The Banana Shake: Humble, Healthful and Deliciously Refreshing

A few years ago on a trip to Thailand, I discovered the banana shake (and blogged about it on my sister's blog). Fruit shake vendors, as I note in that blog post, are a fairly ubiquitous feature of the southeast Asian street (and mall) food scene, and with good reason. Fruits are in abundance, and mixing them with some milk and ice makes for a refreshing antidote to stifling heat.

I confess that after that trip, I purchased my first blender mostly so that I could continue my pattern of banana shake consumption. I've been making them ever since as a post-workout treat, and they are every bit as delicious even four+ years later. Along the way, I've discovered a recipe that works quite well and a few tricks that help.

First, bananas (and particularly the larger varieties that we get in the US) are delicious and have the perfect texture, but aren't quite flavorful enough to carry the shake on their own. In Asia they often add sugar or other sweeteners, but that's not something I wanted to add to a treat that's otherwise pretty healthful and that I consume as often as I do banana shakes. Occasionally I do add a little brown sugar or palm sugar, and it is a nice treat; but mostly I add a generous sprinkle of ground cinnamon instead (maybe 1/8 - 1/4 tsp?). The cinnamon doesn't sweeten but it does bring out the banana flavor and adds a delicious undertone. I've also found that 2% or skim milk work fine in these shakes. I just use whatever I have.

Second, blending time makes a difference. It's easy for the impatient (like me) to turn off the blender right when you no longer hear chunks of ice hitting the blades. That's not long enough. Running it for a couple more minutes (yes, minutes!) works more air into the shake and results in a wonderfully frothy texture.

Third, frozen bananas seem sweeter. If you have perfectly ripe bananas (i.e, deep yellow and covered with small brown spots, but not brown all over; or "fleck'd with brown and [with] a golden hue" in the Chiquita jingle), peel them immediately, put them in an airtight container, and store them in the freezer. These may turn dark brown as they freeze, but they will make fabulous shakes that taste even sweeter than the ones made with fresh bananas. Just add a little extra milk and half the ice.

My banana shake recipe (serves 1):

1 banana
3-4 large ice cubes (or a larger number of smaller cubes)
3/4 cup milk (or enough to fill the blender to the 1 Cup mark when everything else is already in there)
generous sprinkle of cinnamon

Add all ingredients to blender. Blend for 2-3 minutes, or 1-2 minutes beyond the point where the ice is no longer noisy.

This will fill a 12 oz glass with a tiny bit left over, or come within 1/4" or so of the top of a pint glass. A straw is essential to proper enjoyment.

Variations:
This very basic recipe is endlessly malleable and works with other fruits as well. Here are some of my favorites.

For a sweeter shake, add a bit of brown sugar or palm sugar (1-2 tsp is good), or substitute a little sweetened condensed milk for the milk.

For a more tropical taste (or if you just have some extra coconut milk), substitute coconut milk for 1/2 or so of the milk.

Other fruits that I like making shakes with include ataulfo mangoes (regular mangoes don't hold up well; and even ataulfos need sugar for it to taste good), canned Indian mango puree (doesn't need sugar), and avocados (which is more of a Vietnamese treat and also needs a bit of sweetener to get good flavor).

Happy shake-making!

Aunt Belle's Rugelach: On Being Jewish for the Food

Rugelach

By most any measure, I'm not a particularly religious person. I understand and respect that these sorts of things have value for others (though I don't really get it when this value results in rioting and hurting people, but that's well beyond scope); it's just not for me at this point in my life. As one who was born Jewish and raised in an ostensibly* kosher home  with strong traditions around the holidays, though, I confess that I really do like the food.

In a previous post right around when she passed away, I mentioned Aunt Belle. To refresh briefly, she was: technically my great aunt, 95 years old when she died, and an industrious baker for family holiday celebrations for the entire time that I knew her. One of the few things I ever baked with Aunt Belle was rugelach, which were one of my favorite holiday treats and something I wanted to be sure I learned how to do myself. For the uninitiated out there, rugelach are (I presume) a traditional Eastern European Jewish dessert. They typically have a flaky, not very sweet dough of some sort that's filled with some combination of fruit (dried or jam), nuts, cinnamon, sugar and/or perhaps some chocolate.

