Bannannannanna Bread (i.e. Banana Bread)

To those of you who get the obscure literary reference* in the title of this blog post, well done!  But in all seriousness, I have to admit that I still need to sing out the old "Yell Leader" (yes we had yell leaders and a dance squad rather than the traditional combined cheerleading squad at my high school) chant "B-A-N-A-N-A-S Go Bananas, go, go bananas!" in order to spell the name of the fruit (and then remember to drop the letter "s", yes, I really am that pathetic with spelling—this week's triumph is finally learning how to spell restaurant instead of just randomly typing something, usually "restaraunt", and letting spell checker fix it...and yes before spell checker I would just let my handwriting go a bit to hide the misspelling).

Anyway, just like Nanny Ogg, I spent most of my honeymoon drinking variations on a theme of banana and milk (in the daytime) and banana and rum (in the evening and night time).  I didn't one tire of this from the day we arrived till the day we left, but once we were back I needed a bit of a break (as my husband would say, we had had several years worth of potassium—indeed, my husband did actually question, in all seriousness, whether we would have any negative side effects from so much potassium during our first week there).  However, this only lasted a few weeks and by the end of last week I was well ready for another banana fix.  However, we weren't in hot and sunny St Lucia, we were in cold and Dreach, as the Scots (or at least Andrew Marr) would say and I didn't really fancy a "La Belle Connection" (banana and rum),  a "Rendezvous Kiss" (banana, coconut and rum) or even a "Sea Breeze" (banana, rum, coconut and rum coffee liqueur) or (my favourite) "Kiss Kiss" (banana, rum, more rum, coconut rum and rum coffee liqueur).

So, I decided to make banana bread instead.  So I purchased my bananas and left them on the window sill to ripen (or even over ripen, although the cold grey view didn't allow this even after five days of yellow, not green, bananas).  But luckily, they were ripe enough to allow me to make banana bread last night.  Now this recipe really is very easy to make.  Monday nights in our house are about two things (1) watching a "classic serial", (2) eating pasta.  The pasta bit being the quickest and easiest thing we can think of to make (and one which can be made by either myself or my husband).  Making elaborate meals is something generally frowned upon on Monday night.  This was especially true last night as we were about to watch the final hour or so of The Thornbirds (we start on Bleak House next Monday), and it was already getting a bit late by the time my husband came home.  I had meant to make it earlier, but I had been writing the previous blog posting, so...Anyway, my husband was just saying that he was presently going to be getting out of the bath and planning to start on the pasta, when I announced I was going to make banana bread.  My husband was highly suspicious that it would really be quick, but in the end, the bread was in the oven before he was out of the bath and in his pyjamas (in our house, a keen measure of the quickness of a recipe).  Now, just a note of caution, although this recipe is ultra quick to make, it does take about an hour to bake, so don't try to make it before you leave the house (unless someone else will be at home, that is).  Anyway, here is my favourite version of banana bread (and I've tried a bunch), inspired by the recipe for it in the Avoca Cafe Cookbook 1.

Banana Bread


Ingredients


225g Plain (all purpose) flour (n.b. although in a pinch, self-raising will do)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon all spice, nutmeg or cinnamon (depending on the type of nuts you are using, your personal choice and the time of year—in the spring and summer I use walnuts and cinnamon, in the autumn I use any type of nut and nutmeg and in the winter I use pecans and all spice)
110g caster sugar (or use light brown sugar if you prefer)
1 egg, beaten
75g butter, melted (I find that melting butter in a mug for 1 minute on 70% power works for my microwave.  Always keep an eye on butter in the microwave, otherwise it is liable to boil and end up all over the inside of your microwave—but hey, that is a powerful incentive clean your microwave)
more butter for greasing your tin
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
100g nuts (no need to chop them up, unless they are very large)
7-8 ripe bananas
2 tablespoons light brown sugar (optional)

1 large bowl, 1 medium bowl, 1 potato masher (or fork) and 1 loaf tin (or cake tin if you don't have a loaf tin)


Directions


Pre-heat your oven to 180 C/ 350 F.  Get out your tin and grease it and/or line it with baking paper.


Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl (except the nuts) and stir to combine.

Peel the bananas and place them in a medium bowl (if they are not "over ripe" it may help if you chop the bananas up into bite size pieces before adding them to the bowl).  Then mash the bananas up so you have a big "mush" (technical term) of banana.

Add the beaten egg to the dry mix.  Add the melted butter to the dry mix.  Stir, briefly, to combine.  There will be lumps, leave them be.

Add the banana mush to the big bowl of everything else.  Add the nuts to the big bowl as well.  Stir to combine.  Again, there will be lumps.  That's fine.  Just combine till everything is wet (no dry mix left) and then stop.

Pour into a loaf tin (buttered and/or lined with baking paper).  If you are using the optional light brown sugar, sprinkle it over the top of the mix (this will create a sweet top to the finished loaf).  Place in oven.  Bake for an hour.

Yum!

Loaf

Slice

*See Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

Green Banana Curry

Yes, really!  It's delicious.  I first came across this recipe for Green Banana Curry (from the Fair Trade Organisation) by chance about three and a half years ago.  I was on the tube in the late morning when stumbled across that day's copy of The Metro (which is quite rare for me).  I was flipping through it when I saw there were a couple of recipes promoting Fair Trade Fortnight, one of which was this one.  At first it flummoxed me, 'Green bananas' I thought to myself 'what are those when they are at home then?'  Did they really mean plantains? Where would I get them?  Would I have to go to Notting Hill or Brixton or some other Caribbean area of London.  Why had I never heard of them before.  Then, of course, it hit me...they were just not-yet-ripe bananas (you know, ones that were still green).  I still maintain that it would have been simpler to call it a banana curry, and then state in the ingredients list that you should buy ones which are not yet ripe (in the same way that Banana bread recipes often call for over-ripe bananas to be used).

It took me a while to cook the recipe (which I first did in January 2009).  It was a Sunday, after the shops were shut, and I wanted something quick that I could make before the fantastic  'The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency' television show came on.  When I told Alex what was for dinner that night, he sounded a little wary—and he definitely sounded wary as he told his family over the phone what was for dinner.  But we loved it!  Now it's one of Alex's favourite recipes (and mine too).  So get over any reticence you might have about it (or about using bananas for a savoury dish) and give it a go!  We serve it with rice or coconut rice (rice cooked in coconut milk), but you could also serve it with flat-bread.

Quick Cheats (and my variations)
Looking over the recipe now for this posting, I realised that (like most of my favourite recipes) the recipe itself is only a guide to remind me what I actually do.  So here is what I actually do.

Before I start I put on the rice (I was going to make coconut rice tonight, but it turns out that I only had one can of coconut milk, and I needed that for the curry.  Ordinarily I would just pop out to the corner store—or send Alex to the store—but because of the riots, the shops are shut, so plain rice it will be!)

First, I put some oil (veg, coconut—tonight its olive, because that's all I've got in the house) in a wok and heat it.

Next, I dice/slice the onion and put it to cook in the wok quickly.

Then, whilst it cooks, I peel and slice the bananas ( I usually have more than five—greedy me!).

Then I add some curry powders, and other spices (whatever I am in the mood for, cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric, ginger, allspice etc.)

Then, I put it a couple (or four) of TBL of Korma curry paste (I use Patek's).

Then I open the coconut milk and add it to the wok, and bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

I find this simmering time is useful for doing things like, washing up, putting dishes away, getting into my pyjamas or (of course) straightening my hair!

And yes, I usually forget (read: can't be bothered) to buy coriander (aka cilantro to you Americans), and I have never served it with lime wedges.  Who knows, it might be good with lime wedges, but I really can't comment.

As I cook it, it serves four (or two really hungry for dinner and maybe wanting seconds, with enough left over for a light lunch).  It also seems to freeze well.

Here's a picture of how it looks whilst its keeping warm.

So go on, give it a try tonight!