Torta Di Banana (Banana Cake) ... or is it Banana Bread?

Mentioned 'Banana', most people would love this fruit, especially children (give them to my kid, he will eat almost ½ kg!). Banana comes with variety of colors, sizes and tastes. Basically, bananas are classified into 2 types or groups as 'Dessert Banana' (yellow, soft and sweet when fully ripe) and 'Cooking Banana' (mostly used as green bananas in curry, stew and snacks). Banana is famous among athletes as energy booster besides keeping any hunger pangs at bay :-D In fact, the whole Banana Tree has many uses besides as food (I had a recipe using the Banana Flower in this blog), fertilizer, religious ceremonies and also a new science discovery! If you want to know names of Banana varieties in Southeast Asia, here's a page in Malay language if you're interested but excluding Pisang Ambon which is a Dutch made green-banana flavoured liqueur :-P

By the way, any foodies received emails or read about Japanese researchers found that fully ripe bananas with dark spots or patches has higher immunity enhancements quality? Whether it's true or not, I love bananas and so did everyone else! On the other hand, if it's true, am sure Pharmaceutical companies are not happy with the news :-) You can read some of the reports about benefits of banana and other superfoods that help to boost our immune systems here and here. I hope any Japanese foodies out there who had came across such informations to post comments and links in my blog.

When I was in Belgium recently, I discovered a pure Banana Purée/Juice by Delhaize with no added sugar, additives, coloring or from concentrate. It became an instant hit especially with my boy who loves to drink it besides milk. When we're back in Southeast Asia, everyday he would asked for it... sigh... Anyway, I encouraged him to taste the many varieties of fresh banana available locally. He still asked for it occasionally and I would made him Banana Lassi or whole banana ice cream (just freeze any ripe bananas and whizzed it). This leads to the recipe I wanted to share. It's currently one of my son's favourite item when I have surplus of bananas. The recipe is simple and contains no artificial flavorings or colorings. I like to serve it straight from the oven, hot with butter and freshly brewed coffee or tea. You can freeze any left overs and warm them up later. If you like (which I'm sure you would and love it!) pay a visit to David Lebovitz's Banana Bread, or Banana Cake explaining of the confusion which I had as well when I baked this banana cake or is it banana bread? :-D

...is it a Cake or a Bread???

... sliced it thick and serve with butter or any of your favourite spread!

Torta Di Banana (Banana Cake)

Serves 1 Loaf

4 Bananas (about 300 g, peeled)

250 g Flour-sifted

½ tsp Baking Powder - sifted

½ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda - sifted

240 g Raw Caster Sugar/White Caster Sugar*

220 g Butter

4 Large Eggs (I used about 65 g-70 g egg)

125 ml Plain Yogurt (optional)

Method:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180º C/160ºC fan force.

2. Peel and mash the bananas but not until watery. (I like to taste little chunks of banana in the cake). If you're using yogurt, add it in when mashing the banana.

3. Cream the butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and continue to whisk until fluffy.

4. Add in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Stir well and add in the mashed banana. Continue to stir until ingredients mix well but not over mix.

5. Rub a cake mould/loaf tin with some butter and dust with with some flour. Knock off any access of flour. Pour the batter into the mould (you can also use 2 small loaf tins for this recipe but reduce the cooking time).

6. Bake in preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until cooked when a tester comes out clean.

Note:

Sometimes, I add about 125 ml of plain yogurt to the mashed bananas in the recipe to give it a nice fluffy texture and also the sourness of yogurt helps the bananas from turning brown.

* If you use Raw Caster Sugar, you will have a darker banana cake like in my photos. :-)

The verdict of this recipe... :-)

Enjoy!

Roasted Yogurt Chicken In Ghee

I love Indian food because of the cuisine's usage of herbs and spices that I grew up with. When you mentioned Indian food, first thing came into people's mind was images of red chillies floating in reddish coconut milk gravy, grounded spices, sweating red faces and tongue wagging with glasses of cold ice water (a bucket, maybe?) or lassis in one hand. I even have friends/relatives whom mentioned the word 'curry' would made them pale-faced and avoid any shops or restaurants that serve 'curry' like plague! They rather starved than tasting it...even if it's only Kurma based dishes! Is not like that at all... There are other dishes that's not going to make you swallowed that bucket of ice in front you at a gulp! 

