My little sister called me from New York few weeks ago, asking me for banana cake recipe, and of course my answer was: look for it in the blog.
And she did. (I think)
The few days ago, I called her, while we were talking, I asked her about the banana cake and her answer was: “oh, I didn’t use your recipe, it is just too complicated:
…
I was a little sad in the beginning, but when I saw my recipe, I think may be she was right, I mean, I am sure it is hard to find black rice flour in New York and all. And after all, my recipe was more bready than cakey.
Well, darling girl, this one is for you. Simple banana and to the point banana cake. You don’t even need a mixer to make it.
And it is soft, sweet, crumbly. Just like you. Hugs!
Banana Cake
115 gram unsalted butter, softened
100 gram sugar
1 egg
125 ml plain yoghurt
2 ripe medium banana, pureed
170 gram all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp sugar for sprinkling
seeds from 1 vanilla pod
Preheat the oven to 350F/Gas 4/180C
Butter and flour one 28×16cm pan
Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Mix well the softened butter and sugar with hand, then add the egg, mix well, then the yoghurt, mix well, then pureed banana, mix well then vanilla seeds. Add the flour mixture, mix until just incorporate, don’t over mix.
Transfer to the baking pan, spread well, sprinkle that 1 tablespoon of sugar on top
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted come out clean.
Wait until it cools down abit (20 minutes) before cutting it. I know it is hard to wait for the cake :) In fact, I took photos of Charlie to keep me distracted from the cake:
Have a nice weekend everyone! :)
|
July 24th, 2010
7287pwkr
It has been like…zillion years ago since I wrote my last post here. Not that I have not had anything to say, I have been having a lot of things in my mind, may be a bit too much…and the thing is: I think my MIND got CONSTIPATED. I could not get these things out of my mind. Everything I do feels so wrong. Everything I do could not express what I think.
I don’t like my own cooking.
I don’t like my photographs.
I don’t like my design.
I don’t like my…things
Just not good enough. Everything I do. Just not what I have in mind.
Ugh.
And then I got to this point where I could not see any point of letting it out. And it has been 2 months. 2 long months.
This week: We have just returned from a whole month in Jakarta trip, Jakarta is a stressing city for me, Charlie made a mess of our house. I cleaned like a crazy lady for the whole week, and suddenly I did not like anything here anymore, so I started moving the furniture around like mad hatter. Turning our house into one big mess.
.
.
.
This morning.
I woke up at 6. Marco was still sleeping. It started to rain slowly. I made coffee in my kitchen. Turned on my computer. Charlie sleeping on the blue cushion next to me.
And the world just seems…quite right.
Yes.
I took some photos.
It is just a beginning. It is just me. It might not look nice. But it is okay.
I want to take more.
Sloooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyy….
|
July 14th, 2010
7287pwkr
I wanted to make muffins.
I have NOT that muffin paper cups.
I baked them PAPERLESS in duralex glasses.
This makes me think: Why do we always put the paper when we bake muffins or cupcakes? Imagine six billions people eating one muffin…that is six billions paper trash! And how many trees died for this? And what is the purpose? Portability? I don’t think so. Even when you buy one muffin to take away in a cafe or bakery, the would always give you paper bag and napkins with it. I rarely see people carrying muffin just like that, even when they do, they still use napkin to hold it. So, why not paperless muffin? Imagine how many muffin I have already baked in my life? And how mindless I was?
I believe, being green should first be an attitude, not lifestyle.
And I believe, even by starting from little things like muffin paper we could reduce trash.
So, from now, I will always bake PAPERLESS MUFFINS.
I was thinking to give you recipes, but you know, the web is flooded enough with zillion of banana and chocolate muffins recipes :) I think you can just google it :) The thing is, just bake it…paperLESS :)
Love.
e
|
May 18th, 2010
7287pwkr
It takes a while to return to my normal rhythm of life, it has been full of friends and family visits for this past three weeks, and now, finally just us. This is Marco’s lunch today, I had a late late breakfast, so, I guess I will fix myself a bowl of green salad with tofu after writing this post. It was some kind of hachis parmentier. “Some kind” because I did not use diced meat and sauce lynnoaise, but ground beef and some fresh tomatoes, plus some shallots and lemon thyme (I prefer to use the common thyme but we only have this at home right now).
