Sugar-free Banana Carrot Loaf

To be honest, the reason why I don't bake a lot is because I can't bring myself to measure out the cups of sugar or mounds of butter that are so often required in most traditional baking recipes. So when I find a sweet-thing recipe that has minimal amounts of either, I'm almost immediately sold.

These days, there's no shortage of recipes accommodating the 'sugar-free' lifestyle, but I find it interesting to note how they substitute other ingredients for regular white or brown sugar. Often, I find it's honey, maple syrup, or dates; but even more often it's slightly obscure (read: expensive) options like agave syrup, rice malt syrup, stevia (a plant-derived sweetener), or coconut sugar - to name a few.

Without a doubt, I prefer recipes which use the former, mostly for cost and even familiarity to an extent, and seeing ingredient lists things like rice malt syrup, I'm almost immediately turned off. So for those reasons, I love the following recipe because it uses good ol' fashioned dates and bananas.

I discovered this recipe a few months ago on My New Roots - an inspired, natural foods and nutrition-based blog by Canadian, Sarah B., who bases herself in Copenhagen. She writes incredibly accessible healthy recipes with thorough nutritional information about key ingredients. To be honest, I haven't made much from her blog - reading it more for inspiration and guilt-free food porn - but her 'Best Friends Banana Carrot Cake' inspired me to get baking.

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Sugar-free Banana Carrot Loaf makes a 9"x13.5" loaf

// from My New Roots //

I've renamed this a 'loaf' instead of 'cake', as I never feel the need to ice the finished product as Sarah B. does in the original recipe. If you feel lost without icing, I'd recommend cream cheese swirled through with maple syrup or honey; otherwise, I love it plain, or with a dollop of full-fat organic yoghurt and some honey for a comforting spike of sweetness. A perfect option for breakfast or an anytime-of-day treat.

2 c wholemeal flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp fine sea salt (*less if using salted butter)
3/4 c finely chopped walnuts
110g unsalted* butter, heated until just melted
1/2 c dried dates, seeded & finely chopped into a paste
3 ripe bananas (1 1/4 c), mashed well
1 1/2 c grated carrots, about 3 medium
handful each of raisins, dried pineapple, coconut flakes - or anything like it that you fancy (chocolate included)
1/2 c plain yoghurt
2 eggs, lightly whisked

Preheat oven to 180degC / 350degF. Line a 9x5x3" loaf or 8x8" cake pan with parchment paper. Sift flour, b.p., cinnamon, and salt together in medium bowl. Stir in walnuts and set aside. Stir dates into melted butter, breaking up dates slightly.

In large separate bowl, combine banana and carrots, and add date/butter mix, stirring together and breaking up dates as you go. Whisk in yoghurt and eggs. Add flour mix and stir until everything just comes together. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake for about 50-70 mins (with a loaf pan, mine is ready around 60-65 minutes, it will be less if using a cake pan where the thickness of the cake is less), or until a toothpick tests clean in the centre. Remove from oven and cool.

Instead of icing, serve simply with full-fat natural yoghurt.

Chinese New Year Dumplings

Goats, Westport, New Zealand

On February 19th, we welcomed in the year of the goat*. This marked the beginning of Chinese New Year, one of my favourite occasions to celebrate. As a person of Chinese descent, I've grown up with various traditions surrounding the 16-day holiday (including washing my hair on Chinese New Year's Eve to go into the new year cleansed of the year previous, and prepared to receive the festival season's luck and fortunes); and, of course it has always involved food.
*Or sheep, or ram - the Chinese character yáng 羊 covers all three hooved animals, requiring an additional preceding character to clarify, e.g. shān yáng 山羊 translates to goat specifically (shān 山 means mountain).

As with everything surrounding the Chinese New Year celebrations, there are symbolic foods you are encouraged to eat to invite good luck and prosperity in the coming year. The auspicious symbolism is derived from both the pronunciation or appearance of food being translatable to words or objects which inspire luck, wealth, or personal success and growth.

The foods vary across the different regions of China as well as different countries altogether. For example, in Singapore and Malaysia (where my family are from), a favourite dish to ring in the new year is the Yusheng (鱼生) or 'Prosperity Toss' salad platter. It consists typically of slices of raw fish (salmon in my experience), various (yet specific) shredded vegetables, crunchy crackers, peanuts, sesame seeds, and a slightly sweet/sour plum sauce, rice vinegar, lime and sesame oil dressing. It arrives at the table as a platter of ingredients, and the tradition is to stand with your table to toss the salad together, while reciting auspicious phrases or wishes. When I took my non-Chinese friends to do this last week, we simply said a prolonged Yum Sing ('cheers') during the toss, as I remembered doing growing up when we enjoyed the dish in a large setting of up to 20 tables doing it simultaneously. It's been a few years since my last Yusheng salad, so I relished reenacting the tradition and sharing it with friends who had never experienced it before.