The meaning of 'Curry' is derived from South Indian - Tamil word 'kari' which means sauce or relish for rice. It refers to wide range of spicy-sauced dishes as accompaniment to rice and bread. Another red alert word for newcomers in Curry World is 'Spicy'. It's a magic word that sends out for a fire brigade on stand-by... :-D It actually means seasoned with or containing spice that ranges from aromatic, sweet, sour, peppery, zesty to piquant or pungent like cardamom, cinnamon, tamarind, black pepper, asafoetida, chillies, tumeric, etc, etc,etc. That means you could have Rasam which is sourish to peppery taste next to Meen Curry Fish -  a Kerala dish with thick and quite spicy-hot gravy. See what I mean? Yet this couldn't bring the house down compared to Thai Red Curry or Thai Curried Beef... :-D 

I'm not sure of other foodies taste buds regarding spicy and hot cuisines but from my own experiences and friends, it's a hate-love situation. You would have a group with eyes lit up with 'Where? Where?' sign written on their foreheads and even could hear slurping sound somewhere by just mentioning the word 'curry' and another group, frowning their faces, ready to get a roll of toilet paper. Well, I do have friends who are a bit sensitive to curry but... it's ok if it's Tandoori. I don't know why... I do felt sorry for them that I kept 1 - 2 toilet paper rolls wrapped up nicely inside one of the back side compartment of my car. You know, on the safe side when the gang suddenly changed their minds in last minutes to go Indian or Thai food instead of Chinese fare... I do say that we're a bit... no, too spoilt of choices in food in Malaysia and I LOVE IT!!!

Anyway, I wanted to share this dish. It's a family favourite and I usually served it with Briyani Rice and vegetables.

Roasted Yogurt Chicken in Ghee

500 g chicken/breast meats, drumsticks or your choice (clean & cut into chunks)

150 ml Ghee

1 nos. Green Lime (extract the juice)

2 nos Red Onion/Bombay Onion (sliced thinly into rings)

2 cloves Garlic } blend/pound together 

3 cm  fresh Ginger  } until fine paste

250 ml ready-made Natural yogurt (plain & no sugar added)

2-3 medium size potatoes-cut into wedges

1 nos medium size carrot - cut into rounds/wedges

300 ml Water or as needed

3 nos Cloves

2 nos Cardamom

3-4 cm Cinnamon bark

1 nos Star Anise

1 Tsp Tumeric powder

1 Tsp Chilli paste

Chilli powder to taste

1 Large Ripe Tomato - cut into quarters

Onion cripies (fried crispy shallots)

Salt to taste

Oven-proof pot/deep casserole dish (like Pyrex/Corningware)

1. Pre-heat the oven @ 180 ºC.

2. In a casserole (that's big enough for the chicken) heat the ghee until is hot.  

3. Add in the chicken, lime juice, big onion, tumeric, chilli paste and a little salt. Stir and leave it for few minutes until it boils.

4. Add in the potatos wedges and carrots. Stir until well mix and let them cooked until soften a bit.

5. Pour in the yogurt and add in some water (adjust to your liking if you prefer to the dish to have more gravy or less because vegetables will give out juices as well.) Cook until meat is tender.

6. Add in the quarterd tomatoes, chillie powder and fried crispy shallots. Bake in the oven @ 180 º C for 10-15 minutes until brown.

Serve hot with rice or naan, bread, chapatis...

Note: If you like it more hot or spicy, just add extra chilli powder or fresh chillies.. :-D Sometimes, I used extra spoonfuls of Ghee I made myself by using unsalted butter. If you can't find unsalted butter, you can use salted butter to make Ghee but reduce the amount of salt required in the recipe. More Ghee means better aroma your dish is but watch out the cholesterol level...