Tastes like Home

Shortly after I graduated college my mom compiled a binder filled with recipes that were the sort of things you would always love to eat at a mom's house and should always know how to make; apple pie, quiche, perfect salad dressing, cakes for holidays, and banana bread.

Banana bread feels like home.  It is warm, it's comforting, it's not so bad for you that you can't eat it all day long - which I ultimately did.   After a whirlwind week of doctors appointments and hospital stays, more on that at another time, I just wanted to be back in our home.  All I could think to do was clean, do laundry and bake.  I'll spare you the pictures of me sweeping and folding towels.

I took my  mom's already really terrific banana bread recipe and upped the ante in the "good for you" category, without losing points in the "good tasting" category.

Healthy and Fluffy Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cup of whole wheat flour

1 tsp of baking soda

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 stick of butter

1/2 cup of turbinado sugar, or regular white sugar

1 apple sauce snack cup (4 oz.)

2 eggs

1 tsp of vanilla

4 mashed very ripe bananas

1/2 cup of fat free Greek Yogurt

Bake at 350 for 1 hour

As a tip the banana shown above are not the ones I used. For a really good banana bread you want the bananas that look really bad: covered in spots, mushy and overly ripe.  If you want to fastforward the ripening process you can keep the bananas in the freezer, and then take them out about an hour before baking time to defrost, like so.

First melt the butter and let it cool and then add the sugar, eggs, vanilla and apple sauce. When you mix it up it will look like nothing very exciting.  Don't lose hope.

Then add in those super ripe, but full of flavor bananas and the yogurt.  I know, now it just looks like banana baby food.  Believe in the banana bread!  I promise!

Time to add the dry ingredients.  A bunch of scoopfuls.

Here's a secret, whenever I make a bread or cake I pour a little extra batter in some muffin tins also.  Maybe this is to taste test to make sure the recipe worked, but maybe it's also to have a great treat in less time then in takes to bake a whole cake, you be the judge.

After an hour in the oven, always test with a toothpick, your banana bread should be done.  Let it cool, if you can, before removing it from the pan.  If the temptation is too great, that's what those little muffins were for!   I loved this banana bread, it would be great with nuts or chocolate chips added in or smeared with some peanut butter or cream cheese.  But in this case, it tasted like home and that is all I was craving.

Going Bananas for Plantains

I love bananas for breakfast, it's what I ate for breakfast this morning.  Plantains on the other hand are not for breakfast, but equally (if not more delicious).  I am not a food scientist a la Alton Brown but I did a little research so I'll pass it on so we'll all know how bananas and plantains are different fruits.  

Plantains are in a green, thick skin, they can't be eaten raw and are starchy and used as a vegetable, whereas bananas, well you know, yellow, think skin, sweet, good in cereal!

When we had our Latin fiesta night in addition to the watermelon, salsa and Mexican inspired s'mores we also served tostones, or plantain fritters.

Tostones Ingredients:

3 Large Plantains (party of 8)

Vegetable Oil of some variety, we used Canola

Kosher Salt

Open the tostones, you'll probably need a knife as they don't break open as easily as a banana.  Cut slices that are about 1 inch long. 

Put oil in a large pan (about an 1/3 inch high) over heat over a medium/high flame.  When the oil is hot enough, not burning or bubbling, but hot enough to react if you flicked some water from your finger tips into the oil, place plantains in slice side down.

Cook plantains for about 2  minutes on each side. 

This is a sensitive time, you'll want to keep an eye out so you can get a nice rich caramel color on the fried side.  Too light and thetostones will be too starchy, too dark, they might taste like burned sugar.

Set up all of the fried tostones on layers of paper towel to absorb any of the oil that is being released, just like latkes, onion rings, or anything fried you'll want to mop up the extra oil so you can get right to the flavors of the food.  Stop!  Do not discard the extra oil!

Time to smash!  I suppose if you had kids, which I don't, this could be a fun thing for them to do with supervision. (This was also a great thing for Mark to do, that's him!)  Set up a cutting board and grab a can from the cupboard.  Smash!  Smashing the plantains to about a 1/2 inch will be perfect.

The smashed plantains go back in the oil for about 20-30 seconds on each side just to crisp up the sides, and then back on new paper towels.

This is delicious now, and ready to eat.  But to maximize that salty-sweet combination that is so hard to beat grab that Kosher salt and lightly sprinkle over the tostones, then just try not to eat all of them!