Banana Bread

Since I don't have Nene anymore to bake me some yummy Banana Bread, I had to go look for a recipe and found a pretty good one. Here it is:

250 g all-purpose flour
5 g baking soda
2 g salt

115 g soft butter (unsalted!)
110 g brown sugar/ palm sugar
2 eggs, beaten
525 g mashed, overripe bananas (about 5 medium sized bananas)

Preheat oven to 175°C. Butter your loaf pan/cake pan and sprinkle it with some flour.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.

In a separate but also large bowl mix together the soft butter and brown sugar till creamy. Next, add in the beaten eggs and mashed bananas and stir till homogenized.

Add a the flour mixture into the banana mixture bit by bit making sure no flour pockets develop. Then, pour the batter into the pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 60 to 65 min and check with a bamboo skewer wether it is done.

Enjoy!

I don't own a loaf pan, so I used an Auflaufform ;-)

Beef rendang

This recipe takes time, about an hour to prepare, but it's easy peasy.

1kg beef in bite-sized pieces (a cheap cut will do)
4 packets Brahmin rendang paste
2 packets coconut powder

Mix the coconut milk with 2 cups warm water. You'll need a whisk to mix the powder with the water so that there are no lumps. Put the coconut milk aside.

Put the rendang paste in a big pot and fry on medium to high heat for three minutes. Add the beef and keep frying in the paste till the beef is half done. Add the coconut milk and keep cooking for an hour on low heat, stirring every 5 minutes to prevent sticking. The rendang is done when the oil separates.

Brahmin's Kuah Rendang is the most authentic I have ever come across. Available in Davis Trading in Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

I prefer to use coconut powder instead of tinned coconut milk - it makes a creamier milk.

Sauerkraut in Blaetterteig/puff pastry

Wrapping
1 sheet puff pastry about 30 cm x 30 cm square, 3 to 5 mm thick, well dusted with flour on both sides

Filling
250 gm Sauerkraut, drained
100 gm grated emmenthal cheese
100ml cream
100 gm bacon, chopped and fried till brown
1 egg, beaten

Mix the ingredients for the filling. Place the filling in the centre of the sheet of puff pastry (see picture). Wet the edges of the puff pastry and seal the pastry by pinching the sides together. One seam should be on top, while the other two are on the sides. Then pierce the top a few times with a knife - these will be the steam vents. Place on an ovenproof dish or baking tray. Bake at 200 deg.C for 45 mins on the lower rack. Serve hot.

Gingerbread à la Meg

200 gm flour
1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger (powder)

1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 tablespoons black treacle

1 tablespoon golden syrup

6 tablespoons milk

240 gm butter
1 egg, beaten

100 - 200 gm candied ginger, chopped (optional)

Sieve and mix the dry ingredients together. Melt butter, milk, syrup and treacle in a pan.

Mix the melted ingredients and the beaten egg in to the dry ingredients. Add the chopped candied ginger. Cook 1 hr in a moderate oven (175 deg.C).

Dandelion salad/ Loewenzahnsalat

about 500 gm dandelion
3 hard-boiled eggs
200 gm bacon bits (optional)
2 tabsp lard (optional)
2 big onions, diced
oil
vinegar
salt to taste

After cleaning and washing the dandelion, cut the leaves into 1-inch pieces. Place in big salad bowl.

Fry the bacon bits in oil till just before they turn brown. Add the diced onions and fry till they turn "glasig" (translucent). Add the lard and heat up the mixture. Remove from heat. Let cool a bit. The add 1 to 2 serving spoonfuls of vinegar to it. This is the salad dressing.

Shell the eggs and dice them. Add them to the cut dandelion. Add the onion, bacon and lard salad dressing which can be warm but NOT hot. Season with salt and toss well.

Baklava - low sugar version

Ingredients A:
100 gm chopped nuts
40 gm dessicated coconut
70 gm fine brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Ingredients B:
melted butter
about 12 sheets filo pastry (can be bought in most supermarkets in New Zealand. In Germany, if supermarkets do not stock them, try Turkish shops)

Mix ingredients A in a bowl. Put aside.

Spread 1 sheet of filo pastry onto a tea towel. Brush it lightly with melted butter. Then spread another sheet on top of the first buttered sheet and brush this one with melted butter, too.

Sprinkle the nut-coconut-sugar mixture evenly onto the buttered pastry.


Roll it up and cut into 5 cm pieces. Bake at 175deg. C for 15 to 20 minutes till golden brown.

Serve hot or cold.

Egg tart Chinese style

For the pastry:
2 cups flour
125 g butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 egg yolk
30 ml milk
vanilla essence

Cream butter with icing sugar. Add egg yolk, milk and vanilla essence. Add flour. Line cups (cup cake size) with dough.

For the egg filling:
4 x size 7 (biggish) eggs
1 cup sugar
slightly under 2 cups boiling water
300 ml unsweetened evaporated milk
few drops vanilla essence

Melt sugar with water. Whisk egg with milk. Add syrup, then strain. Pour egg mixture into pastry moulds.

Bake immediately in preheated oven at about 180 deg. C. for 35 mins.