The Yusheng platter at Yang Ming Yuan, Princes Street, Cork - seasonings, e.g. pepper, are inside the red envelopes

After moving out of home and missing out on my father's annual organised CNY celebrations and banquets, my go-to Chinese New Year celebration (and everyday comfort) food has been dumplings (jiaozi, 饺子). Last year, I made my first dumpling wrappers from scratch and was stoked with how easy it was (2 parts flour + up to 1 part just-boiled water + time). So last week, I decided to go all out and buy the special high-gluten flour from the Chinese supermarket which is supposedly ideal for dumpling wrappers.

Lemongrass Beef Noodle Salad

Savoured for it's fresh, fragrant and subtly citrus flavour, lemongrass is a penetrating - yet non-overpowering - component of many South East Asian dishes. If you enjoy Vietnamese or Thai food, you'll recognise the flavour straight away.

This noodle salad is loosely inspired by one of my favourite Vietnamese dishes: bun bo xao - stir-fried lemongrass beef served over room-temperature vermicelli rice noodles. Slices of steak beef (e.g. sirloin, skirt, scotch) are normally used, however I had some leftover beef mince in the fridge so adapted the idea to suit.

The salad aspect is also flexible - slices of cucumber, bean sprouts, shredded crispy lettuce, peanuts, crispy fried shallots, and fresh herbs, such as cilantro, basil, mint, small perilla (shiso) leaves are typical; but I used what I had, including thin slices of green pepper and mixed seeds, providing alternative elements of freshness and texture.

What is mandatory, however, are the cooled rice noodles, the Vietnamese dipping sauce/salad dressing, and the lemongrass, garlic and fish sauce beef marinade. 

Lemongrass Beef Noodle Salad

Zucchini, Chilli and Smoked Buffalo Mozzarella Pizza

The inspiration for this came partly from Polpo: A Venetian Cookbook of Sorts, by Russell Norman, which I've gushed about before, and partly from the smoked buffalo mozzarella I came across in the specialty Italian deli in town. For me, good pizzette (small pizzas), or pizza in general, is characterised by a thoughtful selection of a few fresh, quality ingredients and a good thin - slightly chewy, slightly crisp around the edges - base.

In this case, the smoked buffalo mozzarella was my starting point. From there, I selected a zucchini, red chilli and freshly grated parmesan to complement. In Polpo, Norman has a recipe which includes all of the above, but with mint and, instead of lovely, soft, fresh mozzarella, he recommends the cheap, hard, standard supermarket kind. This is a great option for when cheese is intended as a backdrop, but for this, I wanted the smoke of the mozzarella to sing. I omitted the mint also, as I had none on hand, but used chopped fresh parsley for freshness and as a garnish to finish.

For the pizza base, I turned to my quick flatbread recipe (not dissimilar to a standard pizza dough recipe), which has become a staple in my kitchen for it's ease, convenience and never-disappointing results. Once you've made it a few times, you'll know what I mean.

Zucchini, chilli and smoked buffalo mozzarella pizza

To accompany the pizza, I made spiced kumara (sweet potato) fries with a lemon-spiked yoghurt dip. And apart from making the base from scratch (use pre-made pizza bases or flatbreads if you wish), this took little effort to put together. 

My New Morning Ritual

Over the last few months, I've been watching various food- and health-related documentaries. I really enjoyed Food Matters, Hungry for Change, and Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead (all available on Netflix), and I'd recommend these to anyone interested in food. Boiled down, they contain a similar message: eating real food is essential for our health. And, the biggest take-home for me was not just about real food, but raw food.

It's a well-understood concept that when food is consumed raw, you're most likely to receive the most nutrients as they are yet to be 'damaged' by heat or the cooking process*. And while this in no way inspired me to start a raw diet (but props to those who try it), it definitely urged me to think about eating more raw fruits and vegetables. Meaning: more salads, smoothies and juices (in all cases, made fresh and/or right in front of my eyes, if not a pure ingredient list if I'm buying prepared).
*However, for some foods, they say that cooking/heat actually benefits overall nutritional value, e.g. processed tomato vs. fresh tomatoes.

