Banana Nut Bread

Banana Nut Bread introduced to me by the United States of America most probably in the form of a muffin and then as a slice of bread (or cake?). Many a times this has worked as breakfast accompanied with coffee. Not sure if there would be anybody who would not like it unless they have some sort of aversion to banana. So today was the day for me to experiment on banana bread - from scratch. After the one sided World Cup final - there was not enough reason to watch it - so why not bake.

Went through a few recipes on the internet - each having it's own slight variation. Eventually arrived upon a mix and match of options from here and there. Nothing like the power of convenience. :-) So here it comes...

Ingredients

1) Banana (Ripe) - (enough to make about a 1.5 cups of mashed banana)
2) Nuts (I used a mix a walnuts and pecans) - 1.5 cups

3) All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 & 3/4 cups
4) Butter - 150 gms (Melted and cooled)
5) Sugar - 1 cup
6) Vanilla Essence - 1 tea spoon
7) Baking soda - 1 tea spoon
8) Baking powder - 1 tea spoon
9) Eggs - 2
10) Cinnamon powder - 1 tea spoon


Method

1) Pre-heat oven to 150 Deg C

2) Chop the nuts roughly.
3) Mix sugar, butter and vanilla essence using an electric mixer for about 10 minutes.
4) Add the egg and beat the mix for a few minutes.
5) Add all the remaining dry ingredients and give it a good stir with the electric mixer and finally with a wooden spoon.
6) Transfer the contents to a baking pan covered with baking paper. Garnish with some nuts.
7) Bake it in the pre-heated oven for about 80 minutes

Note: Check about every 5 to 10 minute after the 50th minute with a toothpick. If it's not cooked well you could see the mix sticking to the toothpick.
8) Remove the dish from the oven and cool it for about 10 minutes.

Banana nut cake done.


Happy Baking!!

C

Banana Nut Bread

Parotta

Parotta or புரோட்டா (burotta) as it is called in Tamil Nadu is such a versatile flaky bread which can be consumed in many ways. Am yet to find a parotta to beat the one from K.R. Bhavan - Salem.  Parotta is the ultimate evening snack (or dinner). Kurma soaked parotta wrapped in plantain leaves parcel. Yummm... 

Once I left Salem, having a good parotta has always been a treat. After going to US I had to console myself with those frozen malaysian "parathas" - until of course the frozen "malabar parottas" came into being. For a very long time I have been wanting to try my hands at it and last weekend made it a point to give it a shot (thump). Parotta making is definitely a skill that I need to "master" over time. Maybe that's why the parotta makers are called "master". :-)

Ingredients

1) Maida (All purpose flour) - used 3 cups

2) Egg white (1 egg)

3) Salt (1 tablespoon)

4) Oil - used Olive Oil (heaps of them)

5) Water

The process

Mix the ingredients on a wide bowl with lots of oil to make a nice smooth dough ball. Once the ball is made hit it (thump it) hard on the kitchen table. While I was doing it Uma was asking if I was showing my "love for her" on the dough. I continued harder... ;-)

Cover the dough with a wet cloth and leave it aside for a few hours.

After a couple of hours make big lemon sized balls out of it. One tip here is to make the balls fairly big - about 4 inch diameter. I made them small and they turned out too small to my liking.

Cover the balls again with wet cloth and leave aside for about an hour.

Now comes the fun part. Take a ball and spread it out as thin as possible on the kitchen table. If you are really skilled you can flip them out like a master. However until you reach there you can just try spread the dough out thin using your fingers. The trick here is to have enough oil on your hands and the dough that it doesn't break apart. If it does...well you know you need more oil.

Once spread out, fold it in multiple layers or pleats and roll them like a Cinnabon roll.

Once rolled, take these rolls and press them out flat with your palm and once thin enough cook it on a tava. Should take about 2-3 minutes cooking time per parotta.

Yummy parotta ready:

Best eaten with chicken curry or kurma. And yes, once cooked, pile them up and give it a nice smack on the sides to loosen them up a bit to make them soft.

Enjoy...

C