liberian banana rice bread (vegan)

my roommate is vegan and she's always cooking up delicious vegan food. delicous food that doesn't include meat, cheese or milk?! i know it's hard to believe cuz i like to put meat, cheese, milk and butter on everything but she pulls it off. she especially makes excellent brownies and raspberry chocolate cookies. since i'm always eating her food but she usually can't eat mine, i like to occasionally make something that is vegan just to share with her. this time i found a recipe for banana rice bread. as soon as i saw it was made with cream of rice i had to try it. i love baking with cornmeal, cream of wheat or cream of rice. it gives the baked goods a grainy consistency that i love. it's also easy to make. mix everything together, pour, bake then eat.

Yield: 8 x 12-inch bread

Combine:
2 cups CREAM OF RICE (cereal)
3 cups MASHED BANANAS
1/2 cup VEGETABLE OIL
4 Tbs. SUGAR
1/2 tsp. NUTMEG
1 tsp. SALT
1 cup WATER
1 tsp. BAKING SODA.
Stir until thoroughly blended.

Bake in a well-greased 8 x 12-inch rectangular or 2 9-inch round cake pan at 400' for 30 minutes.

Test with a toothpick (when it comes out dry, bread is done)

carmelized banana flan

we had a feast at my place friday night. as usual i decided to cook something simple and it turns out to take forever to make! this time i made carmelized banana flan and beef & potato croquettes.
it was my first time making flan and i found a simple recipe but i might have put it in the wrong size pan cuz it turned out looking very ugly and messy. hence the carmelized bananas...i figured if i threw something on top of the flan it would distract how ugly it was. the good news is that even though it looked like vom, it taste good and people seemed to like it.

Ingredients

* 1 cup white sugar
* 3 eggs
* 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color. Carefully pour hot syrup into a 9 inch round glass baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla until smooth. Pour egg mixture into baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil.
4. Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes. Let cool completely.
5. To serve, carefully invert on serving plate with edges when completely cool

weird fuckin broccoli, gillian's bread pudding and my third catering gig!

that strange magical green mass there is a species of broccoli. my roommate brought it home with her and even she doesn't know what it's called. isn't that thing crazy looking?

in other news, gillian and i eat ourselves silly. in this case, it was monday night supper. i made russell's green chile casserole with farm fresh ground beef and organic cream of mushroom soup that gillian had. she made this amazing bread pudding with challah bread, cultured butter, farm fresh milk & eggs, dried cranberries and maple whipped cream. holy crap i think i ate all of it. well i tried to at least. it was da bomb. having challah bread around made me miss good bread. there is a lack of it in tucumcari (no bakeries and one supermarket that wouldn't know what good bread was even if it beat the shit out of them). we also had chicken liver pate with toast squares. it was a strange combination of food but it worked because it was all delicious.

so today is tuesday and it was my third catering gig. i made russell's green chile casserole again. it's so simple to make yet so delicious. everyone seems to love it. i also made lime and cilantro coleslaw which is the same as the lime peanut coleslaw but minus the peanuts and jalapenos (peanuts and jalapenos are both acquired tastes and in order to feed a large group of people, some foods need to be neutral). for dessert i made chocolate chip cookies. i took them out the oven 10 minutes before i left the house so they were still warm. don't u want to hire me as your caterer?

brown butter ice cream

i love ice cream and i love butter. i also love making my own ice cream and my own butter so when i found this recipe and realized that you could marry the two i had to try and make it. i have to say that it sounds so weird but it's so delicious. the brown butter actually makes the ice cream creamier. i like salty ice creams but because i wanted ryan to like it and he was already sceptical of brown butter ice cream i omitted the salt in the recipe. i didn't want it to have too much of a salty butter flavor. i did sprinkle some salt on my ice cream after i made it and it taste a little like dulce de leche ice cream. yum!

i would share the recipe but because i got it from someone else's blog and they created this flavor themselves i'd feel weird spreading the recipe around. if you would like to make it google "brown butter ice cream" or "beurre noisette ice cream" and i'm sure you'll find it.

i think i'm gonna make some cornbread to go with it. cornbread+brown butter ice cream sounds like the perfect match to me.

update: cornbread + brown butter ice cream is heaven.

brownies

i threw together a batch of quick birthday brownies for taylor's bday. i like brownies to be more on the fudge than cake side. these were really fudgy and perfect.

Brownies:

5 ounces (140 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (7 tbsp chocolate chips plus 3 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa + 3 tablespoon sugar + 3 teaspoon unsalted butter or vegetable oil)

1/2 cup (1 stick) (113 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 tablespoons (15 grams) cocoa powder

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs

3/4 cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (125 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Brownies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Butter (or spray with a nonstick cooking spray) an 8 inch (20 cm) square pan.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a large stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and stir in the cocoa powder
and sugar . Next, whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, stir in the flour, salt and chocolate chips (if using).

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a little batter and a few moist clumps clinging to it. Do not over bake. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.
Makes 16 brownies.

my second catering gig

for my second catering gig i made spagetti with a creamy garlic tomato sauce and chicken, parmesan bread crumb green beans and apple cobbler. i felt more prepared this time which was good. the only thing that went wrong was i didn't make enough sauce for the amount of pasta. it looked like a lot of sauce to me but of course there can never be enough sauce. otherwise, everything went smoothly. next time i'll try to remember that, and maybe make a bigger dessert too.

on another note, i'm drinking a tea beverage i made. it's similar to a jasmine bubble milk tea drink minus the tapioca balls. i miss bubble tea drinks, especially taro milk tea mmmm.

bread pudding with sauce

i love making all different kinds of bread pudding. the reason why is because it's really easy and i always have bread around. i made this for gillian's brthday. yes a birthday bread pudding!

Ingredients:

2 cups whole milk (or 2 cups half & half)
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar (light or dark, depending on taste preference)
3 eggs
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups bread, torn into small pieces (french bread works best)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)


Directions:

1. In medium saucepan, over medium heat, heat milk (or half & half) just until film forms over top. Combine butter and milk, stirring until butter is melted. Cool to lukewarm.

2. Combine sugar, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed for 1 minute. Slowly add milk mixture.

3. Place bread in a lightly greased 1 1/2 quart casserole.

4. Sprinkle with raisins if desired. Pour batter on top of bread.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 to 50 minutes or until set. Serve warm.

If you make the sauce to put on top of your bread pudding, adjust the sugar in the bread pudding recipe, change it to 1/3 cups sugar (the sauce has the other 1/3 cup in it).


Bread Pudding Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. flour
dash of salt

Directions:

Mix everything together and bring to a boil for 3 - 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Set aside for 5 minutes, then pour on warm bread pudding.

i had used toasted bread because i didn't have any french bread. toasting sliced bread makes it more firm so it won't get gooey when soaked in the milk mixture. i think this bread pudding recipe was up there with the bourbon bread pudding i made once. mmmmm...