While my last post is one salad I've been eating lately, I've also added a smoothie to my daily morning ritual. So after oil pulling with organic coconut oil, brushing my teeth with my homemade coconut oil/baking soda 'toothpaste', and drinking a big glass of warm water with a small wedge of lemon (or teaspoon of apple cider vinegar), I drink this:

Kale, Kiwifruit and Pear yoghurt smoothie with chia seeds

Kale, kiwifruit and pear yoghurt smoothie makes about 2 cups

1 banana

1 ripe pear (peeled, cored and cut into smaller pieces if you are not using a full-fruit able-blender)

1 kiwifruit, scooped out of it's skin

2 washed & torn kale leaves

1 teaspoon of honey

2-3 generous tablespoons of full organic yoghurt (or any type of milk - alternatively, apple juice could be used also)

Blend until combined with a few ice cubes (I use a powerful stainless steel hand blender which requires some patience and manoeuvring, but a regular blender would make this a breeze), and serve. For extra health, I mix in a tablespoon of chia seeds.  While this could be split over the day by keeping half in the fridge for an afternoon boost, I like to enjoy it all in the morning as I check my e-mails, news, and social networks.

Completely delicious and very satisfying, the beauty of the smoothie is being able to tick off a good amount of fresh fruit and vegetables early in the day, which is also the best time to consume fruits -giving your body the full day to access that energy. The variations are also endless, whatever is on hand can work nicely in the right combinations, though I envy anyone with a blender capable of blending whole fruits/vegetables (this is on my wish list) as I'd love to be able to include carrots and beetroots in my mixes. But alas, I still have allll the fruits up my sleeve and that's plenty for now.

I Heart Noodles: Korean Buckwheat Noodle Salad

I've talked before about my preference for savoury breakfasts so with that said, I'd like to add: I am a noodle girl. All the way. It might be an Asian thing, but I could eat noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it would be a dream come true (including European-style noodles too, e.g. spaghetti, späetzle... you name it!).

And lately, I've been indulging in that dream. Fragrant Vietnamese noodle salads, fiery fried Chinese noodles, nourishing and aromatic chicken noodle soups... and, happily, I've just discovered bucatini, a hollow spaghetti, which has also been giving me a lot of joy.

Of that theme, my favourite breakfast at the moment is a Korean-style Buckwheat Noodle (Ngaenmyeon) Salad. Ngaenmyeon is made from the flour and starches of various ingredients including buckwheat, wheat, and sweet potato, and is therefore chewier and more elastic than, say, its Japanese counterpart, soba.

I'm aware that Korean food isn't the most popular of Asia's cuisines, and I think I understand why: a lot of its core flavours are created from fermentation (e.g. kimchi) and this can be overpowering when unaccustomed. However, the health benefits of fermented foods are indisputable and definitely worth looking into if you are trying to eat healthier and especially if you have any digestion problems.

In any case, this dish is definitely Korean lite. And while kimchi would be a worthwhile addition, I'm keeping it simple. And never mind the breakfast thing, this would equally make a great lunch or light dinner.

Korean-style Buckwheat Noodle (Ngaenmyeon) Salad

Holiday Season: All-belly Porchetta with Honey & Bacon Brussels Sprouts

The new year is here! For many, this means new resolutions, old goals approached with a renewed spirit, or simply: keeping on keeping on. For me: it's a recommitment to 'the pursuit of deliciousness'. 

Fortunately enough, I have been reunited with my beloved cookbooks and this has been providing plenty of inspiration. And of course, the past Christmas season has also encouraged me to survey these and my old reliables on the world wide web for occasion-worthy meals and dishes worth-a-go. One such recipe I embarked on was the All-Belly Porchetta (Italian style roast pork) by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of The Food Lab at Serious Eats. 

As expected, the result was a tender, succulent, and flavoursome (due to a 'stuffing' of rosemary, garlic, fennel seeds and black peppercorns) centrepiece-alternative. The recipe itself was easy to follow and with its short list of ingredients, it made it all very unintimidating and practically necessary to give a whirl.

All-belly Porchetta with Honey & Bacon Brussels Sprouts and Lentils with Spinach 

We served slices of the porchetta with honey & bacon brussels sprouts (recipe below) and lentils simply tossed with baby spinach and good quality extra virgin olive oil, for a very winter-holiday-worthy meal.

Desktop lunch: Vietnamese-style vermicelli salad

Currently I'm in a phase of having Vietnamese-style vermicelli salads for my lunch.  Last week, I made traditional-style nuoc cham (dipping sauce) to use as my dressing (thanks to cheap limes) but yesterday I substituted fish sauce and lime for soy sauce and lemon and it worked alright too.

