Banana cake

bananacake

Originally uploaded by mosli

Oh no! My bananas are over-ripe, time to make… banana bread? again? nah… Everytime I get bananas, i get too many. Now, that’s not a bad thing, because they make perfect fodder for banana bread, muffins, pancakes, etc. But last night I found myself staring at my bananas, feeling bored with the usual old banana options. I do love banana bread, but sometimes you just need to shake up the routine a little bit. Enter banana cake!

Now, I ‘m not a big cake fan.  For birthdays, I usually get pie or an icecream sundae.  This particuar cake however has a texture somewhere between carrot cake and banana bread, so its nice and moist, and with the creamcheese frosting its a fantastic comforting desert.  My directions below are using a food processor (because I don’t have a mixer), but you can easily adapt it for whatever equiptment you may or may not have.

 

Banana Cake

• 3 over ripes bananas
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 stick butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350F. In food processor cream bananas, milk, vanilla, and baking soda, and pour in large mixing bowl.  Cream butter, eggs, and sugar, then add to banana mixture, stirring well.  Add flour, salt and baking powder. Grease and flour oblong baking pan, and bake for 30 minutes.  Frost when cool.

Cream Cheese frosting

• 1 8oz block cream cheese
• 1/2 stick butter
• 2 cups cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla

Cream all ingredients in food processor.  (Isn’t frosting easy to make?)

Pineapple Kuchen

pineapplekuchen

Originally uploaded by mosli

 

Kuchen is German for cake. Simple translation, no? My grandmother used to make rhubarb kuchen every summer. She had a large rhubarb plant in her back yard, and its regular place at picnics was always welcome. Unfortunately for me, rhubarb is the one thing i’m allergic to, no matter how much i like it. So here I adapted grandma’s basic kuchen recipe to match a new fruit, pineapple!

Pineapple is something I love with a passion. I can eat fresh pineapple until the citric acid burns my tastebuds. I also love it cut in slices and grilled for a sweet and smokey desert. So when I found out that Waiter there’s something in my… challenge 18 was pineapple, I jumped at the chance to use it.  It was a bit of an experiment making kuchen with pineapple, but the tastes matched extreemely well, and i’m definately going to be makeing it again.

 

Pineapple Kuchen

• 1/2 fresh pineapple, cut in thin chunks
• 1  1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 2tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix 1 1/4 cups flour, baking powder, 2 tsp sugar. Cut in 1/2 cup cold butter into mix until pea size (I used a food processor). mix in egg and milk, then pat batter into a 9×13″ greased glass baking dish. Cover with a tight layer of pineapple. Mix 3/4 cup sugar, 2 tbsp flour, and cinnamon. Dot the pineapple with butter, then cover with a layer of sugar mixture. Bake for 30 minutes or unitl golden.

 

Update:  the final round-up for this “Waiter” challenge can be found here.

Bougatsa, or Greek custard pastry

bougatsa

Originally uploaded by mosli

In the old fishing village of Tarpon Springs, Florida you can find natural sea sponges, Disney videos in Greek, and rows of restaurantsserving flaming cheese and moussaka.  When we lived near by, my family would take occasional trips to the area if nothing else than the food. One thing that was a must on the list of things to do was to stop at a bakery for desert to go. My mum would get a baklava, but I went straight for the bougatsa.

Bougatsa, the flaky fyllo pastry filled with creamy custard and topped with sweet honey, is for some reason difficult to find outside of Greek enclaves like Tarpon Springs. Its really a shame, because I think that anyone who likes flan or creme brule would love this, if they had the chance. Luckily, after many years of bemoaning the absence of my favourite Greek treat, I found a recipe and made it at home. Its really no harder to make than other custards, and definitely worth the work. But for me, the memories that came with the taste made it all the sweeter.

Ginger Sugar Cookies

gingersugarcookies

Originally uploaded by mosli

After a two day long conference of intermingled attention grabbing awesomeness alternated with poking my supervisor to make sure he’s still awake, complete mental exhaustion fully set in. How do I recuperate? Why, baking of course!

No, seriously. I find baking extremely relaxing and fulfilling. Plus, when you’re done you have some serious yummies to make everything better. This was something extreemly simple: sugar cookies. I changed it around a bit (of course) by using a ginger infused sugar left over as bi-product from making crystallized ginger. If you don’t have this hanging around,  you could just add 1 tbsp ginger powder to the mix. I like using the ginger sugar because it gives it just a subtle, light spice taste and is very much a background player. If you wanted to amp up the ginger, its just as easy as finely dicing crystallized ginger and adding it to the mix. The icing is basic, made with confectioner’s sugar and orange juice.

