Banana Bread

Whenever I have to prepare something quick and tasty for visitors my first choice is my Banana Wonder Bread. I got a basic recipe some time ago from a reader of my column of the Costarican Tico Times. Whenever her husband went out on his boat some guys from the other fishing boat yelled at him to trade their fish for the banana bread. Well, my recipe is a little bit different, as I don't use cranberries but nuts and almonds, raisins as well as a seasoning called "allspice".

It's quite simple to prepare and the best of all: There wasn't a single person who wasn't delighted by the cake.

BANANA WONDER BREAD
Besides about 1 1/2 hour for preparation all you need is:

1 cup mashed bananas (about 3)

1/4 cup chopped raisins
      or other dried fruits (optional)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds)
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice (or cardamom if not available)

Preparation: Cream butter/margarine with sugar until fluffy, add eggs, one at a time, beat.
In another bowl, sift dry ingredients add to the creamed mixture. Add mashed bananas, blend well, add spices (and nuts and dried fruits). Stir well.
Pour into well-buttered loaf pan and bake under medium heat for about 50 minutes until done (until an inserted toothpick comes out dry).

When still hot top Banana Bread with marmelade and sprinkle with slices of almonds.

Spinach Pizza

This is one of my favorites...as I do love spinach, mozzarella, oregano, a touch of garlic and olive oil. And those ingredients sum up the basic flavor of this delight. You can do it the vegetarian way or add you own favoite ingredients like tuna, ham, bacon,  to mention only some of them.

 Try it and you'll see that its awesome!

Different shapes...

My daughters love to have their pizza served shaped as hearts, however you can prepare a round or square pizza as well. For preparation of a big pizza (size of a baking tray) you´ll need at least 4 x ingredients for the dough and toppings. However, in that case I recommend to make a "Four-Season Pizza" and divide your big Family Pizza into 4 parts with different toppings each.

For the dough you need (for 1 mediumsized, round pizza):

2 cups of flour
1/2 cup warm water (or more)
salt
1 tsp olive oil
1 Tbsp dry yeast mixed with 1/2 tsp sugar
(to activate yeast)

For the preparation of the tomato base you need:

1/2 cup tomato pulp
(tetra pack, canned or freshly prepared, but without any flavors!)
thyme (fresh or dry)
salt
1 tsp. olive oil

Ingredients for your pizza topping: 

4 cups spinach leaves
some mushrooms (optional)
some corn (optional)
1/2 cup mozarella cubed (or use feta cheese)
1 1/2 cup mozzarella grateed
1 clove crushed garlic
1 small onion cut in rings
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Oregano (fresh or dry)

First: Prepare the dough. Use a small cup to mix yeast, sugar and about 3 Tbsp. warm (not hot) water. Place flour and 1 tsp of salt in a bowl and pour yeast-mixture in a scoop in the middle. Let yeast sit and activate for about 5-10 minutes. When yeast is foaming and increasing its volume mix together with flour and water. Add only as much water to the dough as necessary to have a smooth "play dough-like" texture. Kneat carefully with your hands. When it´s getting too moist, add some water, or add more of it if necessary. Form a ball and let it rest and rise in the bowl (cover with a kitchen towel) for about 2 hours. It should have increased to about 25 % more volume!

Then take a small baking dish or any other (heart) shaped cake tin. Grease the baking mold with some oil or margarine. Use a small, even drinking glass to roll out the dough (the drinking class so much more handy than the rolling pin for a small pizza). Some like their pizza with a thick dough, others like it thinner. It´s your choice. I always prefer a thin layer and use to roll it as flat much as possible. Then I skip the ends and prepare some garlic pizza bread with the leftovers. You can also prepare another small pizza for next day. Place pizza in the stove (don´t heat the oven yet!).

Meanwhile wash spinach leaves and cook together with salt and garlic in water for about 10 Minutes. While the leaves are steaming in a covered pot cube some of the mozzarella (or feta cheese) and grate the rest of the mozzarella. Strain boiled spinach leaves and squeeze them with a cooking spoon (otherwise your pizza topping is too liquid and tastes like a spinach soup!)

After that mix tomato pulp with thyme, salt, olive oil and stir with a spoon. Prepare other ingredients of your choice (mushrooms, corn or others like ham or bacon) ready to top your pizza.

Finally grab the tray with the pizza dough out of the oven (it might have been rised a little bit) and spread tomato pulp with a spoon all over. Top with spinach leaves and place all other ingredients on your pizza - cheese cubes, corn, mushrooms, onion rings and at last: spread mozzarella cheese over it all and add a final touch of olive oil and oregano.

Put in the oven at highest heat for about 15-20 Minutes. Serve with parmesan cheese if preferred.

ENJOY!

Please note: It´s not recommended to warm up spinach. Neither during the cooking process spinach should be chilled and warmed up again, nor should you put leftovers with spinach in the oven again ! You can eat spinach pizza leftovers cold, that's no problem. 

Croquettes

Simple, Light  & Tasty


Spice up croquettes with your own flavors...

Cook and mash potatoes (about 1kg) with a fork. Fix a purree (you can also use an instant puree pack). Add some hot milk (not too much!), 1 egg, salt, pepper, 1 pinch of nutmeg, flour and vegetable (I usually buy a pack of small cubed, frozen - not canned! - vegetable mix and steam it before adding to the potato puree). You can also prepare your own, preferred vegetable. At last stir in grated cheese (mozzarella).