So about 15 years ago, I asked Aunt Belle if she would show me how to make rugelach. I went over to her house one afternoon, and we made these together. I've made them several times since then, but figured they'd be particularly appropriate to bring to Rosh Hashanah dinner with my Chicago cousins. And also a good recipe to share with you, my dear readers.

Lots of butter...what could be
bad here? 

To be fair, this recipe is not unique to Aunt Belle. She had it copied out of a newspaper, I think. And it's really similar to others I've seen in cookbooks. But I think of it as her recipe, and so can you.

For a treat that's very rich and flaky, these are actually fairly simple to make and pretty forgiving. They are not heart- or otherwise healthy in any way shape or form, however, so be warned now. Except perhaps for mental health. I can assure you that eating several is very good for that.

Dough is ready!

To make the dough, simply mix 1/4 teaspoon of salt with 2 cups of flour in the food processor. Once combined, add 1/2 pound (2 sticks) of slightly softened butter, each cut into quarters; and 1/2 pound (1 brick) of slightly softened cream cheese. Process in pulses until it's all combined and forms several large chunks. Over-mixing is the only mistake I've ever made with these, and it resulted in a sticky dough that was impossible to work with.

Once the dough is made, divide it into 4 equally-sized chunks. Wrap each one in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour. (At this point when I made these with Aunt Belle, she offered me a can of Vernors and took me into the living room to, after much subtle inquiry about my social life, ask if I'd like her to set me up with any of her friends' granddaughters. I suggest that you find something similarly engaging to do while you wait for the dough to chill.)

While the dough is chilling, sort out how you're going to fill the rugelach. There's no sugar in the dough, so something sweet is essential. I usually use a mix of sugar (1/4 cup) and cinnamon (one teaspoon), plus some raspberry jam and chocolate chips. If I'm not baking for a nut-allergic crowd, I add some chopped walnuts (maybe 1/2 cup?).

My work surface and highly
imperfect dough rolling

You can also preheat the oven to 350 at this point and get a couple baking sheets ready. Silicone baking sheet liners work really well for these, but spraying with non-stick spray also works.

Once the dough is chilled, repeat these steps for each of the disks: Roll it out on a well-floured surface into a disk that's about 1/8" thick and 10 - 11" across. Spread the filling on this disk. I usually spread a spoonful of jam first, then sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar blend, then the walnuts, and finally a handful of chocolate chips.

Next, cut the disk into quarters. Cut each of these quarters in half again, and then again as if you were making spokes on a wheel or slicing a pizza. Don't worry if the slices are exactly even or not.

Starting from the outside, gently lift each wedge and roll it fairly tightly toward the center, capturing the filling as you roll (though chips and nuts may scatter a bit). Place the rolled up rugelach on the baking sheet.

Ready to be baked!

Bake at 350 for 20 - 25 minutes, until they're puffy and very light brown on top (and golden on the bottom). Yum!

As I said, there are lots of variations on this. Some people glaze them with a bit of egg to make them extra brown. Others sprinkle sugar on top. There are also different types of dough. I think it'd be interesting to do a savory version as well (maybe some onion jam with dried cranberries and black pepper?).

Here are my photos of the rugelach I made yesterday. Now I'm off to share them with the cousins!




 * I say ostensibly kosher because, despite having separate dairy and meat dishes/silverware, pepperoni pizza was perfectly acceptable fare for most of my childhood, as long as it was consumed on a paper plate. The logic continues to befuddle.

Lime and Long Pepper Bars

Lots of limes!

I've spoken before about my love for both spicy desserts and the Thai long pepper. Long pepper works in these contexts because it's pretty spicy, but not searingly hot. It's got a slight sweetness and hint of anise that black pepper or crushed cayenne lack. And it's also dry, so blends really nicely with sugar in the food processor (even if it causes a minor coughing fit when I take the cover off). Stick a few long peppercorns in the food processor with sugar. Process for a minute or two. Strain the results. The result can change any dessert, often for the better.

Yesterday I decided to try this with lime bars. Let me say first that I'm pretty picky about lemon or lime bars, which can often be quite mediocre. I like mine to have a crust that's crisp and has some taste; not mushy and a weak base for the lemon/lime part. I like the lemon/lime part to be intensely flavored, with lots of fresh juice. It should overwhelm the senses with fresh and bright citrus, not make you vaguely recall lemon-scented cleansers. And finally, they should be luscious and creamy in texture, not crumbly or dry. Easy, right?