 

Super Simple Cookie Icing

• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 2 tbsp orange juice or water
• optional: 1 tsp flavoured extract of your choice

mix together well until thick and smooth. Spread on cookies.  See, I told you it was super simple!

 

Carrot Cake Cheesecake

carrotcakecheesecake

Originally uploaded by mosli

 

The first birthday cake I ever made D was a carrot cake. Sweet and moist with fresh grated carrot, pineapple, raisons, and pleanty of extra spices. Luckily for me, I found out that he loved carrot cakes and I had a winner on my hands. So, I kept making it. Then last year I thought I should try something a little different. Behold! The Carrot Cake Cheesecake!

It might sound a little odd at first, but think about it. Cream chesse frosting is the classic topping for carrot cake, and personally I never think that there is enough creamy goodness to get the proper ratio in each bite. When you just combine the two from the beginning, the problem is solved! D liked it so much that when I asked him this year what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he requested this.

 

Carrot Cake Cheesecake

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup + 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 3 1/2 8 oz packages softened cream cheese
• 1/2 cup flour
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup  + 2 tbsp orange juice
• 1 cup finely shreaded carrots
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 325 F. Cut a piece of parchment paper or wax paper to fit in bottom of a 9inch springform pan. Spray parchment and sides with cooking spray. Mix graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon, 3 tbsp sugar, and melted butter to form a wet crumb. Press into bottom of the springform pan and make for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450 F. Cream 3 8oz packages cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and flour. Mix in eggs one at a time, then 1/4 cup orange juice. Mix in shreaded carrots, raisins, and spices. Pour over crust and bake for 20 minutes, then reduce oven to 250 F and keep baking for 55 minutes. Do not remove cheesecake from oven. Turn off the heat and allow to cool inside oven for one hour. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature, remove from spring from pan, then place inside refridgerator for an hour. In a small saucepan melt 1/2 cup sugar with 2 tbsp orange juice. When the two are fully incorporated and the sugar is not grainy, remove from heat and blend with 1/2 package (4 oz) cream cheese. Spread mixture ontop of cheesecake and allow to cool.

Thai sticky rice with mango

stickyrice

Originally uploaded by mosli

mmmm…. yummy. The first time I had Thai sticky rice was at Sweet Basil & La Filipiniana Restaurant in Pittsburgh. D and I braved the frigid December weather to go out for our anniversary. After a bottle of wine and heart-of-palm curry, we decided to splurge on dessert: something we almost never do. The sticky rice was wonderful, surrounded by artistic patterns of kiwi and strawberry sauces. It was so good I knew I had to have it again.

 

Thai Sticky Rice

• 1 cup sticky rice (glutinous or sweet rice)
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sugar

cook rice in a rice cooker with 1 cup water. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan bring coconut milk and sugar to a boil. After the rice is done, put in a small dish and pour sugar coconut milk over the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit until the liquid as been absorbed. I like it with mangos or other fruit like strawberries, kiwi,  or starfruit.

Chocolate covered matzah

chocolatematzah

Originally uploaded by mosli

 

 

Passover has come and gone and once again I find myself with leftover matzah. And no, not just a few sheets that I can find a way to ingest, but an entire box. It seems like this happens every year. So this time I decided to try something new. Chocolate covered matzah!

When I first told D that I wanted to try and make this he asked “Why do you want to make something that tastes like chocolate cardboard?” His faith in my cooking abilities really gets me choked up sometimes. My friend Jana makes this every year, and hers is delicious, so I knew mine would be edible at the least. I never did get her recipe, so I used this one from David Lebovitz. Yum! It turned out so good that D changed his tune and declared that they tasted like chocolate pretzels and I should make them again! Go figure.

Candied Orange Peel

candiedorange

Originally uploaded by mosli

 

I pack a lot of orange, if you hadn’t noticed. Nearly every lunch has at least half of one. I love oranges. They’re sweet but a little tart and i love the way the little pockets of juice burst in the mouth. When my family lived in Florida, we’d go every year to the orange festival and stock up on orange blossom honey (yum!) and regularly pick up fresh orange juice from one of the hundreds of road side stands. It was kind of in that thought that I decied to make candied orange peel for Mother’s Day.

