Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Banana Bread



One of my favourite fruits is the versatile banana.  Bananas are a great source of nutrition they contain potassium which is known to help reduce the risk of, heart associated diseases - high blood pressure, stroke and heart attack. They contain electrolytes which help maintain our body’s fluid levels and this can prevent dehydration. Accordingly bananas are a great portable source of nutrition for cyclists or endurance athletes. They also contain vitamin B6 and folate.

If you buy green bananas you can speed up the ripening process by storing them in a brown paper bag.  If the bananas start to over ripen they can be frozen in their skins and used later in smoothies or for baking muffins or banana bread.

Recently we recently had a glut of bananas in our household which resulted in me trying out this recipe originally sourced from Martha Stewart Living, August 2004 and adapted to suit my available baking ingredients. Why not make a double batch and either freeze one for another day or better still give one to a friend.

Ingredients
½ cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
½ cup plain yoghurt or blueberry yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat fan forced oven to 180C.
Line a loaf pan with baking paper or butter the loaf pan.
Cream the soft butter and sugar with your mixer or hand whisk until it becomes light and fluffy then add an egg, whisk, and then add the final egg and whisk until the mixture is incorporated.
In a separate bowl, blend the flour, nuts, baking soda, and salt.
Add to the creamed butter mixture with the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Fold in the bananas, yoghurt, and vanilla essence into the creamed butter mixture.
Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for 60 to 70 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Rest in the loaf pan until cool, turn out and serve.




                                                                      

Spanakopita – Spinach and Cheese Pie


My first introduction to Spanakopita was in the 70’s when my dearly beloved and I spent 12 months travelling throughout Europe in our little 2 door Ford Escort station wagon. We were in Skopje in the Republic of Macedonia having a quick take-away lunch in one of the city parks. This triangular shaped pie was akin to a pasty made from very buttery filo pastry and filled with spinach and farm cheese (similar to cottage cheese). The taste of this extraordinary dish still lingers today whenever I think of the spinach, cheese and pastry combination. Our accompanying beverage may well have been the remains of a flagon of home- made Dalmatian red wine given to us by friends that we had visited in Gradac (Croatia) the previous week or it may have been a shot or two of rakia?

I had a few sheets of puff pastry left over from the sausage rolls made for the Red Sky Ride Cancer, fund raiser and also some goat feta cheese which was intended to be used for the Dux’s  18th birthday -  so a pie recipe was on the agenda for the evening meal.  A quick trip the local IGA to get the few remaining ingredients and we had the makings for this superb dish.
There are many varied ways to make Spanakopita, small triangle shapes suitable for finger food, larger triangle as an entrée, a circular pie dish, or as a rectangular slice…...it’s a versatile dish and makes a great vegetarian meal.
Ingredients
150 gms Goat feta
250 gms Ricotta
2 eggs (for the filling and save some for egg wash)
1 bunch silver beet or 3 bunches English spinach
1 diced brown onion
4 cloves crushed garlic
½ tsp lemon rind
2 sheets low-fat puff pastry

Pre heat oven to 200C fan forced.
Line the pie dish with 1 sheet of the puff pastry and blind bake for 10 minutes then cool the pastry.
Remove stalks from the silver beet and blanch leaves for 5 minutes, drain and once cooled. squeeze the silver beat to remove any remaining water. Chop the leaves into 1cm dice.
Lightly sauté the onions just to soften and not caramalise.
Mix the chopped silver beet, ricotta, onion, garlic and fold in the lightly beaten eggs.
Season the mixture with pepper. (Tip - I avoid salt as the cheese mixture is quite salty.)
Fill the pie base with the mixture and add the top sheet of puff pastry. Brush the top with an egg wash and sprinkle the top of the pastry with some sesame seeds.
Bake at 200C for 20-30 minutes or till the pastry top is golden and slightly crispy.
Serve with a salad.
Beverage: Seeking advice on Twitter  - Thanks to  _ashul who suggested a Pinot Noir, sadly I didn’t have any in the house, however, I did have a Riparosso Illuminate 2006 Montepulciano d’Amruzzo. Any low tannin red wine would match beautifully with this dish.