If You Have Bananas and Sour Cream...

I love this recipe. I have made banana breads and banana cakes, but by far, I love this recipe the most. I love Rose Beranbaum's cake recipes. Period. This is by far the most tender and yummiest banana cake I have ever tasted. I attribute it all to the sour cream and mixing technique. One thing I love about Rose's cake recipes is that she incorporates her knowledge in food science into her cookbooks. I am a lover of recipe elaborations, explanations, tips and the like. This may have been due to my lack of knowledge in cooking and baking in the first place when I first became a wife, such that when I tried recipes of Malaysian food, many turned out into chicken feed. For years I gave up trying and focused on baking and western cookbooks instead, as they are more like chemistry, and should I say, more organized (well most are at least). And after gaining some food chemistry know how, I returned to my attempts at Malaysian food, and lo and behold, alhamdulillah, at least some of them were fit for consumption.

Anyway, like I said, this is by far my favorite banana cake recipe. The sour cream produces a very tender cake, and the lemon zest lends a delightful fragrance and wonderful tang, in addition to the sour cream. If you don't like your banana cake to look brown though, put off blending the bananas until you're ready with the dry ingredients, so they don't have time to oxidize (did I tell you I love food facts?), and you will get a light colored banana cake, with Allah's permission. It is also from this recipe that I concocted an allergy free version for Zeyoudee, which can be found here.

Taken from Rose Beranbaum's Cake Bible,

Cordon Rose Banana Cake

2 large ripe bananas (about 1 cup)
2 Tbs sour cream (for extra moistness you can use up to 1/2 cup)
2 eggs
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 C sifted cake flour
3/4 C + 2 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
10 Tbs unsalted butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease and line pans. You can use an 8x8, or one 9 inch by 2 round pan or even a 9 inch springform pan.
2. In a food processor, or blender, blend the bananas and sour cream until smooth. Then add eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla and blend briefly, just to blend.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt) and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend
4. Add the softened butter and half of the banana mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.
5. Increase to medium speed (high speed if using hand mixer) and beat for 1 1/2 minutes
6. Add the rest of the banana mixture in two batches, and make sure to scrape down the sides between each addition. The batter will develop beautifully as you continue beating (the beauty is in the technique Rose has developed)
7. Pour batter into the prepared pan/s and smooth the surface. I always create a slight dip in the middle of the batter and bring them to the sides so that when the cake naturally domes, it will be somewhat level and not too domed in the middle.
8. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or till cake springs back when lightly pressed.
9. Cool cake in pan on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes, and then invert cake out of pan and cool completely.


Or you can also immediately dig in while it's still hot, and emanating a wafting aroma of banana and lemon. At least that's what my son did, despite me telling him to leave some for his father. I had sliced the square cake into strips and let them eat half of the cake and they devoured it uninhibitedly of course. I left, and when I returned, the other half was literally butchered, the culprit having moved away from the crime scene as far as he could. At the end of the day, there were two pieces left in the pan which went in the fridge. When I saw it, I told hubby and believe it or not, when he went for those pieces later on, he found the pan empty (but still in the fridge).

"Good joke, good joke!" he said.

Alas, he didn't get a taste of that cake. The kids beat him to it. He took revenge (not sure for that particular incident or an accumulated ice cream incidents in whci the kids would eat almost the whole tub and leave a measly bit for their parents) by eating more than half of the tub of ice cream. When the kids took the tub out to get some, they exclaimed,

"Hey! Who ate so much?"

Of course, they accused each other, and when it turned out that none of them did it, and hey, I didn't do it, the only person left to accuse was their father. Ahh...revenge is truly sweet when it involves ice cream. I guess.

Ma'aloubeh (Meat, potato, rice hotpot)

This month when I made my menu, I was tired of the same old, same old recipes. So off I went to the library to check out some new cookbooks. And I chose several recipes that I have never made before from them. This was the first "new" recipe I made and it turned out great, alhamdulilah. It is taken from The Food of Israel by Sherry Ansky. Tomorrow I will make my first attempt at kibbeh. I did modify this recipe a bit so I will give you my version, based on the recipe from the book. And this time I made sure to get some good pictures!

Ingredients:

3 cups (720 g) rice
2 teaspoons of salt
4 lbs chicken or lamb (divided into pieces)
1/2 cup of olive oil
3-5 potatoes (peeled and sliced thick)
3-5 carrots (peeled and halved if necessary)
1 medium onion (cut into thick slices)
a handful of green onions chopped
1 cauliflower (divided into florets)
butter

Herb Mixture (recipe called for saffron, but it is expensive so they had an alternative):
pinch of ground clove
1/2 tsp of black pepper, ground cardamom, cinnamon, allspice, and ground ginger, and turmeric (mainly for the color that it provides without the price of saffron)

Soak the rice in cold water for one hour, rinse, and drain.

