Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: My tiny kitchen

To All Bakers,

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever baked a cake or a bread for the first time and the result was a tremendous success? How did the experience make you feel? Before today, I thought such an experience could only be a miracle. Before today, I never thought that I can bake something for the first time and be successful at it.

But today, no, precisely at 9:24pm on March 20, 2009, a baking miracle happened to me, Christina, the dummy baker. It all started with a photo showing off a piece of delicious banana bread posted by Obsessed with Baking on Tastespotting. Following the link of the photo, I was directed to Steph’s food blog on which I found the banana bread recipe, known as the “best banana recipe from the Cook’s Illustrated”. I have always loved banana bread and have wanted to make my own for a long time. Looking the nice photos on Steph’s blog boosted my confidence and therefore I decided to give the recipe a try. The banana bread turned out to be soft, moist and tender (am I running out of adjectives here?). The recipe calls for very riped bananas which gives a strong banana flavour and keeps the texture moist. The original recipe has walnuts but I skipped them because I was lazy, and the result was unaffected. This recipe is really easy; it doesn’t ask you to take out your stand mixer and cream butter and sugar for half an hour as the first step. All ingredients can be combined in one step and the job is done.

The following is the recipe; it is very close to the version from Cook’s Illustrated:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups walnuts, toasted and chopped coarse (I skipped the walnuts)
3/4 cup sugar (I used one cup because I wanted mine to be sweeter)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
6 tbsp of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Turn on the oven to 350F.
2. Butter and flour the bottom of a loaf pan.
3. Mix the mashed banana, eggs, yogurt, melted butter and vanilla in a large bowl.
4. Stir the walnuts into the banana mixture (doing so will reduce the risk of over-mixing).
5. Sift flour, sugar, salt and baking soda into the banana mixture.
6. To me, this is the most crucial step in this recipe and I realized this only after baking batches and batches of chewy muffins and loaf cakes. The goal is not to over mix the flour with the wet ingredients. Using a rubber spatula, very, very, very gently mix the flour with the wet ingredients. Stop as soon as the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter should be chunky instead of smooth. If you have a smooth batter, then you will end up with a tough banana bread. If you are an amateur baker like me, then I sincerely wish you good luck with this step. I’m still learning to master this step myself A strange thought came to me today: could over-mixing be better prevented if I use my hands? Any thoughts?
7. Bake for 55 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean after inserted into the bread.
8. Let the bread cool in the pan; slice and serve.

I’m so happy with the results of this recipe that I can’t wait to bake another banana bread again (ET and I have quickly finished half of a loaf in just two days). I realize I have another problem: no body sells speckled bananas. I guess I better stock up on large brown bags.

Location: My tiny kitchen

Last weekend, a friend couple invited ET and I over to their house for dinner. Cantonese hotpot was the theme of the night and when we arrived, my friends already had everything ready. A full dining table of hotpot items were beautifully laid – sliced fatty beef (lots of it!), different kinds of meatballs, shrimp, geoduck (so expensive!), different kinds of mushrooms…it will take up a whole paragraph if I were to name everything. As I scanned across the table greedily, my eyes brightened up when I saw the big pile of beef slices and other kinds of meat. “How did you know what I like for hotpot?”, I happily asked my friend B. “Well, your blog doesn’t have many recipes on seafood, so we figure to go with more meat than seafood”. What a good friend B is – she always knows what I want .

B’s comment made me think of the few seafood recipes that I have. After giving myself a good 10 minutes of recollection, I remembered a basic, common and traditional Cantonese steamed fish recipe in which the whole fish is steamed with julienned ginger. After the fish is cooked, a big pile of julienned green onion and cilantro are placed on top of the fish on which hot oil was spooned. To finish, a generous amount of good quality soy sauce is drizzled on the fish. Together, ginger, green onion and cilantro makes the classic for white fish.

My fish recipe is a spin-off of the traditional Cantonese steamed fish recipe. Instead of using whole fishes which could be difficult to find, my recipe works on any type of white fish fillets. I like boiling the fillets instead of steaming them, since boiling removes the fishy smell. When you try this recipe, you will be amazed by how convenient it is – it takes almost no time to prepare.

