The Long Cold Winter Blues

This time of year is plain depressing.  Right around Valentine's Day seems to be my breaking point, when I am fed up with winter and ready to move into the next season.  Alas, this is Iowa, and that's not very likely to be happening.

This slushy fruit concoction helps, though.  It's tart, and tangy, and practically made of liquid sunshine. 

This is one of those lost-chord recipes. I knew I wanted to make it, I knew I'd made it before - but do you think I could find the recipe anywhere?  Nope.  So I had to recreate it from memory.  Feel free to change up the fruits to suit your own preferences. 

My first attempt ended up too tart (almost an "Oops" post!), so we ate the fruit with Splenda on top this morning.  Jeffrey laughed at how I squinched my face up to eat the too-sour-for-me fruit!  Later, I thawed what was left, added quite a bit more Splenda to taste, and refroze.  I try not to get too worked up when things don't work out right the first time.  Most cooking mistakes are fixable, as long as you don't let the Perfectionist bug bite you.  As a musician, I know that most likely I'll have to practice to get something just right.  :)

This refreshing fruit cup is ideal for a brunch or bridal shower, or anytime you want breakfast to be special.  The sunshine orange juice- flavored fruit  is a great wake up for a lazy Saturday.  I made the recipe using diet soda and Splenda, because the fruit already has a lot of natural sugar, as does the juice.


Frozen Fruit Cup

2-4 bananas, mashed
1 12-ounce can frozen orange juice, thawed
1 12-ounce can frozen lemonade, thawed
1 cup diet OR regular lemon lime soda, such as Sierra Mist or 7-UP
1 cup Splenda OR white sugar
8 ounces strawberries
8 ounces pineapple
1/2 cantaloupe

1.  In a large mixing bowl, mash several bananas with a fork.  Pour in the thawed orange juice and lemonade concentrates and the soda pop.  Mix well.  Add Splenda or sugar.

2. Dice the strawberries, pineapple and cantaloupe into small pieces.  Add to the juice mixture.  Stir to combine well.   Taste, and if the mixture is too tart for your preference, add more Splenda or sugar in 1/4 cup increments until you are satisfied with the flavor.

3.  Ladle the fruit mixture into serving dishes.  Custard cups work great, or you can use clear disposable plastic cups. For longer freezer storage, use small lidded plastic containers that are freezer-safe.  Cover and freeze overnight.  Take out about an hour before serving.  The fruit should be a slushy consistency when you serve it.  Yum!

Banana Bread

I grew up eating banana and pumpkin breads.  This is the version I've made ever since I learned how to cook.  It doesn't have any nuts in it, because I was kind of a picky kid and hated nuts. 

As an adult, I really like them in baked goods, but I thought I'd make the kid-version this week.  If you like, you can add 1/2 cup of either chopped walnuts or pecans after all the flour is mixed in. 

This is a great recipe to make when:  1.  You overbought bananas, and they've turned spotty and brown;  and 2.  You think you don't have time to bake.  There's a reason they're called Quick Breads!  Other than the oven time, this takes maybe 10 minutes tops to mix up.


Juli's Plain Jane Banana Bread

½ cup                    butter, softened

1 ½ cups               white sugar
2                          eggs
½ cup                    sour cream
1 teaspoon            baking soda
1 cup                     mashed ripe bananas
2 cups                   flour

1.  Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease a non-stick loaf pan.  I used butter-flavor cooking spray.

2.  Cream butter and sugar together.  Add eggs, sour cream, and baking soda and mix well.  Add mashed bananas and mix until smooth and silky.

3.  Add flour a little at a time and mix well.  Pour mixture into greased loaf pan and bake 55-60 minutes.  Test for doneness with a clean butter knife, right in the center of the loaf.  That's the part most likely to be undercooked.

Yep, the center fell a little bit.  Still tastes great!

Just Dessert

As I've mentioned previously, on Saturday I tossed together a quickie dessert of grilled bananas served over vanilla ice cream.  It isn't exactly the world's most complex recipe, but it sure was tasty.

Grilled Bananas

yield= serves 2, but the recipe is doubled easily enough to serve four

2     barely-ripe bananas (look for ones with a bit of green
       still on the peels)
1     tablespoon lime juice
1     teaspoon dark rum
1/2  cup dark brown sugar
1     teeaspoon ground cinnamon
2     dishes vanilla ice cream

Peel the bananas.  Cut each banana in half at the midpoint, then cut each half lengthwise, thus dividing each banana into 4 long chunks.

Mix the lime juice and rum in a small, flat dish.

Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon on a small plate. 

Dip one banana chunk in the lime/rum mixture, turning it to wet all sides.  Press both sides of the banana chunk in the sugar/cinnamon mix to lightly coat it on al sides.  Place the sugar-coated banana chunk on a plate and repeat with each banana piece.