For the salad base:

Vermicelli, quantity depends on how hungry you are - for me, what fits loosely when dry within my thumb and forefinger making an 'o' works nicely.  (This is the only element that requires cooking so while you prepare the below, cover dry vermicelli in boiled water and drain well when it's become white/almost opaque. Alternatively, test for bite.)
Mesclun leaves, small handful of
Cucumber, as much as you like, sliced diagonally and then in half
Carrot, an inch and a 1/2 worth cut into matchsticks
Green onions, two inches worth sliced, I like a mix of white and green
Chinese BBQ pork, again, sliced (or any cooked meat you wish, leftovers are perfect, e.g. Shredded chicken, steak, roast pork, prawns, etc)

For the dressing (which should only be added just before eating)

The juice of 1 juicy lime (around 3 Tbsp)
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp sugar (or, to taste)
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 clove of garlic, minced (optional)
1 Thai chilli, finely chopped (optional and to taste)

There are many variations on nuoc cham but at its heart, it's all about balance.  I like to use the sugar element as the tipping scale so after adding one tablespoon, I'll test and add more if necessary.  I'm also a big fan of the garlic, but understandably maybe not all would be keen to eat this for an office workday lunch! Each to their own.

Assembly

Pour dressing lovingly over salad and combine so the vermicelli manages to intertwine itself with the carrots, and the carrots with the leaves.

Eat and enjoy!

Cooking on the Cuff

April has been a busy month.  Road trips, camping, canoeing, sightseeing, multiple deadlines at work and a friend's wedding have left little energy else for anything other than just enjoying those moments.  I've had less time than I'd like for writing but plenty for thinking.  Much time driving in the car, or sitting in a canoe, was spent in comfortable silence with my boyfriend as he thought about the things he saw from his seat, amongst other things, while I happily got lost in thought about food.  From devising what we were going to eat for our next meal to what I'd like to write about here.

The Whanganui River

Breakfast at Whangaparoa Bay, SH35 (The Pacific Coast Highway)

For example, I got to thinking: one of my favourite things about these weekends away was definitely cooking on the cuff. Without all the tools and ingredients available at home, and only the selected items that I'd deemed useful enough to bring along.  After previous camping trips, we had a list of things that we knew we would need: a good knife, pan, mandoline, tongs, can opener, oil, salt and black peppercorns (ground with two flat stones found somewhere in the South Island). Chickpea flour was also on the list this time.  Being off the grid for some of those weekends required forward-thinking when it came to what we would want to eat; and what we would want to eat would have to work with that set of tools and little refrigeration, if any.

After all that, the meals of greatest success were: 

• Zucchini fritters; then,
• Zucchini fritter, carrot and peanut butter sandwiches;
• Beetroot, chickpea and feta salad (with Steak);
• 2 Bean and Beef Nachos; and,
• Spaghetti Carbonara  

Dinner at Sponge Bay, Gisborne

So simple and relatively quick, I was proud to prepare these meals even if there was no-one to share it with other than ourselves.  Cooking away from home need not be limited to instant-anythings.  (However if it's instant noodles, with an egg stirred through towards the end of cooking, I could be okay with that.)

Ode to the Sandwich

There is nothing like a good sandwich.  I am currently home sick from work with a head cold brought on myself by going to sleep with wet hair.  One of my mother's cardinal rules growing up, only to be broken after a late night game of indoor netball.  A mistake I will not make again!  Nonetheless, I thank Buddha for not being sick at my stomach as I still retain my hunger and ability to eat.

As I was too excited and hungry to have foresight, I have no evidence of what I am about to describe, but you can believe and taste with your imagination the goodness of my recently devoured sandwich.  From top to bottom:

A thick slice of fresh sunflower and barley bread

Avocado, smeared on its underside

Torn coriander leaves

Crunchy iceberg lettuce

Sprouts

A swirl of Sriracha

Thin slices of Edam cheese

Fresh cucumber, laid in overlapping slices, and

French herb pâté

Over another thick slice of fresh sunflower and barley bread.

The only thing missing was some carrot and daikon pickle which would have made the flavour combination perfectly reminiscent of a Vietnamese baguette sandwich off the streets of Hanoi.  Punchy and lively yet soothed by the subtle creaminess of pâté and fresh bread.

So, is it the comfort of good bread that makes a sandwich so fulfilling?  Or the right combination of flavours that would sing together in any manifestation?  Inevitably, for the most sublime sandwich, it is both.  But this, I feel, being so easy to achieve, makes the sandwich a food opportunity that we should not relegate to merely an option we take when we run out of time or other 'more exciting' ingredients.  Each to their own for whatever flavour and texture combinations are willing, but I'm sure many are aware that the most satisfying take can simply be a few slices of cheese, melted between two pieces of toasted bread (preferably all heated at the same time).  A perfect example of the great pleasures a simple sandwich can bring.

I'm sure this wont be the last time I talk about the so-called 'humble sandwich' but until then: go to your kitchen and slap together a sandwich with fillings you like and bread you have, and be reminded of why there is nothing like a good sandwich.