Banana Cake

It's delicious - Isabella

Banana Cake

115 grams of butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 mashed bananas (the older and browner the better)

2 tbs milk

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup flour

1 tsp of baking powder

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg, eggs and bananas and mix.

Heat milk and stir in soda, it will be froth up a little. Mix into butter, banana etc mixture. (At this stage I add chocolate chips...about 1/2 - 1 cup)

Sift in four and baking powder. Mix only until the dry ingredients are combined.

Pour into greased, lined baking tin or individual muffin cases.

Bake at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes or until a fork poked into the middle comes out clean.

Chop Suey

Our school is quite a multicultural mix with around 25 different ethnicities.  At special events where there is food one of my all time favourites is Chop Suey - the Samoan version.

Mum had lessons from some of the school mums and made some at home. It was pretty good but wasn't bang on the original one I love.

She used this recipe for amounts of ingredients. The new thing we had not added before was oyster sauce. Mum used more chicken and veges than the one at school usually has.

http://www.bite.co.nz/recipe/10391/Chop-suey/

Chop Suey

Ingredients

250 g	Vermicelli
5 cloves	Crushed garlic
1	Large onion, diced
3 cm	Fresh ginger, grated
500 g	Blade steaks, or chuck steak, trimmed and cut into thin strips (we used chicken)
⅔ cup	Soy sauce
2 Tbsp	Oyster sauce
2 cups	Mixed vegetables, fresh (we used ribbons of carrot and yellow courgette for colour)

Directions

1. Cover vermicelli in boiling water and soak until softened.
2. Heat a little oil in a deep-sided frying pan, add onion, garlic and ginger and cook until soft.
3. Turn up the heat, add the meat and fry until well coloured, then add the soy sauce and simmer for 3 minutes.
4. Drain the vermicelli and chop it roughly with kitchen scissors.
5. Add to the pan along with the oyster sauce and vegetables.
6. Simmer for 5 minutes until the vermicelli has taken on a brown colour.

Strawberry, Coconut, Raspberry Banana Bread

I've looked at different fruit bread recipes and thought they just seemed odd - not a cake and not a loaf but I've changed my mind. Isabella and I had a 'girls' holiday in Melbourne staying with friends. One morning walked to the local cafe for breakfast. The recommendation was the toasted rhubarb bread. I was not expected to be 'wowed', but I was!
We came back and I looked at a range of recipes to try. I wanted something that was not too unhealthy and this one appealed because it had chia seeds and lots of fruit in it.
I used fresh strawberries and frozen raspberries and 3 bananas.
We LOVE it and Isabella and I have had it for breakfast for the last three days - toasted with butter.
I'm going to try to reduce the sugar next time and probably use coconut sugar. The banana and fruit makes it sweet anyway.
This will also be a great breakfast recipe when we have people staying. It lasts well because we had it toasted. YUM
Thanks Lynn and Bec for the recommendation!


Strawberry, Coconut, Raspberry Banana Bread

INGREDIENTS

• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup ripe mashed banana (about 2-3 bananas)
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted and cooled
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt 
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk (soy, coconut, or skim also work)
• 3/4 cup diced organic ripe strawberries
• 1/4 cup smashed organic raspberries (or you can use more strawberries)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut, plus 3 tablespoons for topping (sweetened is fine, too)
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds
• 2-4 strawberries, sliced for topping

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. In a seperate large bowl, beat together banana, brown sugar, egg, coconut oil vanilla, yogurt, and almond milk until smooth and creamy. Slowly add dry mixture to wet ingredients, and mix until combined. Gently fold strawberries, raspberries, coconut and chia seeds into the batter.
4. Place batter in prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle top evenly with 3 tablespoons of coconut. Place sliced strawberries over the top of the bread. Bake for 50-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove from pan and return to wire rack to finish cooling. Bread is even better the next day (they always are). Bread will stay fresh for a few days when wrapped tightly.

Chunky Courgette Chutney

We had WAAAAAAYYYYY too many courgettes (and lots of tomatoes in the garden) so decided to try a chutney with them. This is really nice and easy. I made a double recipe and cooked it for about double the time to get it to reduce.

