Banana Bread

We had four horribly over ripe bananas that we were loathe to throw away. So we made banana bread.

We mostly followed the recipe outlined here, but we initially started on another recipe and so the order of addition of ingredients is slightly different from the recipe in the link.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (110 g) butter

1 cup (210 g) white sugar

2 eggs

4 ripe bananas (original recipe called for 3)

2 cups (220 g) All-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda (We didn't have any, so skipped)

1 teaspoon baking powder (used double to accomodate missing soda)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dribble (maybe 1/2 teaspoon) vanilla essence

We didn't have any walnuts so we skipped that too.

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 175 C.
2. (What we did) Melt the butter in the microwave and mash in the bananas. Add the eggs, one at a time and stir. Then mix in the sugar. The original recipe: In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, stir in the mashed bananas.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
4. Mix together the banana mixture and the flour mixture till just combined. 
5. Butter the inside of the baking dish and add the batter to the dish. The batter seemed much too runny but given the end result I'm going to assume this is a good thing.
6. Bake for 60 minutes. Test with knife before taking out of oven. You might want to bake it slightly shorter if you use coarser flour, like whole wheat or something. Check at 50 minutes.

Runny cake batter

Zocalo, Stockholm Sweden

I was pretty excited to see this sign at Kungsträdgården a couple of days ago.  The tacos in the ad looked delicious and we have really been missing good tex-mex here in Stockholm. Our one attempt to make carnitas here was a complete disaster and when we eventually get the recipe right we will definitely immortalize it on the blog.

We were wandering through the food court in the Kista gallerian this evening and noticed that a Zocalo had opened up there. The menu looked good, promising carnitas, barbacoa and even agua fresca. We ordered the barbacoa and carnitas tacos and asked if they had horchata. Unfortunately, they were out of carnitas and didn't have the agua frescas in yet. So we went with the barbacoa tacos and the street tacos with barbacoa (can you tell we missed barbacoa?).

So, it was pretty obvious this place was spanking new. The lady at the counter was looking at each recipe for how to assemble the dishes and she had to cut our tacos out of bigger tortillas with a small cookie-cutter.

Now on to details of the food.

The high-points:

1) The lady at the counter was absolutely lovely for it being (what seemed like) her first day. When she noticed that the cilantro was sort of tired looking, she replaced it with fresh cilantro from the back of the store. She really took a lot of time and effort with assembling every taco, she didn't throw food on the plate. This may sound silly, but each of the tacos had each ingredient equally. (Yeah, maybe this means a lot more to me than it does to other people. I also like my bread evenly buttered to the very edges otherwise I get a nervous tic.)

2) The menu looked good. This is an excellent indication of what Zocalo wants to be. Lots of stuff that screams tex-mex to us. And we don't mean to brag, but we're pretty discerning about our tex-mex. They had shiny-sexy-buzzwords like jarritos and agua fresca and barbacoa and carnitas and habanero and so on. Mental food porn.

3) The texture of the barbacoa was fantastic. Speaking as a couple that routinely subjects large cuts of meat to slow, low temperature cooking for many hours,  for fun, this is half the battle won. If the texture isn't right, it will never taste good. This is particularly astonishing because the nice lady pulled it out of a freezer and nuked it in a microwave before arranging it on our tacos.

4) The food looked really good. See these pictures! Quite a lot of food for the price (especially by Stockholm standards!)

The street barbacoa tacos

The Barbacoa tacos

The low points:

1) Nothing had any taste. Well, the red onions (vinegar onions, seen on top of the street tacos) and the fresh cilantro in the street tacos were the only things that had any flavor. This is a tragic counter-point to pt 4 of the high points. Even the barbacoa, which had amazeballs texture, had absolutely no flavor. Hell, even the damned sauces were tasteless! *cue heartbreak*

Here is a word of advice to anyone who wants to open a tex-mex place...or even a Pho place...just squeeze lemon on it. It doesn't matter what it is, it will taste better. 

2) The tacos had wa-ay too much stuffed in them. Tons of lettuce and coleslaw. This may have diluted the subtle (read: weak) flavor that might have been present. It certainly made them hella difficult to pick up and eat... which is how god intended us to eat tacos!

3) It was clear from watching the lady assemble the tacos and when we ate them that she probably had never eaten a taco. The proportions were all wrong. Perhaps Zocalo needs to have a party for their staff where all the staff does is eat tex-mex and get familiar with how stuff is supposed to taste, how much of what goes in a dish and so on. 

4) There were a couple of things we were completely mystified by. In what appeared to be a corn salsa in the barbacoa tacos, for some reason, there were copious amounts of ...edemame?!  WTF?

And the street tacos contained a LOT of coleslaw which for some reason had these huge chunks of cabbage stems in them. You know, the stuff you can't actually eat because its impossible to chew?

Here is one of the sauces. I suspect it was supposed to be a sour cream type sauce? The lady called it cilantro sauce. But it didn't taste like cilantro either. It tasted like bad mayo.

I also suspect (from looking at the pictures) that the sauces are supposed to be drizzled over the top instead of put into a bowl as a dipping sauce.

