RECIPE: BANANA CAKE, KOROKKE
Friday, November 09, 2012
I have finished all my midterms! *yay*
So let me tell you about what I had a couple of weeks ago, what I had last week, and what I had this week too!
A week before Halloween I visited a nice bubble tea place that I had no clue existed in Mississauga. The name, Bubble Tease was nothing new, but I certainly did not know they had a store setting like this
one:
The name stands out so much during the night!
I'm usually very indecisive, actually, almost all the time, and the "signature" menu boards right by the entrance, in addition to the permanent menu did not help me in choosing what I wanted at all. But there was a sign promoting their caramel barley tea (To be honest, I really don't remember the flavour. It was something like that though.) so I ordered that.
I want to try the roasted coconut flavour next time!
We also got a waffle with strawberries.
*yay again*
Oh yes, I did instagram this.
I think the Bubble Tease mascot looks like an onion head.
When my drink came, I thought, "Oh, this is nice, there's a nice layer of foam on top!!", and expected a brownish drink underneath (the drink is caramel barley, no?). But as I kept drinking, the foam slowly dissolved and the drink was still the color of the foam: nice and white -
I was fooled.
So there was the couple of weeks ago tidbit, and here's the last week tidbit:
I made banana cake! There were two reasons:
1. The bananas, which I placed in the fridge, were really nice and ripe and smelled too good but were too soft for regular consumption, and I couldn't use all three in my breakfast with flax seed in time.
2. I was really craving banana cake. (Then again, I could always crave for anything at anytime. Like how I'm suddenly salivating just at the thought of the banana cake which is all gone now)
Cooling on the rack
Here's the recipe, if you really must know (i.e. if you plan to make this one day. So dear best friend/girlfriend, since that is not you, you may skip this section ^^):
~ Ingredients ~
250g soft room temperature unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 room temperature eggs
3 mashed ripe bananas
Hot water soaked raisins/cranberries (however much you want)
Walnuts, flax seed... be creative.
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
200g flour
~ Make it ~
1. Beat butter and sugar until it's light and creamy
2. Add eggs one and a time, and beating after each addition.
3. Add bananas, and beat.
4. Sift baking powder and flour together, then fold into the mixture in three additions.
5. Pour it into a lined loaf pan/whatever pan you have. (If you want the nice crack line on top of your loaf cake, you can squeeze a thin line of jam or butter. I didn't do it, but somehow it came out really nicely.)
6. Smooth top of batter.
~ Let's bake! ~
At 180C for 45 minutes
Or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let it cool on a rack!
I didn't really let it cool much before I sliced it to eat some.
Allow me to elaborate on the importance of room temperature ingredients in this particular recipe. Let's first assume you don't have your ingredients at room temperature (tsk tsk). When you beat the butter, it will be hard to beat, because the butter is hard when cold. You'll have butter flying all over your kitchen - not just on the countertop (unless you have a really big countertop).
But let's say you've completed the daunting task of creaming cold butter with the sugar. When you add the cold eggs and start beating it into the cold butter, it will curdle. You can beat it for a long time, but your butter and egg will never seem to get along - which makes it much like a suspension mixture.
At this point, you'll need to beat the heck out of it to try and get a more uniform batter. Have fun! (or try to because holding the mixer for so long gets tiring.)
Kimchi fried rice
To end the sadness of curdled butter and eggs, here's some yummy kimchi fried rice! I added spring onion, zucchini and onions in this one.
Last week I also put my condensed milk and toast that's been-in-the-fridge-for-too-long to good use:
Condensed milk toast!
I needed a change from the usual French toast we've been eating too often, and so after spreading a generous dose of butter and a good dollop of condensed milk, I popped this toast under the broiler setting and watched as the top began to bubble and brown...
Mashed potatoes, broccoli, corn and peas.
No, this isn't just some intense mashed potatoes, but it was the main feature in the KOROKKE I made last week. What are these funny sounding things? It's basically the mixture in the above picture, formed into rounds, then floured, egged, breaded, and deep fried.
Formed into balls and ready to be coated
Korokke is actually a Japanese food that was derived from it's French ancestor, the Croquette, which is much more meatier. Korokkes can also contain no potato, but a white sauce, or ragou, which is also delicious and will be made by me sometime.
Here are rather simple instructions on how to make
~ Korokke ~
1. Mash potatoes, mix in any veggies or meat (salt and pepper as you wish)
2. Form them into rounds/cylinders with your hand.
*You can also push in a piece of cheese if you want :)
3. Coat it in flour, and pat off excess.
4. Coat it in beaten egg
5. Coat in breadcrumbs.
*I made my own breadcrumbs by toasting bread until dry and then pounding it in a bag.
[You can put this in the freezer until you want to fry it, or fry it right away]
~ Let's deep fry ~
1. Heat enough oil in a pot that will cover more than half of your korokke.
2. Oil is ready when you see small bubbles when you stick wooden chopsticks in the oil.
*I typically keep the oil heated at medium to medium-low heat.
3. Flip it when one side is golden brown.
4. Fish it out when both sides are brown.
5. Place it on a rack until consumption so it doesn't get soggy.
I think I'm slowly beginning to get addicted to deep frying food now...
It was so fun deep frying this! And when its still warm and take a bite, the cheddar cheese I stuffed inside oozes out so beautifully.
On the rack, ready to be eaten.
My friends were the first to eat this, cause I was busy deep frying the rest of the 12 or so korokkes I made. Their first reaction?
"This is so yummy!"
Which made me really really really happy. *tears form from over-joyous moment*
Thanks for loving my food~
The inside has soo much fillings
And I finally got to enjoy it while the last batch was deep frying. And it was actually just as delicious as my friends have told me it was! You can even add come ketchup or mayo or hot sauce : O
This recipe is a very simple one that you could make with just the things you already have in your kitchen, plus a few potatoes and the desire to eat deep fried food.
They look like candies - all wrapped up and everything
Best friend/girlfriend was out and couldn't get the freshly made ones, but I wrapped them up while they were still warm so she could eat it when I met up with her. *feel so considerate of hungry friends*
This week's food picture
A brunch a had this week in order to use the half of the tomato, was a toasted English muffin with fried egg and mayoooo.
A brunch a had this week in order to use the half of the tomato, was a toasted English muffin with fried egg and mayoooo.
X
MUAH MUAH MUAH
VICKI CHOW
P/S
Last week I also put together a bunch of things that I really like and made a spin on a classic dessert. *ahem*cheesecake*ahem*
What? What kind of dessert? You'll have to wait until my next blog post to find out then ;)
I feel so free now that midterms are done, so I can finally put my baking under more spotlight! I'm currently redesigning my business card, and to the few friends that I've asked to help me:
I really do, because you have a much more creative and artistically talented mind than I do.
It will be in my next blog post, so look forward to it :)