With your fingers shape croquettes. If the potato-vegetable-cheese-mix is too sticky add some more flour. Wrap in bread crumbs mixed with seasame seeds. Fry in butter or margarine until browned.

Allow your creativity free rein and fix croquettes by adding your favorite ingredients to the basic potato-mix. Substitute ingredients or add others like: herbs, bacon, ham, peas, seafood or other kinds of vegetable. Serve with mixed salad, yoghurt, sour cream or tartar sauce.

Doesn´t that sound coquettish?

Curd Cheese Puffs

Today I fixed a traditional sweet dish from my home country: Austrian "Topfengulatschen". It´s quite difficult to translate that, especially the word "Gulatschen". Anyway, "Topfen" means curd cheese and this is the main ingredient.

There is a wide range of variations. Here are some of them:

1. You can replace curd with cream cheese
2. You can add pieces of apple, peach, pineapple or any other preferred fruit.
3. You can flavor the filling by adding some spoons of vanilla pudding.
4. You can use a ready fixed filo or puff pastry if you want to save time fixing a dough.
5. Prepare more dough and add other fillings like marmelade, nuts, apple with cinnamon, chocolate or
    pudding cream.

Step 1: Fix the dough (makes 12 pieces)

1/2 Tbsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
125g curd cheese (or cream cheese if preferred)
6 Tbsp milk
2 1/2 Tbsp. powder sugar
1/2 grated lemon peel
300 g flour
1 egg
6 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. baking powder

Mix all ingredients together, add flour and baking powder at the end. Let dough rest in the fridge for about half an hour. Meanwhile prepare filling. If the dough is still too sticky, add a little more flour. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1-2mm. Cut out squares (about 11 x 11 cm)- Place squares on a greased baking tray.

Step 2: Prepare the filling

375g curd cheese (or cream cheese if preferred)
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. raisins (soaked in rum)
50 g butter
75g sugar
1 Tbsp. corn starch (Maizena)
fruits (if preferred)

With a spoon place filling in the center of the squares. Flap the corners on top of each other.  Bake for about 25 minutes under 180 degrees C. Sprinkle with powder sugar as long as the curd cheese puffs are warm.

Cannelloni

A special Italian treat is the following delicious and easy to prepare cannelloni recipe:

              filling:

Ingredients (serves 4-5)

20 cannellonis (precooked)
125g mozzarella (diced)
200g gorgonzola (diced or crumbled)
100g Mascarpone
500g broccoli
1/3 cup chopped, fresh basil
salt pepper
500g/can of tomato chunks in sauce
parmesan

Preparation: In a big bowl mix together Mascarpone, Mozarella and Gorgonzola. Add salt and pepper. Wash broccoli, use small florets only. Blanch for 5 minutes. Remove water and add broccoli and basil to the cheese-mix. Grease a big, rectangle casserolle with olive oil. Place 1/4 of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the casserolle. Soak cannellonis for 5 min. in hot water (even if they are ready to use). Use a small spoon to fill the cannellonis with the broccoli-cheese-mixture. Top cannellonis with the tomato chunks in sauce and  top with parmesan. Put in the oven for about 30 minutes at medium heat. Serve with baguette and lettuce.

Rainbow Trout with Almonds

Makes your mouth watering...

It's one of the best fish I`ve ever had!  Simply take a look at its salmon-like color and you'll love it. The best way to prepare the fish is by coating it in white flour mixed with almond slices before you fry it in some butter or margarine. Don`t use oil, it´s not as tasty and makes the fish soaked with fat.

Quick instructions for preparation (serves 4)

step 1: clean and salt fish filets                                
step 2: coat filets in a mix of flour and almond slices

step 3: fry in some butter or margarine utntil browned and serve with vegetables, lettuce and rice or Couscous. A glass of red wine would just be the right thing.

OF COURSE YOU CAN ALSO TRY THE RECIPE WITH ANY OTHER FISH FILET LIKE TILAPIA, HAKE,SEA BASS (CORVINA) OR OTHER!!

Omelettes

They are easy to prepare, nutritive, and can be enjoyed at any time of the day!

Omelettes are simply succulent and tasty and the ingredients you can use are only limited by your creativity: onions, parsley, mushrooms, ham, bacon,vegetables like red pepper, broccoli, spinach, tomato, basil, cheese, to name just a few of them. Spice up your omelette with special treats like artichoke, anchovies, stuffed olives or palmito.

One important thing when you prepare omelettes is the right choice of your pan. A non-stick or aluminium pan works best. Other pans usually make it difficult to fold and brown the omelette, which is the key to  a well done omelette.


Her`s my favorite Spinach-Thyme-Omelette (serves 2)
Ingredients:
3 eggs beaten with 2 Tbsp. milk
some salt
filling:
1 (red) onion
some parsley
1/3 cup mushrooms
1 tomatoe, diced
1 cup spinach, cut in pieces
thyme
morzarella cheese, diced









Preparation: In a pan fry onion in some margarine and add tomato, parsley and thyme. Stir and let cook for some minutes. Add spinach and mushrooms. Don´t cover. Beat eggs with milk, add salt. Heat oil in a pan. Pour half of the egg-mix in the pan and top with half the filling. Add morzarella cheese. When the egg isn`t liquid anymore fold it and fry for 3 minutes on each side at medium heat. Top with parsley and chilli (if preferred) and serve with green lettuce and toast.

Ready to flip your own omelette?