Conclusions:

Zocalo didn't seem overpriced (85sek and 95sek for the tacos and I recall the agua fresca being 15 sek. There was lots of stuff on the menu under 150sek). The food looked really good but had no flavor. Nada. Ingen smak. This experience made the Martian Blinghs redouble their efforts to make a killer carnitas in their own kitchen. 

Moroccan lambstew with tabbouleh

Apricot chickpea lamb stew

This is based on a recipe from Oprah, here. We modified it for the pressure cooker.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds cubed lamb stew meat
• 2 tsp. ground coriander
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 3 tsp. salt , plus more to taste
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper , plus more to taste
• 4 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large thinly sliced yellow onion
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup canned chickpeas , rinsed and drained
• 1 cup dried, pitted prunes or apricots (or a mixture of both)
• 4 medium carrots , halved lengthwise and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 package (12 ounces) couscous

Directions

Note: You can adjust the stew to your taste. Prunes make it sweet; apricots add tartness. If possible, toast and grind your own coriander and cumin seeds for the best flavor.
Preheat oven to 175 °C. Spread lamb on a large sheet tray and pat dry. In a small bowl, stir together coriander, cumin, ginger, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, then sprinkle over lamb and toss well to coat.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large ovenproof Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Arrange 1/3 of lamb in pot in a single layer and cook, stirring occasionally, until deep golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer lamb to a large bowl; set aside. Repeat with rest of lamb, adding 1 tablespoon olive oil for each batch.
Add onions to pot, reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring often, until softened and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Stir in broth, scraping up any browned bits. Transfer everything to the pressure cooker, add back lamb and juices. Add 2 cups water, cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon salt; stir well. Let the pressure cooker reach full pressure (one whistle), reduce heat to stabilize pressure and cook until almost done, about 20 minutes.
Transfer back into dutch oven; stir in chickpeas, dried fruit, and carrots. Cover pot; continue to cook in the oven until lamb is very tender, about 45 minutes. If desired, uncover pot and cook until thickened, 20 to 25 minutes more. About 15 minutes before serving, prepare tabbouleh.

Tabbouleh

The tabbouleh recipe we got here. We used much more bulgur, which turned out very nice too.

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup bulgur
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 2 cups finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, (about 2 bunches)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced

Directions

Combine water and bulgur in a small saucepan. Bring to a full boil, remove from heat, cover and let stand until the water is absorbed and the bulgur is tender, 25 minutes or according to package directions. If any water remains, drain bulgur in a fine-mesh sieve. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool for 15 minutes.

Combine lemon juice, oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Add parsley, mint, tomatoes, cucumber and scallions to the bulgur. Add the dressing and toss. Serve at room temperature or chill for at least 1 hour to serve cold.

Svensk fisksoppa

This one is from this link.

Ingredients

• 350 grams/13 ounces baby potatoes, chopped
• 200 grams/ 7 oz salmon, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 200 grams/7 oz  meaty white fish, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1/2 leek, sliced thinly
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 250 ml fish stock (1 cup)
• 200 ml cream (1/2 plus 1/3 cup)
• 250 ml white wine (1 cup)
• 150 ml water (1/2 cup–adding more if necessary)
• 100 ml creme fraiche or sour cream (1/2 cup)
• 2 tbsp fresh tarragon, chopped (original recipe calls for thyme, but I never seem to have any stocked)
• 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 gram or 2 pinches of saffron
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. In salted water, boil cubed potatoes until fork tender.  Drain and set aside.
2. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat butter on medium-high.
3. Add sliced leeks, and chopped onions and garlic.  Cook until onions are translucent–approximately 5-6 minutes.
4. Add tomato paste and stir to incorporate evenly.
5. Add fresh herbs (tarragon or thyme and basil)
6. Add all your liquids (stock, wine, cream and creme fraiche) and saffron.  Bring to a simmer.
7. Remove from heat and blend in a mixer until smooth.
8. Return the mixture to your saucepan and medium-high heat.
9. At this point, taste your base and season with salt and pepper accordingly.
10. Add fish pieces  to the soup.
11. Your fish should only take about 5 minutes to cook throughly.
12. Add potatoes, mix thoroughly.
13. Season one last time to taste.
14. Serve with fresh herbs and a healthy dollop of aioli.

Paneer Makhani

Ingredients

For the paneer

• 14 oz paneer, (homemade or store bought)- cubed
• 2 tablespoons thick drained plain yogurt or Greek yogurt
• 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder/paprika/cayenne
• salt
• 2 teaspoon kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves, crushed
• 1 tablespoon oil

For the sauce

• 2 cups Makhani Sauce (without the cream added to the sauce)
• 2.5 cups water
• 1.5 teaspoon oil
• 1 small onion, cut into chunks
• 1/2 red bell pepper, cut into chunks
• 1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half
• 1 tablespoon almond or cashew paste (soak the nuts and grind them to a paste)
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves, crushed

For the Makhani sauce

• 1/4 cup ginger paste
• 3tablespoon garlic paste
• 2 inch stick of cinnamon
• 2 black cardamoms
• 2 small green cardamoms
• 1 teaspoon fenugreek/methi seeds (This is a MUST)
• 1 tablespoon kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves; Available in Indian Groceries)
• 5  cups pureed fresh tomato (or about 1/2 the amount of tomato paste) – it is okay to use more tomato
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• Salt to taste
• 3 hot green peppers slit (optional)
• 1/4 cup melted butter/ghee (I substitute it with cooking oil for obvious health reasons)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream/whipping cream
• 1/2 cup milk

Instructions

Makhani sauce

Heat butter/ghee/oil  & add cinnamon, cardamoms and fenugreek seeds.

