Banana Bread
You don't need to buy sugar with this recipe. But a hammer would be super handy! For breaking walnuts into small pieces in a plastic bag.
Recipe makes roughly one 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. I used two mini loaf pans, 6 x 3.5 x 4.3-inch.
4-5 ripe bananas (medium to large size, I usually use 4 that are the size show in the picture above. More if it's small), smashed
5 Tablespoon butter, melted
Mix the above
1 egg, beaten, mix with the above
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt or 1/2 teaspoon
Add to the mixture, mix well.
Can add blueberry, walnut pieces, chestnut, apple, carrot, or whatever you like to the mix above.
350ml Flour (can be white or whole wheat, use 20% less if einkorn) add to the mix. Overall consistency of the mixture needs to be thick with elasticity. If on the runnier end, bread won't rise well. Add a bit more flour/baking soda if needed.
Pour mixture into greased loaf pan or cupcake pan.
Bake at 350F for one hour. 53 min (42 min einkorn) in the mini loaf pans. ~45 min if cupcake/muffin pan is used. Do a toothpick test if not sure.
After taking it out of the oven, let cool in the pan for 30 min before removing from pan (10-15 min if mini loaf or cupcake/muffin pan.)
I forgot the butter in the beginning, hence the addendum at the end. The prep order is flexible, and the results equally beautiful.
Taiwanese Inspiration
This variation is inspired by the Taiwanese baker Wu Pao-chun who won the 2008 and 2010 Bakery World Cup in the bread category.
His first shot to fame: longan and red wine bread with California walnuts. So dried longans I needed and made and as my colleague would tell you, this banana longan walnut bread "is the good [stuff.]"
Adding the dried fruit was easy, but the drying part took almost a day. I peeled a bundle of longans and discarded the pits. Then baked/dehydrated the fruit for about 6 hours in my toaster oven in convection mode at 180F. Dried longans and bread not done on the same day, or my hands would not be pleased. Bread is done per described above and the good stuff results.
Lazy banana bread
If you don't want to make the batter but have bread, here is a super simple version.
I toasted a piece of sourdough first, put sliced banana and plain macadamia nuts on top, then broiled the top for a few minutes until the nuts turned slightly brown. The other slice has avocado instead of banana. Sprinkle with some salt (skip this if nuts are salted.) Too easy!
Zucchini Pancake
Ingredients: Zucchini, cilantro, egg (Alternative: Napa cabbage and egg)
Spices: Salt and paprika (optional)
Steps:
Heat up the frying pan with some oil (e.g. 1 teaspoon for a small size zucchini) over medium heat. When hot, add sliced zucchini, stir/spread evenly, then a bit of water (e.g. 1 teaspoon,) cover and cook for a min. Add chopped cilantro, mix with zucchini, then crack the egg on top. Sprinkle a bit of salt and paprika if you have it. Mix, lower heat, let cook for a min, then flip it to cook the other side for about 10 seconds.
Dill Potatoes
Ingredients: Potatoes, dill
Seasoning: Salt, pepper
Steps:
I steam the potatoes first, then cut to small strips. If you boil instead, use low level of water in the pot to mimic steaming and retain nutrients. Cut dill including the stems. High heat pan fry the potatoes with some oil. When the surface turns slightly golden brown, mix in the dill, salt, pepper, and cook for another minute.
Liver Soup
Oh yes I have liver soup for breakfast sometimes after the monthly cycle is over. Gotta replenish iron. Even my friend who doesn't like liver would eat this. Pictures took longer than making the dish.
Ingredients:
~0.7 lb chicken liver (any liver ok. Pork liver needs to be sliced. I used bird kind to reduce labor. I divided a 2-lb bag and put 2/3 in freezer)
Ginger, sliced
Goji berries
1-Tablespoon olive oil
1-Teaspoon sesame oil
Salt to taste
Ingredients:
~0.7 lb chicken liver (any liver ok. Pork liver needs to be sliced. I used bird kind to reduce labor. I divided a 2-lb bag and put 2/3 in freezer)
Ginger, sliced
Goji berries
1-Tablespoon olive oil
1-Teaspoon sesame oil
Salt to taste
Steps:
Boil roughly 5 cups of water. Heat up pan over medium heat, add olive oil, stir fry ginger for a minute. Add liver chunks, cook each side for a minute, then pour hot water into the pan (or livers into hot water.) Cover and simmer for about 3 minutes (shorter if thinner slices are used.) Turn heat off.
I put goji berries, sesame oil and ~1/2 teaspoon of salt in a pot, transfer liver and hot soup into the pot. Sample and add more salt if needed. Cover and let sit for about 5 minutes. Cooking with salt will make the liver go hard. This way the liver stays tender.
I consume the soup over 3 day period. I reboil ~1.5 cup of soup, turn heat off, and then add 2 livers to the soup, let sit for a minute to warm up the liver.
Mixed Bean Soup
This one is easy but takes time. Prepare ahead and it makes delicious breakfast, hot or cold.
