Banana Split Bread

 You can never go wrong with a nice slice of banana bread. However, sometimes you need to shake things up. As luck would have it, we found ourselves with a glut of dried cherries, crushed pineapple, and shredded coconut. It seemed perfectly reasonable to add them, along with chocolate chips into our banana bread batter. Presto! Banana Split Bread! All you have to do is slather it in whipped cream and chocolate syrup and you've destroyed all nutritional value of traditional banana bread! I'm here to help! As always, notes are in (blue). 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 medium over-ripe) mashed bananas
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/2 cup dried cherries (if dried aren't available, you can get away with the same amount of drained and chopped jarred maraschino cherries)
• 1/4 cup crushed pineapple
• 1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• For topping: 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoons white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C, Gasmark 4). Spray a 9x5" loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Beat butter with sugars until light and fluffy (if you don't have a Kitchenaid or electric mixer, this will be a PITA). Add egg and beat well. 
3. In a large bowl, mix flour with baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix banana with milk.
4. Add the cherries, pineapple, and coconut to the banana mixture
5. Add half the banana mixture to the butter mixture, mixing until smooth; add half the flour mixture and mix until smooth. Repeat process with second half of the banana and flour mixtures. 
6. Mix the chocolate chips into the batter
7. Pour batter into loaf pan. In a small bowl (just use the bowl you used for the flour. No sense in dirtying a third bowl), mix the 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon with 1 teaspoon white sugar; sprinkle over top of batter. 
8. Bake at 350F (180C, Gasmark 4) for 60-75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (cooking times will vary). Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool

IYKYK
Good Times!

Slow Cooker Rice Pudding

     I've been cooking some pretty unsightly food of late. This particular recipe is no exception. Granted, rice pudding isn't much to look at even on a good day, so I've got that going for me. I have always been a huge fan of rice pudding, and once I made some changes, it was exactly how I remembered it as a kid. If you've got a rice cooker, this recipe is super easy. Cook the rice, mix in the other ingredients, and done. I'm pleased with the addition of sweetened condensed milk. I think without it, this would not have been sweet enough and we would have had vaguely coconut flavored mushy rice. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Slow Cooker Rice Pudding
via Slow Cooker Magic in Minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups water 
• 1 cup long grain rice
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• pinch of salt
• (if you're using a rice cooker, you only need one cup of water and one cup of rice. You can omit the butter and salt)
• 18 ounces of evaporated milk (we only had 12 ounce cans, so we used one of those)
• 14 ounces cream of coconut (nope. We used a 14 ounce can of coconut milk instead)
• 1/2 can (7 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup golden raisins (you can also use regular old raisins. Nobody will notice or care)
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• peel of 2 limes (omitted, we used 1 tablespoon of Rose's Lime Juice)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• toasted shredded coconut (optional) 

Directions

1. Place water, rice, butter and salt in medium saucepan. Bring to rolling boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 10 -12 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand five minutes.
   (I just pissed this step off entirely. I ignored the butter and salt and just threw 1 cup each of rice and water into my rice cooker and wandered off for 20 minutes)
2. Spray slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Add milk, coconut liquid of choice, raisins, egg yolks, lime and vanilla. Mix. Throw in the rice and mix it all together.
3. Cover and cook on LOW 4 hours. Stir every 30 minutes (it's not the end of the world if you can't. You just may get a couple crunchy spots at the bottom)

Good times!

Coconut Chicken Curry

     I think curries are wonderful during fall and winter. There's just something about a good curry on a cold day that makes everything a little bit better. I found this particular curry recipe in Taste of Home Slow Cooker. This recipe is very simple and was a huge hit. We took the leftover coconut milk and used it in cooking the rice. The result was a creamy curry with just a little bite. The garnishes really helped step this up from just another slow-cooker meal to something I'd be happy to serve to company. As always, changes and notes are in blue.

Coconut Chicken Curry
via Taste of Home Slow Cooker

Ingredients

• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each) (or just use 1 pound of boneless skinless chicken)
• 1 cup light coconut milk (can't be bothered with light. We used regular)
• 4 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 teaspoon reduced-sodium chicken boullion granules (didn't have reduced sodium, used regular)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (omitted; there's enough sodium from the boullion)
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups hot cooked rice
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
• Raisins, flaked coconut, chopped unsalted peanuts, optional

Directions

1. Place potatoes and onion in a 3-4 quart slow cooker (we used a 2.5 quart cooker. FIGHT THE POWER). In a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, brown chicken on both sides. Transfer to slow cooker. 
2. In a small bowl, combine coconut milk, curry, garlic, boullion, salt and pepper; pour over chicken.
3. Cover and cook on LOW for 5 hours or until chicken is tender.
4. Serve chicken and sauce with rice; sprinkle with green onions. Garnish with raisins, coconut and peanuts, if desired.

No, just regular curry.
Good times!

Monday Recipe: Pistachio Crusted Tofu

     Every now and then I decide to go completely off book in the kitchen. This time it was because I sitting on a block of tofu that had been in my fridge a Long Time. It was a use it or lose it kind of thing. Normally I use tofu as a filler in my stir-fry. I didn't have any meat prepped so I decided to give meatless a try. This turned out far better than I could have hoped for. I wound up serving it over a bag of microwave-steamer Chinese-style vegetables.  One of my students tried it when I brought leftovers to school and has been after me to give him the recipe ever since. Here it is. 

Pistachio Crusted Tofu

Ingredients

• 1 block firm tofu (about 14 ounces)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4t 5-spice powder
• 1t Worcestershire sauce
• 1T Sriracha

For crust:

• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup chopped pistachios
• 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Drain tofu and pat dry with paper towels. Slice into 1/2" thick slabs
3. Mix sour cream, 5-spice powder, Worcestershire sauce and Sriracha in a medium bowl
4. In another medium bowl, mix all ingredients for crust
5. Spread a thin layer of the sour cream mix on each slab of tofu. Cover both sides and edges. 
6. Press tofu into crust bowl. Cover slab completely with crust. Place on a greased cookie sheet.
7. Cook for about 30 minutes at 375F or until pistachios/coconut start to brown.

Good times!