To serve this dish to two people you will need:

- 2 cod/sole/halibut fillets
- 5 green onions
- 1 small bunch of cilantro
- good soy sauce
- Maggi sauce
- Red pepper flakes (optional)

1. In a quart pan, bring water to a boil. Put the fillets into the water and let it simmer for 3 minutes.
2. Gently take the fillets out of the water and let it drain.

3. Finely slice the green onion and remove the stalk part of the cilantro. Place the green onion and cilantro on the fillets.
4. In a quart pan, put in 4 tbsp of vegetable oil. Heat the oil until it is very hot, about 1 or 1 and 1/2 minute.
5. Pour the hot oil over the fish (be careful with this as the oil might splatter).
6. Drizzle a good amount of soy sauce over the fillets. Drizzle a few drops of Maggi sauce on the fish. Finally, finish off by sprinkling a few red pepper flakes over the fish.

The best way for me to enjoy this dish is with rice.

Location: My tiny kitchen

This situation happens to me quite often: after dinner, someone will take out a cake from the fridge and start serving it. As they hand out the slices, the following conversation will take place:

“Christina, do you want some cake?”
Me: “No, thanks.”
“Are you sure? It’s really good!”
Me: “No thank you, I don’t like sweets.”
“This cake is not too sweet, it’s just right”
(A moment of silence passed while I tried to think of a clearer explanation)
“How can you be so strong?!”
Me: “Do you have any beef?”

If you are not a big dessert fan, then you’ll understand the first half of the conversation. If you are not a dessert fan who happens to be crazy about beef, then you will completely understand my replies. While people envy my strong will power on desserts, I want to let them know that when you don’t care too much for something, you don’t need to be strong about it. Having said that, although I’m not into desserts, I still understand that they are a big temptation. I understand because I have a huge weakness on beef. I can have beef for breakfast (minced beef congee…mmmm), lunch (roast beef sandwich), dinner (prime rib roast), dessert (left over rib roast) and as a snack (thinly sliced skirt steak, yum). If someone serves beef as desserts after a steak dinner, I would be the first person to take it.

In our second visit to Market (newly opened restaurant at the Shangri-La hotel), I had the sirloin steak as my main course. In the past, I always thought sirloins are tough and it was never my favourite cut. My beliefs were change when one day, I tried my friend’s barbequed sirloin steaks. His steaks were tender and full of tasty beef flavour. Since then, sirloin steaks have become my new love. The version served at Market was delicious. It was served with a shitake mushroom and ginger ragout, which adds richness to every bite. Of course, once I like something, I can’t help to recreate it at home. This dish was relatively easy to make and I had a lot of success even on my first attempt.

You will need the following if you are cooking for two people:

- 2 pieces of sirloin steaks (I bought my steaks from the butcher counter at Safeway, which is recommended by my sirloin steak friend)
- 10 shitake mushrooms
- 1 shallot, finely minced
- 1 tbsp of minced ginger
- 1/2 cup of sherry

1. Clean the mushrooms and remove the stems.

2. Finely chop the mushrooms.
3. Rub a generous amount of kocher salt and black pepper on both sides of each steak.
4. Put 2 tbsp of oil into a hot stainless steel skillet. Over high heat, sear one side of the steaks until it turns brown, about 2 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium-high, seared the other side of the steaks. Turn the heat to medium and cover the pan for 1 minute. If your steaks are one inch thick, they are now cooked to medium rare. If you want your steaks to be more cooked or if you have thicker steaks, leave them in the pan for longer.
5. Place the steaks on a plate and let them rest.

6. Turn the heat on to high, pan fry the ginger and shallots for 1 minute.

7. Put in the shitake mushroom, deglaze the pan with the sherry.
8. Continue to cook until all of the sherry has been reduced, about 3 minutes.
9. The steaks are not ready to be sliced. Letting them rest before cutting helps them to retain their juice. Serve the shitake and ginger ragout with the slices.