Ingredients:
Adzuki (red mung) beans, mung beans and peanuts altogether about 1 cup
6 dried dates (to sweeten the soup)
3 dried jujube
A few dried wood ear mushrooms (don't need too many as they expand like dried seaweed)
1 cinnamon stick and ginger
5 cups of water
Steps:
Soak beans, peanuts, and wood ear mushrooms in hot water overnight. I cut the jujube (if not too hard. if too dry/hard, then soak it too) and remove the pit from dried dates. Then boil everything together for 30 minutes and let stand until cool. Or boil 3 times - simmering for 10 minutes each time, one hour apart (or longer, you can go run errands and come back to it later.) The standing time is for the beans and peanuts to get soft in the covered hot pot, saves from simmering for long hours.
Feel free to add, remove, or substitute ingredients, like below.
My friend gave me aloe vera from her garden. I soaked and boiled the beans the same. Aloe vera preparation: Work like a sushi chef. Slice the top and side skin off, dice the gel, fillet the gel keeping the rind in contact with the chopping board.
When the soup is near ready, boil on high heat, throw in the clear cubes with the legumes, cook until the soup starts to boil again, then turn heat off. Raw succulent gel is slimy, but not after it's cooked. Mix in a bit of honey when soup is warm.
Taro roots (discard the brown skin) are also a yummy addition to the soup or stew. I usually steam its white meat first before dicing it.
Green Smoothie
Blend: avocado, apple, cucumber, green leaf veggie (e.g. spinach,) dried date, 2/3 water (fill up to 1/3 below ingredients,) optional seeds/nuts or seed/nut butter, and pinch of salt if used unsalted nuts/seeds. Veggie alternative: kale, zucchini, chard, etc.
Oatmeal sandwich: cookie sheet with dried date filling
Ingredients: oatmeal, figs, pinch of salt, and optional nut butter (~one spoon.)
My toaster oven tray is 11"x 9". I use my hand (wearing a plastic food glove,) to mix everything into a ball or until everything sticks together. Grease the parchment paper with olive oil or butter. Preheat oven to 400F.
Flatten the mixture on the parchment paper, and bake at 375 F for 12-30 minutes depending on how dry/wet you make your sheet.
My toaster oven tray is 11"x 9". I use my hand (wearing a plastic food glove,) to mix everything into a ball or until everything sticks together. Grease the parchment paper with olive oil or butter. Preheat oven to 400F.
Flatten the mixture on the parchment paper, and bake at 375 F for 12-30 minutes depending on how dry/wet you make your sheet.
Cut baked sheet in half, smear two dried plump dates (e.g. Medjool, khadrawy, halawi) on one piece, fold the other half over to make a sandwich. Cut into as many smaller pieces as you like.
Instead of figs, you can use banana. Here I added sprinkles of chili flakes to give it a bit of heat.
You can also add pumpkin seed butter and other dried fruits to the baked cookie sheet.
No dried fruits? Use fresh ones. I put strawberries and blackberries (can also use blueberries) in a small pot, add enough water to cover the fruits, bring to a boil, and simmer for a couple minutes. Let cool. Flip the oatmeal square over so the bottom side is up (more air gaps compared to the smooth top side.) Pour some of the berry sauce on top, let sit for a minute to soak the cookie.
This my upside down, lazy crumble.
Keep the berry sauce in fridge and try to use it up in a week, can probably keep longer. Mine is usually long gone before then.
Cooked oatmeal mixed with steamed sweet potato and goji berries
Optional: add nuts or nut butter. Alternative: use avocado instead of sweet potato.
Spanish Inspiration
Inspiration for this omelet is from my trip to Madrid. My coworker said Spanish omelet has a lot of potatoes. Now I don't know how much is a lot because I used only one small potato and it yielded many slices. And yes, Pac-Man for the win!
Ingredients: Arugula (can use other veggies like spinach or cactus pad,) 1 small onion (or 1 shallot,) 1 small potato, 3 eggs, olive oil, butter (optional) and salt.
Steps:
Cut potato to thin slices, onion and arugula to small pieces. Beat the 3 eggs in a bowl with a bit of salt. Smear the pan (mine is ~ 8-inch in diameter) with butter (a thin layer like coating,) then add some olive oil (~1 tablespoon,) medium heat. When pan is hot, add onion first, cook for 30 seconds to a minute (when onion smells fragrant,) then add potato, mix and evenly spread the pieces. Add a bit of water (~2 tablespoon,) cover and lower heat slightly, let cook for 5 minutes.
Add the arugula, stir, sprinkle some salt when the greens are cooked. Pour the beaten eggs over the veggies, use the spatula to work the eggs into the mixture evenly, cover, low heat, cook for about 4-5 minutes.
You can use a large spatula to flip the omelet over to brown the top side. Or if you have a bigger pan, can slide the spatula to the underside of the omelet, to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom, and flip the omelet in the small pan onto the big pan. Low heat cook for a few more minutes before flipping the omelet again onto a plate.