I've probably tried seven or eight recipes for these over the past few years, and have settled on two that I like a lot. My favorite (as for so many things) is from Joann Chang's Flour cookbook. It has an incredible amount of rich, delicious lemon curd piled on a light, crispy shortbread. The recipe is a bit over the top, though, as it requires 3 sticks of butter, 12 eggs, some heavy cream and the juice of 14-16 lemons or limes!  Not something I do every day, but well worth it on special occasions.

Mixing the filling: sugar, eggs,
a little flour, lime juice, lime zest

For a more everyday lemon or lime bar, I love the recipe in Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert. These lemon bars have all of the key properties (to review: crisp, tart, creamy, delicious), and can be thrown together in an hour or so (including baking time). Plus the ingredient list is eminently reasonable: 1/2 cup of citrus juice, 3 eggs, 1 stick of butter; plus, of course, some flour, sugar and salt. Her secrets? Bake the crust until it's pretty brown before adding the lemon/lime filling. Use lots of juice and fresh zest in the filling. Tastiness.

Crisply baked crust just
before adding the filling

Having shared my favorite lemon/lime bar recipes, back to the long pepper. Black pepper is known to pair well with citrus. They show up together all the time in sorbets, shortbread, etc. (My mother is now saying to me silently, "They show up together all the time only in your kitchen..." Trust me, though, they do.) Surely you'll at least concede that lemon pepper chicken was all the rage for a while in the late 90s, right?

Anyway, I wanted to try spicy lime bars, and I had some long pepper left over from that trip to Indonesia last spring. I also had some limes that I had picked up very cheaply (10 / $1!) on Devon St. here in Chicago (on which I will have to write a post once I've explored more). I wanted to use it up before it loses its flavor. So I blended it with most of the sugar for the lime bar recipe.  The recipe calls for 1.25 cups; I made 1 cup of long pepper sugar and used it for all of the sugar in the crust (1/4 cup) and most of the sugar in the filling (1 cup), using plain sugar for the rest. On its own, the long pepper sugar is very spicy.

The result is a pleasantly spicy lime bar, according to me and one friend (who, notably, is often averse to spicy foods and isn't afraid to tell me when she doesn't like stuff). The heat of the long pepper is palpable and lingers for a couple minutes after each bite. But it doesn't build or burn; just kind of tingles. And it doesn't obliterate the lime. I'd actually consider using a bit less long pepper sugar in the filling next time, but my friend liked it as is. An interesting experiment.

I think it would be really interesting to do the same thing with black pepper and taste them together. My guess is that the long pepper would have more burn, and that the black pepper would be more assertive and throw off the balance. I've got enough long pepper for one more recipe, probably, so stay tuned.

Tomato Curry with Spinach and Coconut

Oops, I did it again. I've gone another long time without a blog post. Sorry about that. This time I feel like I have a decent excuse: I've relocated to Chicago to start a new job. The past few weeks have been full of packing and unpacking, loading and unloading, driving and driving, setting up home and office, learning how to commute again, and lots of other fun relocation-related stuff.

The good news for you, dear readers, is that I'm pretty excited about my new kitchen. For the first time in about four years I'm living in one place, and actually have space for my various appliances and cooking gear. I also have a gas stove and an oven big enough to hold a half-sheet pan. It's a kitchen I like spending time in, so hopefully I'll have lots to write about.

In that vein, I describe here one of the first things I cooked in my new place: a tomato and coconut curry with spinach. Why this? Several reasons.


First, I was home visiting family last week and went to Detroit's wonderful Eastern Market. Among other things, I picked up a quart of fresh, local tomatoes without having any real idea of what to do with them. Second, I'm working my way through Pushpesh Pant's wonderfully comprehensive, if often cryptic, India: The Cookbook. Name a vegetable (including banana flower stems!) and he's got a few recipes for you, so this was a natural place to look. Third, Chicago has a fabulous Little India on Devon St., so it was easy to find some fresh curry leaves, coconut powder and spices.

