Bake Date: Magical (Vegan) Mango Banana Bread

 

Enough with the traveling -- let's just schmooze in the kitchen for a change (though we've still got trips to the USA, Baltic Sea, and Italy on the list, not to mention home sweet Hamburg).

Warm, spicy, fruity, with the perfect degree of mush to make your heart sing and hips start swaying like a palm tree in the breeze. During one of the last theater spurts I played with this recipe every weekend for four weeks straight. Somehow it never lasted more than a day. Pulled it out again lastnight, brought the product to work this morning and it was gone by 10 a.m., slurpiddy slurp.

What you need:

3 medium or 2 large ripe bananas
1/4 cup applesauce
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2  teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 ripe mango, sliced into wee chunks

(Tasty variations: chopped walnuts and chocolate chips; chopped dried apricots, ½ inch grated fresh ginger and finely chopped candied ginger…)

Oventemp: 350°F (175°C) ((450°K))
Makes: 1 heavy 9x5" loaf.
Musik: Anything presented by Putumayo based in the southern hemisphere, such as "Brazilian Groove".

Preheat oven. Lightly fatten and flour your pan.
Now ask yourself: Self? Is your mango already sliced and chopped into spectacular orangeyellow chunks? Answer YES, congrats, you may proceed. Answer NO, do that, then move along.

In a large mixing bowl, moosh the bananas well. Add the Brown sugar, applesauce/oil, and vanilla extract, and forkforkfork that in a spinning forknado of sweet integration. Mix in spices and salt, then baking soda. Now thicken with half the flour, fold in mango chunks, and grand finish with the remaining flour.

Goop the batter to the flowery pan and, if using, sprinkle with extra candied ginger/schoko/nuts/sugar grains. Bake in your preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes. The top should be lightly browned and a knife inserted through the center should come out clean, or with just a few sticky crumblies. Don't underbake this one, as it's already going to be sticky and mooshing with yumness when it's for-real baked.

Remove from the oven without burning yourself and let cool for at least 20 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely. Try to depan it too soon and your product will look like a failure. Delicious warm. Delicious cold. Any way you slice it (or spoon it, as will more likely be the case).

Soup Date: Gingcatom.

Imagine you recently made a lot of amazing borscht. What do you have left once every last scarlet drop has been licked from the bowl? A whooole lotta cabbage, that's what. Na, und? You've got a few options here. For example, you could a.) let it sit in the fridge until it turns into kimchi, b.) make those fiendish rabbits in the garden very happy (Don't do it, Jnana!), or c.) put on your best excited face and make more soup! This was a new recipe for me, the base for which I found on this website while seeking inspiration. I was looking for some flavor to go BAM in my mouth and YUM in my larynx. That flavor was gingcatom, or rather, ginger-cabbage/carrot-tomato soup.

Delivered with a face kick.

 What you need:

• 3 garlic cloves (more or less depending on personal preference, or that of your significant other), smashed 
• onion-- two medium or one small, chopped
• olive oil
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger (at least!)
• 2 cups juicy diced/dicey juiced tomatoes
• cabbage-- about a quarter of a large head or half a small head, or whatever amount you've got, thinly sliced into bite-sized pieces
• ≈ 6 cups vegetable stock
• your favorite Red Hot Chili Pepper powder
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• rice noodles
• fresh mint leaves, sliced

Musik: Something with a beat you can dice a lot of vegetables to. I would recommend anything presented by Putumayo with "Beat" or "Groove" in the title. Or RHCP.

Note: Much like Unbeetable Borscht, this soup also tastes better the longer it sits. Within reason.

Step one: Chop, dice, smash, happy dance.

Step two: You put that stock on to boil, yeah!

Step(s) three & beyond: Large pot. Medium heat. Honor the Hierarchy of Sauteing. Liek thees: Heat olive oil splotch. Add diced garlic smash, followed by onion chop. Do not burn diced garlic smash. Once onion chop is tender, gingerly add great ginger grate. (Notes: Make sure to grate the fresh ginger root-- you can find this at most any supermarket, so much better than powdered-- over a small bowl, so as to catch all of its glorious precipitatory juices. Don't let all its veiny hairs frustrate you. Additionally, try to avoid adding veiny hairs (or any hairs) to your soup. Reserve some of the ginger, or better, grate MORE! to add later, as well as the juices.) Roll carrot dice(d) for a few minutes. Add tomato, cabbage, stock. Now we're cookin'! Stir in a sprinkle of salt, a few grinds of pepper, and a teaspoon or so of chili powder hotness (more or less). Put a lid on it. Simmer down now.

While that does its thing, cook yerself some rice noodles. (I didn't use rice noodles, but I should have.) Once the vegetables in the Big Pot start tenderizing (oh, roundabout 15 minutes), add the ginger juices and the majority of the fresh mint. Taste test the broth and adjust the seasoning as desired. You could also adventure a bit and add other flavors, such as lemon juice, soy sauce, Nutella... but whatever you do, don't mess up the Yum.

Now you could either serve up the bowl(s) with noodles and then pour the soup atop them, or just throw it all together, whatever. Once in the bowl, sprinkle with more mint and chili.

Noms away!