Once the seeds start to sizzle, add ginger garlic paste, salt, chili powder and stir and fry till fat (butter) separates, and starts to form small bubbles.

Add tomato paste, green chili, cinnamon powder and kasuri methi (Mix the tomato paste with double the amount of water to make it like a puree of use Tomato Puree).

Cook/simmer and reduce the tomato sauce, till done. (you will know which the fat/ and the spice mix/masala leaves the sides of the pan and the oil separates and you will definitely smell it!). Make sure to cover the pan as the sauce will bubble and splatter.

(At this stage the sauce can be frozen for later use. If you are cooking anything with the sauce right away, go ahead and add the cream and milk.)

Add heavy cream and milk. Boil/simmer for about 10 minutes.

After the sauce is done, proceed to cook whatever dish you have decided.

The masala/sauce can be frozen in airtight containers for quite a few months. BUT if you want to freeze it, DO NOT add the cream and the milk. Add the cream and the milk when you want to use it to prepare the final dish.

Paneer Makhani

Whisk yogurt, salt chilli powder,  kasuri methi and oil in a large non reactive bowl. Add paneer cubes to the bowl and toss for the marinade to coat the paneer. Let is sit for about 15 minutes. On an oven proof tray, place aluminium foil. Place the paneer cubes with the marinade clinging to them in a single layer on the foil. Bake for 7 minutes in a pre heated oven at 350 degree. F. Then broil the paneer for 3 minutes; turn them over and broil for another couple of minutes. Set aside. Ambu says not to broil the paneer.

Heat 1.5 teaspoon oil in a pan. Saute the onion and pepper at high heat for about 2 minutes. The vegetables should be still crisp. Do not over cook. Set aside.

In deep pan, add the Makhani Sauce; add 1 cup of warm water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat, add the sugar, kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves, chopped onion and bell pepper. Partially cover and cook for 5 to 7 minutes at moderate heat.

Uncover, add the paneer cubes,  and the almond or cashew paste and stir gently for the spice mix to coat the paneer. Add 1.5 cups of warm water, cover partially and simmer for 15 more minutes over moderate over heat.

Reduce the heat and allow the temperature of the pan to come down. Add the cream and gently stir it in the pan. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

The Paneer Makhani is ready to serve.

Australian Meat Pie

We got this delicious pie recipe from here.

Ingredients

• 500 g minced beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 cup water, divided
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 2 puff pastry sheets

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven at 220 degrees Celsius.
2. Brown meat and onion.
3. Add 3/4 cup of the water, bouillon cubes, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, pepper, oregano, and nutmeg.
4. Boil and cover for 15 minutes.
5. Blend flour with the remaining 1/4 cup water until it becomes a smooth paste; add to the meat mix.
6. Let cool.
7. Grease a pie dish and line with puff pastry.
8. Add the cooled filling mixture; brush edges of pastry with milk or beaten egg; put the pastry top on; press edges down with a fork.
9. Trim edges and glaze top with milk or beaten egg.
10. Bake in a very hot oven, 220 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes.
11. Reduce heat to 180 degrees Celsius and bake for 25 more minutes, or until golden brown.
12. Serve with veggies, fries, or salad.

Read more at: http://australian.food.com/recipe/australian-meat-pie-21726?oc=linkback

Masala jheenga (Goan prawn curry) recipe

We got this recipe from here. It got rave reviews from the non-indians, but I rather liked it too. I think its a keeper! I thought there was too much masala, I think I will make a little less next time. Also, we don't get "Bart's" tamarind here, so I just used the usual thai tamarind paste and I needed a lot more than 1tbsp of that.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 tsp ground paprika
• 3 green chillies, deseeded and cut into strips
• 100ml coconut milk
• 400g large fresh prawns, peeled but with tail shells on and deveined
• 1 tbsp tamarind pulp (try Bart’s)
• For the curry paste
• 100g desiccated coconut
• 5 whole dried red chillies
• 4 tsp coriander seeds
• 21/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 2cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns

Method

1. Place all the ingredients for the curry paste into a food processor and blend well, adding enough water to make a thick paste.
2. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan over a medium heat and gently cook the onions until golden. Add the curry paste and paprika and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir in the green chillies and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add enough water to thin the mixture to a sauce consistency. Add the coconut milk and prawns and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the tamarind pulp, then season and cook for a further 2 minutes. Transfer to bowls and serve with steamed basmati rice and pappadums.