To make the curry, I boiled a pound or so of diced tomatoes in water with a sliced onion, a couple minced chilies, 5 or 6 curry leaves, and about 1/4 pound of sliced spinach. After a few minutes, this was thickened with 1/2 cup of coconut powder (Note: in an example of Pant's crypticness, he says only "half coconut, dried, finely grated;" some Googling suggested that 1/2 cup was the right amount), some turmeric and a teaspoon or so of coarse salt.



Meanwhile, I sauted another sliced onion in hot oil with some mustard seeds (1 tsp) and a few dried chillies. When the onions were golden brown, this was added to the boiled mixture and stirred together. This was then simmered for a while to evaporate some of the liquid and meld the flavors.


I served the result over rice and reheated it for several days. A delicious and unusual mix of flavors. Stay tuned for more curries and hopefully more regular posts!

Red Rum: Homemade Jello Shots

It's a bit hard to miss that nostalgia is at least part of (if not all) the rage lately. Superhero movies target thirty-somethings (and older). Cocktail bars are recreating prohibition-era drinks with homemade bitters and the like. And restaurants/cookbooks are playing on childhood flavors and memories as, for example, with the "cereal milk" at Momofuku Milk Bar or Joanne Chang's recipes for homemade Oreos and Pop Tarts in her oft-lauded-on-Pearwise Flour cookbook.

What's fun about the food-related nostalgia is that the re-creations are often much, much better than the childhood memories they're trying to evoke. Have you tried a Pop Tart lately? If not, trust me. This is what excited me about the idea of doing some homemade, very high quality Jello shots. Jello shots are a classic sugar-laden and potent undergrad-era (and, ok, a bit after that for some) party accessory. The idea of making them with fresh fruit juices and infused liquors was -- at least to me -- quite appealing.

Not surprisingly, I'm certainly not the first to have this idea. There is, in fact, a whole blog (the Jelly Shot Test Kitchen) dedicated to the topic, and the author's creations are actually pretty incredible. As you can see, the site has spawned a book and generated quite a bit of media attention. My goals are not nearly so lofty, but I did want to play with the concept.

Infusing rum with berries.

I started with some rum that I had infused with fresh New York strawberries. I sliced up a quart of strawberries (removing the tops) and left them in a sealed jar with enough rum to just cover the berries for a month or so. After straining out the berries, you can see in the photo that the rum turned a delightful shade of bright red (which actually surprised me).

Red rum!!

Using a recipe for an Elderflower Mojito jelly shot as a model, I first made a simple syrup of sugar and water and dissolved 4 packets of plain gelatin in this syrup. I then added an equal (to the amount of syrup) amount of freshly squeezed lime juice, followed by a cup of the strawberry rum. After stirring it all together, I separated it into tiny paper cups and let them set in the fridge overnight.

Dissolving gelatin

The result was very stiff, so I probably could've used less gelatin if I wanted. They were tasty, tasting clearly of strawberry with a hint of rum flavor. The lime and syrup really provided accent; you couldn't taste them. And to taste much of anything, you had to eat it slowly...which sort of defeats the purpose of a shot.

Shots about to gel.

Still, they were fun. And brought back memories of shots made with actual Jello; without having to eat actual Jello. That was the goal, so I declare mission accomplished.

Lots of Little Things

It's once again been a few days since my last post. There are times when I don't post because I just haven't made any food. This was the case for much of the spring. Then there are times when I don't post because I just haven't made any one thing that's post-worthy, despite making lots of relatively uninteresting little things. This has been one of those weeks, so today's post is focused on those little things, and on making them as interesting as possible.

Indian Spanish Tortilla, cooking

I'll start with my lunch for this week, an Indian-Spanish tortilla. (If I haven't mentioned this before, I mostly cook for myself; so make enough to eat lunch and dinner for 4-5 days at a time. It's a great incentive to make things that are tasty, but the cost of failure [i.e., eating bad food for 4-5 days] is high).  One of my favorite easy lunches is a Spanish tortilla sandwich -- slices of a potato/onion/egg concoction sandwiched on a nice roll. This week I decided to put an Indian spin on that, adding some cumin seeds, curry leaves and nigella seeds to the oil (3/4 cup or so, later drained off) before cooking the potatoes (1.25 pounds, diced to 1/4"). I also added some kashmiri chili powder to the eggs along with some salt and black pepper. A delicious spin on a classic dish.