In a dutch oven, heat half the oil and brown the chicken pieces (I used boneless skinless chicken breast for this first try, and in the future I am going to use bone-in chicken since the chicken did get a bit dry).



Remove the chicken to a bowl. In the pan with the browned bits and left oil, fry the herb mixture for just a minute or two until the flavors meld. To that add 6 cups of chicken broth. Bring it to a boil (while scraping the bits off the bottom, it adds good flavor), then add back in the browned chicken, along with any juice in the bowl, and lower the temperature to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes. When the time is up remove the chicken to the bowl, and reserve the cooking liquid.


(it is a lot of liquid, make sure you have a large bowl or several small bowls :-)

In a separate frying pan heat the other half of the oil to med-high heat.



Fry the vegetables separately, first the potatoes, then the carrots, and last fry the onions (green and white) until they are soft and then add the cauliflower florets and fry the onions with the cauliflower.

Now for assembly! In the dutch oven that the chicken was cooked in, wipe it out with some clean napkins once it has cooled. Then coat the inside with butter, for me it took about a tablespoon to coat it nicely.



First layer the potatoes across the bottom of the pot. Next make a ring around the outside of the pot on top of the potatoes with the carrots.



Inside the ring of carrots place the cauliflower/ onion mixture.



On top of the veggies place the meat. Once that is all in the pot spread the rice evenly over all of it. And then pour all of the reserved broth over everything. Cover the pot.

Place the pot on high heat for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to a low simmer and continue cooking for another 15 minutes.



To serve place a large (and it needs to be really big) serving platter over the top of the pot and in one quick motion (I had the hubby do this part) invert. Slowly lift the pot and ta-da!



Be very careful as you lift the pot, we didn't have a large round serving platter so we used the largest sheet pan we had. As we lifted the pot we moved it a bit from left to right to keep everything on the sheet. There will be leftovers unless you are serving a very large family. We reheated the next day by adding just a bit of chicken broth to keep things moist, but be careful not to add to much of it will turn the rice mixture to mush.

Latkes (Potato Pancakes)

When I was little, I loved to visit my grammie. And she would always make latkes at least one day for lunch while we were visiting. Now that I have found a recipe that compares somewhat to hers I am thrilled. We always at our latkes with a big dollop of cottage cheese on the side. Delicious! And it is super simple recipe. These have great potato flavor because of the use of the potato starch.

4-5 medium potatoes
1 egg
salt and pepper
canola oil
cheesecloth

Peel the potatoes. Then line a bowl with the cheesecloth (if you don't have this I have used a thinner kitchen towel, just be sure to rinse it after so it doesn't get stained from the potato starch), and shred the raw potatoes into the bowl. When all of the potatoes have been shredded wring as much of the liquid out of them with the cloth as possible into the bowl. Let this liquid sit for 5 minutes in the bowl. While it sits, heat oil in a large frying pan, enough to cover the bottom of the pan, to med-high heat. Once the liquid sits for 5 minutes the potato starch in the liquid settles to the bottom of the bowl, pour off just the liquid and not the potato starch (the starch in the bottom kind of looks like elmers school glue). Whisk together the egg, salt and pepper to taste and the potato starch. Then add in the shredded potatoes and mix it all up with a fork. Fry them a couple at a time in the oil until golden brown. I hold them in the oven on a cookie sheet at 200 degrees until I am finished cooking all of them.

My hints:

I use a 1/4 cup measure to keep them all about uniform size.
To get that nice creamy consistency in the middle when you first put them into the pan smash them down with the underside of the spatula.

When Kids Make Bread

I'm probably known as the 'Bread Lady', at least for a while, to the Malaysians in D.C., as a result of this particular filled sweet bread. One Ramadan, the Malaysians asked if I could make 'more' for post Taraweeh. In Malaysia, there is a post tarawih indulgence, called more, which is usually a sweet porridge caller Bubur Caca. When the Malaysian Students Department staff paid a visit to Columbus that year, as they usually do each Ramadan, the Malaysian Student Association here had asked if I could make something for the iftar or more. They were to pay me for the cost, as funding was already available for this. I decided to make 200 small individual cream cheese rolls. All praises to Allah, it was a hit. I received suggestions to open a bakery or business. But that was not all. The next year, we went to D.C. for a conference, and stayed over at one of the staff's house. Our visit also included a tour in the Malaysian Embassy. That was when I realized that it wasn't just a hit, it had become history.

"So when are you going to make us more of that bread?" they kept asking me.

Their wives also asked me or told me about my 'bread'. I was flabbergasted. Of course, I smiled it off and made some awkward replies. I have to say that this recipe is quite fool proof, and the proof lies in the rise of the 'Bread Lady'.