Place the banana chunks on the grill over direct heat.  If the heat is low, cook the bananas for 3 minutes, turning once; if the heat is medium, cook for 1 1/2 minutes total.

Serve immediately by placing four grilled banana chunks in each dish of ice cream.

Chicken and Banana Curry: A Successful Experiment

Around this time last year, we got away to Omaha for a long weekend.  While there, we ate at one of our favorite Indian restaurants, the Indian Oven, located in the Old Market district.  It's a well-established restaurant, having been there for 20 or more years, and the food there is dependably good. 

On that particular visit, the Indian Oven had something different on the menu, some sort of Indian fusion dish involving bananas and chicken with a sweet, tangy curry gravy.  It was excellent.  A few weeks ago, while making plans for another long weekend getaway, I recalled that recipe.  Having been doing a fair bit of Indian cooking of late, I got to wondering how they'd made that dish.  I really have no idea, and we haven't had time to go to Omaha to order it again so I can try to figure it out (assuming it's even still on the menu). 

Nonetheless, thinking about that dish inspired me to try my hand at making a banana and chicken curry, one incorporating some tried-and-true Indian spices and cooking techniques with some different flavors to create something hopefully both unique... and good.

I went through three or four attempts at making up a preliminary recipe like that before coming up with a rough draft that I thought might work, or at least be a step in the right direction.  Last night I finally got around to taking my recipe prototype for a test drive.  

We were both quite pleased with the results.   I changed the amounts of a few things as I went, after tasting the dish in-progress and observing how it was coming together.  The final product was everything I'd hoped for:  sweet and spicy, with a bit of sour undertone added by the lime juice.  The banana slices and the almonds provide a variety of textures, and the gravy is thick yet smooth, and quite flavorful.

I'm not sure the version posted below, which incorporates the changes made while preparing it, is going to be the final version, but I think it's good enough to share as-is while I consider some fine-tuning.  Hopefully some of our readers will decide to give it a try and provide us with some feedback, and perhaps some suggestions for improving the dish. 

If you do try it, we hope you'll enjoy it.


Our busy kitchen


Notes:
This recipe incorporates some spices and ingredients not common to American cooking, but which are quite common in Indian cooking.  The spices can all be found easily enough in a good Indian or Asian grocery, or at Penzey's (stores or online).  Likewise, fine shredded coconut is available at good Indian and Asian grocery stores.   






Chicken and Banana Curry

2     tablespoons sliced almonds
2     tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
2     pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat and cut into bite-
       size chunks
2     teaspoons minced garlic
2     teaspoons garam masala
1     teaspoon powdered turmeric root
1/2  teaspoon salt
1/2  teaspoon chili powder
3     tablespoons vegetable oil
1     teaspoon cumin seed
1/2  teaspoon brown mustard seed
1     large onion, finely chopped
1     2-inch piece of ginger root, peeled and grated
2     green hot chili peppers (Asian or Jalapeno), seeded and minced
3     firm, just- ripe bananas
1     cup coconut milk
1     tablespoon lime juice
1     teaspoon cinnamon

Heat a small skillet to medium heat.  Reduce heat to low and dry-roast the almonds for about 1 minute, turning them constantly with a spatula or wooden spoon. Add the coconut and continue to dry-roast, stirring continuously, until the almonds and coconut are just starting to brown.  Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside the almond/coconut mix.

Cut up the chicken and place it in a large bowl.  Add garlic, garam masala, turmeric, salt, chili powder and 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil.  Stir to cover the chicken in the spice/oil mix, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat.  When the oil is hot enough that it starts to shimmer, add the cumin seed and mustard seed, stirring for about 30 seconds.  The seeds should sputter in the hot oil.  Add the chopped onion and fry it until it is starting to brown. Add the grated ginger, stir and continue to fry until the onion is golden brown.  Add the chicken + spice/oil mixture and the minced chili peppers.  Brown the chicken, stirring occasionally.

Peel the bananas and cut them into half-inch slices.  Put half of the banana slices into a bowl and mash them smooth with the coconut milk.   Add the banana/coconut milk mix to the pan with the chicken.  Stir and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add the lime juice.  Stir and cook for another 2 minutes or so.  Add and mix in the cinnamon, then remove the skillet from the heat and transfer the contents to a serving bowl.

Add the rest of the banana slices and stir until the banana slices are coated with the gravy.  Top with the toasted almonds and coconut and serve with basmati rice.

Along with the chicken and banana curry, I prepared a vegetarian dish with chickpeas, sweet potatoes and spinach in a spicy tomato sauce while Juli made the rice.  This was the first time I'd prepared this particular dish, which was taken from a book titled New Curries by Pamela Clark.  It turned out to be quite good.

And with that, dinner was ready.