Yesterday I celebrated Canada Day with some Canadian and American friends, and brought a couple of nice summer desserts. I knew they had s'mores planned for the kids, so I made my own vanilla-flavored marshmallows to appease the adults at the party too. Marshmallows are actually pretty easy to make, with the right gear and a little patience. I just boiled 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water and 2/3 cup corn syrup until it reached 240 degrees. I then poured this into my stand mixer with the whisk, where I had already placed 3 packets of gelatin powder into 1/2 cup cold water to soften for 15 mins. These were beaten together at high speed for 15 mins until the mixture was firm, fluffy and, well, marshmallow-like. Then the white mixture gets poured into a 13 x 9" pan lined with foil and non-stick spray to set. Finally, I sliced them into small squares, which was tossed in a blend of corn starch and powdered sugar to keep them from sticking to each other. No pictures, unfortunately, but they disappeared pretty quickly.

Overly dramatic shot of watermelon
and wine concoction

The marshmallows were for later in the evening, though. We needed a refreshing afternoon treat, too, so I made a couple sorbets. Watermelon sorbet is super easy and delicious: just a bunch of watermelon pureed with sugar and some lime juice, and a tiny bit of vodka and stabilizer to improve the texture. I also made a bit of lemongrass-lime leaf sorbet, by steeping lemongrass (3 stalks) and lime leaves (5) in a sugar syrup, to which I then added the juice of one lime and some stabilizer. Again, tasty. In a possibly ill-advised from a purist's standpoint, but still delicious, move the watermelon sorbet was incorporated into a glass of wine with some basil, shown here as the sun was setting.

Stay tuned for more summer treats!

Long Pepper Pound Cake

Long Peppercorns in their jar

After tasting a cupcake or something, one of my colleagues once commented, "I like that your desserts sometimes burn." He wasn't referring to heat from the oven, but to my love for mixing spicy and sweet. Desserts aren't often that spicy, but their general fattiness/creaminess actually makes them a great way to deliver a subtle punch. I've talked about some of those recipes here, and there have been others. This is another post in the spicy dessert vein.

Completed pound cake.

Some of you may recall my brief fixation on the Long Pepper, which I described in this post a couple years ago. That bag of long peppers is, well, long gone; but I found some more in a spice market on my recent trip to Yogyakarta, Indonesia. To recap, long peppers are much more like black peppercorns than they are chile or bell peppers. They're spicy and taste like a rough cross between black pepper and star anise, with maybe a hint of smokiness.  Since that last blog post, I've also made a really tasty (trust me) ice cream with them too.

This time, however,  the goal was a spicy but sweet poundcake. I started with Pichet Ong's delicious sweetened condensed milk poundcake. He suggests using vanilla as the main flavor. I've made it with pandan leaves as well. This time I used long pepper, and it was ridiculously simple.

Before blending with sugar

I took a handful of long peppercorns and put them in the food processor with 1/2 cup of sugar. I spun it for a few minutes until the peppercorns had broken up substantially. Opening the food processor released a sweet/spicy haze of sugar/pepper dust that caused a minor coughing fit (I closed the food processor during said coughing, don't worry). Then I strained the sugar and put it back in the food processor. I tasted the sugar and it packed some serious bite. Perfect, as it would be diluted by all of the other ingredients.

I added 1/2 pound of soft butter and spun until they were well combined, followed by a bit less than a can of sweetened condensed milk (he calls for 3/4 cup; i accidentally poured more in), and then 3 eggs. After processing in quick pulses until well blended, I added 1.5 cups of flour mixed with 3/4 tsp baking powder and pulsed a few more times.

After blending with sugar.

Finally I poured this batter into an 8.5 x 4.5 loaf pan and baked at 325 F for a bit over an hour.

I tested this on colleagues and got lots of good feedback. People liked the sweetness followed by a little bit of heat. The spice was subtle, but had a definite presence. A win, I'd say.

If one wanted to make this without long peppers, I'd say you could use a combination of black peppercorns and star anise (maybe 2/3 pepper to 1/3 anise?). If you try it, let me know how it works!