Truth be told, I don't remember where I garnered this recipe from, but it is one of the best bread recipes I have tried in my bread-making endeavors. So far, I have filled it with the cream cheese filling, savory sardine cooked in tomato sauce filling, and chocolate cheese filling and orange cheese filling. Cream cheese filling is the favorite though.

One day, the kids decided to make this bread, all by themselves. I was quite hesitant, well, more like lazy to make it, because due to Baby Zayoudee's allergies, and my nursing him, I couldn't eat it anyway. So they got the green light from me and with minimal supervision from me, they labored in the kitchen making this bread.
This bread dough is not the one intended for this recipe, actually. The original bread dough recipe uses sour cream, which produces a much much more softer bread. Since I don't usually use sour cream for anything other than baking, I don't usually have it in my pantry. Nevertheless, this particular bread dough recipe is versatile and in my humble opinion, works very well for this Cream Cheese filled bread.

There is just something about braids that appeal to me. And apparently the kids too. Thus they decided to shape the bread like a Challah. Shaping the bread as individual rolls filled with the filling works too. It's pretty much any shape you want it to be, though with the filling, it can get pretty messy if you're not used to it. The other loaf, I shaped (yes, I finally plunged into the bread making activity too) simply into a rectangle that I spread with the filling. I enclosed it, seaming all sides, and then snipped the edges lengthwise at an angle, just enough to produce the second fat loaf in the photo below.

2 packages active dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp)

2/3 sugar divided ; 1 tsp + remaining

1 c warm water (105 -115 F)

1 tsp salt

1/2 c butter/margarine, softened

1/2 shortening

1 c boiling water

2 eggs beaten

6-7 c all purpose flour divided; 3 c + remaining

Filling:
3/4 c sugar
2 16 oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

1. Dissolve yeast with 1 tsp sugar and 1 c warm water2. Let stand 5 minutes

3. Combine remaining sugar, salt, butter, and shortening

4. Add boiling water, stirring till the butter and shortening melt

5. Cool slightly

6. Add dissolved yeast, eggs, and 3 c flour and mix till smooth

7. Gradually add enough remaining flour to make soft dough
8. Knead until surface of dough is smooth, and when poked with a finger, the indentation bounces back

9. Place in a greased bowl (oil is ok)

10. Cover and let rise 1 - 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size

11. Punch dough down to get rid of air pockets

12. Knead lightly, not too much, or the bread may not be as soft

13. Divide the dough into four portions.
14. As you work with one portion, keep the rest under the shelter of a clean towel.
15. Shape each as you like, filling it with the filling. For the Challah shape roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick and cut into three strips. Make sure each strip is wide enough for you to spread the filling and fold the seams closed. Braid these ropes into a Challah. Finish shaping all the portions and place them on greased baking sheets/pan, leaving enough room between them because they will double in size.

16. Cover and let rise 30-40 minutes or till doubled. Preheat oven to 325 F.

17. Brush the tops with egg wash (one egg yolk with a little milk, beat to combine) and sprinkle with sugar
18. Bake 20-25 min or till golden

One thing is for sure. Whatever shape you make them, when you sink your teeth into the fluffy softness followed by sweet yet tangy creamy filling, you're going to want to savor it for as long as you can.

Easy Crispy Baked Eggrolls

I made these tonight because I didn't want to pull out the fryer. And this way is healthier any way. They tasted delicious. I need to start keeping my camera in the kitchen while I am cooking to take pictures. I went out to take some pictures of the ones that were leftover only to discover that they had all been eaten, so next time insha'Allah. These were nice and crispy and the filling was just right.

1 package of egg roll squares (usually can be found in most supermarkets by the fresh veggies or organic sections)
1 bag of coleslaw mix (cabbage and carrots, shredded)
1 tablespoon of canola or other vegetable oil
some toasted sesame oil
hoisin sauce or my fav Soy Vey Hoisin Garlic

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Saute the coleslaw mix in the tablespoon of canola oil and a tablespoon of the toasted sesame oil. Drizzle some of the hoisin sauce over the coleslaw mix while it is sauteing in the pan. Once the mix is soft, place it in a mesh strainer to remove most of the liquid. Assemble the egg rolls according to the egg roll package. (I use a cornstarch slurry to dab on the edges of the egg roll squares as I roll them, this helps them to hold together and not separate while frying or baking.) Once they are assembled brush all sides of the egg rolls with the toasted sesame oil. Then place them on a cookie sheet and into the oven. Let them brown for 10 minutes, then flip and let them brown for another 10 minutes. It is very important to flip them after ten minutes, otherwise they will burn on one side and not be crispy on the other. I take them out and place them on a plate with paper towels and let them sit for 10 minutes. Enjoy!