So many people just throw away the peels of oranges, but they are dead useful in so many ways. The peel can be grated for zest and then dried for future use when orange peel is called for. You can use chunks of them with sprigs of rosemary for flabouring roasting chicken. And you can candy them . The candied orange peel, does take time, but its worth it. They are fresh, sweet, taste better than any orange candy you can buy, and you get the added benifit of orange flavoured sugar by-product that you ban make yummy things with (like flan!).

 

Candied Orange Peel

• 4 oranges
• 4 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 bag chocolate chips

Score the peel of the orange in quarters lengthwise. Then peel of the quarters carefully. Cut the peel lengthwise into about 1/4 inch wide strips (the longer they are, the easier they are to handle.  Put the peel in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring the pot to a boil over med-high heat. Drain the orange peel, then repeat two more times. Combine 3 cups of sugar and 1 cup water in the pot over high heat until the mixture begins to boil. Add the peel strips back in, reduce heat to med/med-low and simmer 30-40 minutes until the peels are translucent. Remove the peel strips from the syrup and roll in 1 cup sugar, then place on a cooling rack to dry. Melt the chocolate in a double broiler. Dip dryed sugared peel slice in chocolate and shake off excess, then set on waxpaper to cool and harden. Store in air-tight container.

Orange Kahlua Flan

orangekahluaflan

Originally uploaded by mosli

 

 

There is one cooking mantra that my mum and I often repeat: “What would Joanne do? Add more Garlic!” Joanne is a family friend and the best freakin’ cook I’ve ever met. Everything she makes tastes amazing and you always want more. I would love to have some of her recipies. Unfortunately, I only have three of them. And two of them are sweet (alas, none of that pungent secret ingredient). The other is Kapusta, and I have to experiment with a veggie version of that (if its possible… maybe facon?)

Her recipe for flan is wonderful: rich and creamy. I’ve changed it around a bit (of course) because I have difficulty following directions exactly. Oh come on, all cooks do. More of this, less of that, substitute this…or maybe that’s just me? In this case I had some orange sugar leftover as a bi-product from making candied orange and thought it would be a nice partner with the creamy coffee taste of Kahlua.

 

Orange Kahlua Flan

• 1 cup orange sugar (biproduct of making candied orange)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 12oz can evaporated milk
• 3 or so tbsp Kahlua (or similar)

Melt the orange sugar in a pan until its liquid, then pour into a flan pan or 9″ round pan, swirling to coat evenly, and set aside to cool.  Starting with the eggs and adding one ingredient at a time, whisk together until well blended. Put sugared pan into a larger roasting pan. Fill sugared pan with the custard mixture. Pour hot water into the larger roasting pan until its about 1/2 full. Bake in a 350F oven for 1hour. Then, remove the custard from the water bath and let it cool for a bit before refridgerating for a few hours.  Dip the custard pan in hot water to loosen, then invert onto a serving dish.

Sweet Red Bean Mochi – Ravioli style

red bean mochi

Originally uploaded by mosli

 

I first had mochi in London. There’s a small bakery in Chinatown that has the most beautiful cakes and pastries. My mouth was watering, so I had to get something. Probably because I had no idea what they were, I picked up a tray of mochi in three varrieties: red bean, green tea, and coconut. I’ve been in love with mochi ever since.

There are so many different kinds of mochi and ways to make them.  I made red bean mochi simply because I saw the past at the local asian grocery and got very excited. The technique I used for this was a fast microwave technique.  I seem to have trouble with circles and spheres. They always turn out lopsided. Even my cookies are odd shaped.  So I gave up on the mochi, and assembled them ravioli style (which is why they look so odd).

 

Mochi – Ravioli Style

• 1 cup mochiko
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• food colouring (if you like)
• filling (red bean paste, berries, etc)
• starch (potato, corn, etc.)

Roll your filling into small balls for the center of the mochi, and set aside. Mix mochiko, sugar, water, and food colour in a bowl until well combined. Micowave on high 2-4 minutes, depending on the strength of your microwave (it only took 2 minutes for me). Stir – do not over cook. Give a cutting board and your hands a good dusting of starch. Starch is necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and everthing else. Pull a small bit of dough from the mass and press it into a circle disk. Put filling in the middle and press into a moon shape, then press the two points together.