(more…)
|
May 5th, 2010
7287pwkr
I wanted to make that delicious chocolate and raspberry tart from Michel Roux. And ended up with my kind (but still delicious) of chocolate and strawberry tartlets.
Because.
When I went to my usual shop for grocery shopping, I have problem finding the two important ingredients for this tart: the dark chocolate and raspberry…of course I can NOT make a chocolate and raspberry tart without the chocolate and raspberry themselves.
So.
I switched to a serious ingredients hunting mode. And I found this:
1. Looking badly at many many local supermarket for finding that 200 grams of good quality dark chocolate = Impossible!
2. At the baking shop: only greeted by arrays of scary (a.k.a chemical) looking chocolate block = I will not put that in my stomach
3. At the import/specialty supermarket = Found one…kind of…for Rp. 48.000 for 100g = 4 euros = Not gonna pay that much for a chocolate that actually costs only 1 euro in Milan.
4. A pack of raspberry (100 grams) cost around Rp. 70.000 = Almost 6 euros = errrr….only when I was desperate for raspberry and only Peck in Milan had it that I ever paid that much for a pack of raspberry = No!
*Sigh…I never thought it would be this complicated only to make a tart. but since I have already make the tart dough (which was sitting restlessly in my fridge), there is no way I would give up making chocolate tart, so I tried to make it with dutch press cocoa powder (which comes in the cutest packaging) and bought a kilo of strawberry instead.
(more…)
|
April 2nd, 2010
7287pwkr
These cookies reminds me of that Spike Jonze movie: Where The Wild Things Are :)
Why? No idea, I haven’t even finished watching it :P
May be because I am still amused by these too-cute-to-be-true Japanese cookies cutters, in Indonesia we usually find those moon, heart, star shapes, not these ones:
(more…)
|
March 30th, 2010
7287pwkr
It has been ages! I know…what kept me from posting: we had to move house. Remember I told you about my leaking roof? Last time, it rained so bad and it rained outside-IN! The roof could not be fixed, because it was an antique joglo and to fix it would require a biiiiiig effort and of course living in tropical country with a badly leaking roof is not an option. So we moved. Still an antique joglo, but with a strong strong roof and an extra room for guests. The house is still bare, and we are still waiting for the kitchen tables and we have a new family member: Charlie.
Lots of stories, but right now I really just want to share this recipe with you, this was light but satisfying (don’t see my portion, I mostly eat like a bird… :) I did not have pine nuts here, and kind of difficult and expensive to buy in Indonesia, macadamia is more available and accessible as we are quite near to Australia. I think basil tastes different in here and in Italy, but it still tasted great!
Tagliatelle with Macadamia and Basil Pesto, Baby Green Beans and Kabocha
Serves 2/3
250g dried tagliatelle
1/6 medium kabocha, peel, throw away the seeds and very thinly sliced
1 small potato, peel and very thinly sliced
A handful of baby green beans, washed
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Freshly grated parmesan, sea salt and pepper
Pesto:
5 stalks of fresh basil, leaves picked, washed and roughly chopped
10 macadamia, lightly toasted, and roughly chopped
1/2 clove of garlic
a handful of freshly grated parmesan
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Bring to boil water (and a tablespoon of salt) in a pot big enough for the pasta and the vegetables
In the meantime, put all the ingredients of pesto in the food processor (just put a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and a bit of salt in the beginning, you can adjust this later) and blitz until smooth, remove and season to taste with sea salt. If you feel the pesto is too thick, add some more extra virgin olive oil.
When the water boils, add the potato, kabocha and green beans, when it comes to boil again, add the pasta and cook until the pasta is al dente. Reserve some of the cooking water and drain the pasta. Throw the pasta back to the pot, add the pesto and stir well, if it is too thick, add some of the reserved cooking water to thin it.
Divide to plates, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan and ground black pepper. Serve with fresh bread and big big smile.