500 g	Tomatoes, diced
500 g	Courgettes
1	Onion, diced
2	Granny Smith apples, cored, peeled and diced
1 Tbsp	Fresh ginger
4	Garlic cloves, diced
1 Tbsp	Yellow mustard seeds
2 tsp	Mixed spice, (ground)
1 tsp	Salt
250 g	Brown sugar
350 ml	White wine vinegar

Directions

1. Place all the ingredients in a large, heavy-based stainless-steel saucepan. 
2. Slowly bring to the boil, stirring often. Simmer for about 45 minutes or until thick. 
3. Pour into hot, sterilised jars and seal.
4. Makes about 5 cups.

Mango Coconut Dessert

This is super easy and without sugar reasonably healthy. Wen enjoyed it and would make again with a few embellishments.
We made it without any sugar or sweetener. It may have been nicer with really sweet ripe mangos.














Mango Coconut Dessert
Base
1 cup chilled coconut milk
1 cup pureed mango

Topping
Whipped chilled coconut milk (I used the rest of the can)
chopped mango or other fruit
Lime zest (optional)


Chill coconut cream for a few hours in fridge
Blend with mango and put into serving glasses.
Leave for a few hours in fridge.

Top with whipped coconut cream, sprinkle with chopped mango and lime zest.

Thai Fish Cakes and Chilli dipping sauce

We get fish delivered once a week. Some weeks it is fish we know, others it is a new type. This week was one I was not familiar with so we decided to try something new.
The fish cakes needed a bit more fish sauce for salt. The dipping sauce was great!

Thai Fish Cakes

• 250g/8oz boneless, skinless white fish fillets

• 1 egg

• finely grated zest of 1 lime

• 2 tbsp chopped coriander/cilantro leaves

• 1 tbsp Red Curry Base or store bought thai red curry paste

• 2 tsp fish sauce

• 1 tsp soft brown sugar

• a little neutral oil, to fry

• microgreens or small salad leaves, to garnish

• 1/2 recipe Vietnamese Dressing (see below)

Vietnamese Dressing

• ½ cup Thai sweet chilli sauce

• ¼ cup rice vinegar

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• finely grated zest of 1 lime or lemon, no pith

• 2 tbsp lime or lemon juice

• 2 double kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded (optional)

To make Dipping Sauce, place all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine.

Combine fish, egg, lime zest, coriander/cilantro, Red Curry Base or curry paste, fish sauce and sugar in a food processor and pulse 4 or 5 times to a coarse paste. Do not overprocess – you want texture to the fish cakes.

Heat a little oil in a heavy-based frypan and, working in batches, shallow-fry tablespoons of the mixture over a medium heat until springy to the touch and cooked through (about 2 minutes each side). They can be made a few hours in advance, chilled until needed and reheated in an 180°C/350°F oven for 5 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature garnished with microgreens or small salad leaves and accompanied by Vietnamese Dressing (see below)

Place all ingredients in a small jar and shake to combine.

Sri Lankan fish and tomato curry

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• We get a delivery of fish once a week. This week it was Monk Fish  - perfect for a space or curry. I also had lots of tomatoes from my garden so I searched for a recipe and found this one. I only used a tiny tin of coconut milk and used lots more tomatoes. It was a really ice mild curry. We served it over brown rice.
  The lime wedge squeezed over it made a really big difference to the flavour.
  
  
  
  
  http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/sri-lankan-fish-tomato-curry/5545fd88-d63f-4720-874d-1307a0fccb68
  
  
  
  

Sri Lankan fish and tomato curry

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• 3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 long green chillies, deseeded, chopped
• 4cm piece ginger, peeled, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
• 750g boneless thick white fish fillets, cut into 6cm pieces
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large brown onion, chopped
• 2 cups coconut cream
• 20 fresh curry leaves
• 1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate (see note)
• Steamed basmati rice, to serve
• Lime wedges, to serve
• Thinly sliced red chillies, to serve
  
  

  METHOD

  • Step 1
    Process tomatoes, garlic, chillies, ginger, cumin, coriander and 1 teaspoon turmeric until just combined.
  • Step 2
    Pat fish dry with paper towel. Combine remaining 1 teaspoon turmeric and a pinch of salt. Sprinkle over both sides of fish.
  • Step 3
    Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large frying pan over high heat until hot. Add fish. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until sealed and golden. Transfer to a plate. Add remaining oil to pan. Reduce heat to medium-high. Add onion. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until soft. Add pureed tomato mixture. Cook for 10 minutes or until oil begins to separate from mixture. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in coconut cream and curry leaves. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Partially cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly.
  • Step 4
    Return fish to pan. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 4 to 5 minutes or until fish is cooked through. Stir in tamarind concentrate. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 1 minute. Serve with rice, lime wedges and chilli.