I've been frying in oil that wasn't the right temperature. The oil must be so hot that the empanadas will colour in the oil after roughly 2 minutes of frying. That's quite hot!

That's it! Enjoy!

 

Easy Delicious Strawberry Pie

This has now become a staple in our menu.

Ingredients:
1 prepared pie crust, thawed
2-3 cups strawberries, fresh or frozen
2 tbsp lime juice
4 tbsp brown sugar or regular sugar
3 tbsp corn starch
1 package fat free cream cheese, room temperature

Method:
1. Prepare the pie crust as per package directions.
2. Place strawberries, 1 tbsp lime juice and sugar in a pot and set on medium-low heat. Cook for 20 minutes until it gets fairly thick.
3. Mix the cornstarch with 3 tbsp of cold water. Add to the strawberry mixture and stir till it thickens. Cool for 30-45 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl, add 1 tbsp of lime juice to the cream cheese, add 1 tsp of sugar and mix thoroughly.
4. Assemble: Take the pie shell. Spread the cream cheese on the pie. Top with strawberry mixture.

Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes at least. Makes 8 servings at least.

Enjoy!

Awesome & Quick Bruschetta

This is a bruschetta that is absolutely delicious, very quick to make and has quite a strong flavour to it. Instead of doing the traditional thing and toasting sliced bread, my girlfriend put the bruschetta on a triscuit. I modified and put it on a melba toast instead, and it was incredible!! The only thing is, don't put the tomato preparation on the toast until you are about to put it in your mouth, otherwise the toast will get soggy.

Ingredients:
2 medium Hot house tomatoes, diced
2 Tbsp red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
fresh or dry basil
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the above ingredients up. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Put it together:
1. Take 4 pieces of melba toast.
2. Spread 1 tsp of goat cheese on each toast.
3. Just before you are ready to eat, place as much tomato mixture on each toast as you want.

Bite in and enjoy!!!

Another vegan breakfast idea: Mushroom Bruschetta

I've really been challenged with breakfast, after I decided to seriously look into vegetarian or vegan breakfast options. Nothing seems to do the same job as Eggs, Bacon and Toast.

However, I've been slowly shifting my focus. I don't need to be filled with any one food group all the time. In our society, the stress on proteins is quite high. All this time, I was leaning towards it because a small quantity keeps one full for a long time. But now, I'm seeing that that is useful if you eat little quantities everyday or don't have access to food for long periods of time (4-6 hours). Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with eating complex carb meals that have some protein in them. The roughage from vegetables does the trick of keeping you full longer. And more vegetable roughage helps prevent colon cancer. Yay!

So, yesterday while YouTubing, I found this mushroom bruschetta idea. There are two versions. I just married them together.
The two original ideas are:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZCBQQ-gkQE
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ8XJzi2h24

This is my version.

Ingredients:
2 slices bread, 1-2 tsp butter
2 cups Mushrooms sliced (I had 2 large portabella mushrooms)
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup white wine or any wine

1/4 cup red onion diced
2 tsp lime juice
2 tbsp parsley chopped

1. Heat the skilled on medium high. Add the olive oil and garlic.
2. When garlic starts to sizzle, put in the sliced mushrooms and cook till the liquid evaporates and there's a nice light brown colour on the mushrooms. This can take 10 minutes or so.
3. Add the wine and let it evaporate. About 2 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat and place the mushrooms in a glass or metal bowl.
5. Let it cool for 5 minutes.

6. Once cooled, add the onions, lime juice, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.

I didn't toast my bread in the toaster. I pan-toasted it with some butter. You can do either. There's a difference in the amount of moisture that is retained in the toast. The pan-fried version tends to be a bit chewier on the inside. Do whatever appeals to you that day.

Place mushrooms on Toast and ENJOY!!

Crisp, Clean, Carrot Salad

I really dislike carrots, so for me to make this is a testament to how delicious it is. It is light, not too carroty, crisp, refreshing, and tart.

Ingredients:
0.5 kg carrots (roughly 6 medium)
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
salt

1. Peel, wash and grate the carrots.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients. Add salt to taste. Mix thoroughly.
3. Refrigerate the salad for 20-30 minutes.

This goes well with anything. And it's so easy to get 1 serving of vegetable by serving 1/2 a cup of this. So easy. So good.

Really Great Potato Salad

I saw this recipe on Cook's Country (America's Test Kitchen).

The two main tricks are: cooking the potatoes and dicing them well ahead of time so they get cool and retain their shape, and using some sour cream instead of mayonnaise only.

Ingredients:
3-4 large potatoes
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 cup: combine fat free and low fat mayonnaise
3 scallions, chopped
1 celery stalk, minced
2 eggs, hard boiled, chopped
1-2 tsp mustard
salt
pepper

1. Boil the potatoes with skin on. When the potatoes are tender, drain the water and cool the potatoes in the fridge.
2. Once cooled, peel the potatoes, and chop into 1cm cubes.
3. Add all the other ingredients and mix thoroughly.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This potato salad has a great texture whereby the potato doesn't melt in your mouth, but retains it's shape and character. The refreshing near tartness of the sour cream is so soothing. The scallions are milder than onions and the celery is, again, very refreshing.