BANANA BREAD/CAKE

I'm not good in baking and I hate baking, esp baking cakes, cookies, pies, though I'm getting better in baking various breads, but I still suck at baking cakes, even sometimes I failed in making muffin or cupcakes :) .. but once in a while I was challenged when I saw  interesting recipes and was willing to try again..

Today is a lazy Sunday, we woke up late, had a glass of fruit smoothie for breakfast then we went to the store and bought some reduced bananas, they looked so bad on the peels, but the flesh were still good, still smooth and clean.. I immediately  peeled them and stores them in bags for my frozen smoothies.. my DH suggested a fresh banana bread too, so I thought, why not, I have my favorite recipe and have tried it several times with good results.. 

Here is a Banana Bread recipe by Martha Stewart with a bit of modification by me.. oh BTW.. I love watching Martha Stewart cooking shows.. I must admit I learn a lot of cooking/baking tricks from her :)

banana + avocado + mango smoothie 

Banana Bread/Cake ( I prefer calling it cake, I think the texture is closer to cake than bread )

- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan
- 1 cup granulated sugar ( I used 3/4 cup sugar)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup sour cream ( I use plain yogurt )
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

overripe bananas

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside.

-  In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy ( I used my hand mixer)

-  Add eggs, and beat to incorporate.

- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture, and mix until just combined. Add bananas, sour cream/yogurt, and vanilla; mix to combine. Stir in nuts, and pour into prepared pan.
- Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Let rest in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.

- NOTE: I added 1 tsp of cocoa powder and mixed it with 2 tbsp of cake batter, then added it on the middle of the batter, gently swirled with chopstick, then topped with the rest of the batter.. 

cocoa swirl in the middle 

JALAPENO, CHIVES AND CHEESE BREADS

Lately I have been baking more breads, by having fresh breads at home, it makes easier for me to think what to cook or eat for breakfast or brunch, I can have anything for my breakfast, couple pieces of cookies, granola bars, toasts or else ( except for cold cereal or oatmeal, or grits or or or :) ), my DH is not a picky eater, but I know he wont be satisfied with cookies or granola bars only .. so I mostly rotate breakfast quesadilla, hash brown, omelets, quiches but they always come with eggs, cheese and sausage/bacon/meat and I don't like the idea of eating eggs or sausage/bacon everyday, yeah.. sometimes he has a bowl of cereal or grits too..

I found out if I have a bag of fresh bread on my counter, he will take a couple of them and nuke them in microwave.. eats them with his coffee in front of his computer, a batch of bread can last for a few days, so we'd have easy or lazy mornings :) what I need now is try to bake different kinds of bread, one of the easy and delicious dough recipe is The Egg Bread recipe I posted in my previous post, it has become my favorite dough recipe for now

http://beyondfoods.blogspot.com/2014/01/egg-braided-bread_28.html

Today I made it again, I added some jalapeno, chives and cheese, I made it last week and he loves it, so today when I saw some homegrown red jalapenos that he picked yesterday, I decided to make it again, he picked some onion chives too, it perfect to be added in the bread

For this post, I only want to add some pictures to show the easy way to combine all the ingredients

after the second rising, deflate the dough, then divide it into 14 to 16 portions

arrange the pieces in a big circle or square form, depend on the form of the baking pan, then sprinkle the desired toppings, I used chives, jalapenos and cheese

with a scrape or a big knife, randomly cut and fold the dough

random cut and fold

then carefully transfer the whole dough on a greased pan, add more cheese if desired

cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for another 30 minutes

bake in a preheated oven, 350'F for 25 minutes

no knife needed, just pull

GRILLED PORK STEAKS IN LEMONGRASS AND SOY SAUCE

Here is another recipe I want to share today.. it's one of my favorite orders when I went to the Vietnamese restaurants... sometimes I got the good ones.. I mean the tender and juicy ones.. other times I got the tough and dried ones.. no good

We bought these pork steaks.. I don't really like pork steaks/chops, too lean for my taste.. but when my DH pointed and wanted to buy those, I just grabbed them and put in my cart.. I saw there were some fats on them so nothing could go wrong with them.. we are fat eater... and the idea of cooking this stuck in my head..

What we need:
- pork steaks, mine was Shoulder Blade ( I think, can't remember ) steaks with bones and fats on
for marinate:
- 1 stalk of lemongrass, thinly sliced
- 1 big shallot, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp of minced garlic
- 3 Thai chili, chopped
- 1 tsp of freshly ground peppercorn
- 1/2 cup of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of fish sauce
- 2 tbsp of sweet soy sauce ( can be substituted with 1 tbsp of dark brown sugar or honey )
- 2 tbsp of cooking oil

lemongrass

Method:
- mix well all the marinate ingredients
- place pork steaks in a big zip lock bag
- pour in the marinate sauce, give them a gentle massage then let them sit for hours in the fridge
- grill on the char/wood grill.. I love how the fat melts right on the fire, my favorite part :)
- serve with steamed rice and some wine vinegar coleslaw
- or serve with vermicelli and lettuce salad

Vermicelli + lettuce + carrots + cilantro salad.. with fish sauce + wine vinegar + fried garlic oil

CREAM CHEESE ONION BUNS

Not much to do today.. I have some leftover soup for our supper... as we try to cut off our food/meat intake, we did not buy snacks for munching.. but it looks so empty on my counter without packs of snack.. no breads either.. so today I decided to make some buns.. for our breakfast or brunch..  no eggs and sausages breakfast/brunch for a while

I used my favorite bread dough recipe.. using WATER ROUX method.. here is the recipe

http://beyondfoods.blogspot.com/2013/03/salami-and-cheese-buns.html

Instead of salami and cheese, I used 1 pack of Cream Cheese, mix with onion chives and a bit of salt, four blend cheese ( it also calls Mexican Cheese ) and some Parmesan.. it turns out so good.. like always :)