Buon apetito! xx
|
March 27th, 2010
7287pwkr
No recipe? No…just some random shots of my life lately. It has been good (even there were moments I want to scream when it rained outside-IN! Yeah, our roof needed fixing, but it is ok now :) oh, plus a neighbour who play cheesy music all day, but that is ok too :)
I have a moody sky here, it is amazing how many times he changes in a day (I always feel sky is…a boy hehe) I might even called him BOY! Ha! Now I have a sky named Boy! and So, what I cook is all depend on Boy, if Boy is happy, then sunny, then salad and light sides it is, if Boy is sad and crying alot, then a hearty risotto it is…you know what I mean. All I have in my kitchen is a bunch of good ingredients and no plan. It is how my life is now, and you can take a tiny peek of it through my lens :)
No, that’s not my foot, that’s marco’s, mine is much smaller :)
And yes, that is moody Boy, from my bedroom’s terrace
Butter+pan fried+salmon+black sesame seeds = quickie delicioooouuuuuusssssss :)
Silk smooth chocolate pudding with cream and fresh strawberry or coffee of top? Oh, can I have both please? :P
And say hello to some cute micro creatures around us :)
This is marco’s favourite! Tiny butterfly with white and purple wings!
This tree just had a haircut, but I still like him :)
And moody Boy is suddenly feeling happy, giving us some sun :)
And that is all for today…oh, are you leaving? So soon? Then please don’t forget to close the door…yes, it is pretty but no, my door is not a magic door that could bring you anywhere like doraemon’s…but, may be, if you really REALLY make wish and taping the heels of your red shoes three times…may be… :) xx
|
January 27th, 2010
7287pwkr
It has been so long, may be too long that I have not written here. I have been busy with two strategic project in a row, then always living in transit without internet connection, trying to find a place here in Bali (we plan to live here for about one or two years) it has not been an easy thing. We might have found a place now…still not confirmed…but we’ll see.
Although we are always in ‘transit’ me and marco always try to keep our habit of eating good and simple food. Yes, we have been eating out alot, which we don’t usually do but food in Bali is good and fresh, it is abit too spicy for my taste but I will get used to it :) Anyway, back to our eating habit, we usually eat simple pasta for lunch and small portion of meat (for marco) or fish and vegetable at night, or we eat big and complete salad for lunch and simple and light pasta for the night.
This might be very simple, but I just want to share it with you.
I cooked this yesterday, just because when I was at papaya with my cousin M and I saw a good and fresh looking ground pork so I got 250 gram, mixed it with one egg and two handfuls of panko (the Japanese breadcrumbs) seasoned it simply with one garlic, freshly chopped parsley and sea salt and pepper and tiny tiny bit of dried chili, mix everything well, shaped it into 12 ping-pong size balls, then fried them with a knob of butter on medium heat for 10 minutes until brown on all sides. Marco said they were good and very light (I guess the panko gives the lightness. I did not do it on purpose, I was about to do the classic milk+bread mixture when I realised I did not have both and only had panko :P). He had them warm and cold for the day after, and both delicious! (If you don’t eat pork, you can replace it with beef)
I served them with a small portion of simple salad (lemon cucumber, romana lettuce, tomato and capers, dressed with sea salt and extra virgin olive oil). I don’t eat meat, so I had the salad with boiled kampung eggs (I have told you kampung eggs in Indonesia taste greatttttt, right?)
We finished quite everything :) then a cup of coffee from the cute little moka that Mrs. F gave us as Christmast present. Life is just simply beautiful. Buona giornata tutti! xx
|
January 5th, 2010
7287pwkr
This banana bread spooked many people :) I can understand that the colour is a bit unusual, that is because I use black rice flour. The first question asked was: is it old? or is it still okay to eat? :) Well, it is not old and it is VERY ok to be eaten, it was moist and delicious and somehow earthy. I kind of love its taupe colour, and this colour also reminds me of my good friend Aliki in Milan :) I am sure she will love this kind of earthy bread.
Anyway, the ones responsible for me making this banana bread were these beauties :
(more…)
|
November 20th, 2009
7287pwkr
Previous Posts
