Banana Bread, Minus the Oil

Have you ever gone to a spa or restaurant and bought their cookbook, with every intention of making the some of the recipes when you get back home? And then it sits unopened on your bookshelf for years?

Well that was the case with the “Canyon Ranch Cooks: More Great Tastes” cookbook, which was gathering dust on my living room shelf ever since I bought it at the spa’s Lenox Hill location five years ago. That is until last week, when I got inspired to bake a banana bread without using oil.

Most recipes for banana bread call for 1/4 cup of oil. But, that seemed like entirely too much fat to me, so I started looking for healthier options. I found it in the Canyon Ranch cookbook. And you may ask just what is the secret to cutting out the oil? The answer is ... drum roll please… applesauce!

Some of you may be thinking that it can’t possibly taste as good if you don’t use oil, or questioning if it will have the same texture and moistness. Well, if my husband, Bob, is any proof that it is, then I will tell you what he said: “This is the best banana bread you’ve ever made.”

Bolstered by his thumbs up, I made a loaf to bring to my son, Sam, who recently moved into his own apartment in New York City, and he seconded Bob’s opinion. (Note to recent empty nesters, imperative to getting your kids to come back home and visit you is serving them very good food whenever they do bless you with their presence.) 

As an added bonus, the cookbook says its banana bread is only 135 calories per serving. However, and I must note a “Spoiler Alert” here, I had to add bittersweet chocolate chips to my version, so that may cancel out the calories saved by cutting out the oil.

The first step in this recipe is to mash three overripe bananas.  And by overripe, I mean the bananas should have brown speckles all over their skins and be extremely mushy. If you have a potato masher, that works great; or else just use a fork, pressing down the tines to turn the bananas into a pulpy, baby-food-like consistency.   

Next, mix the pulverized banana with a quarter cup of coffee, -- yes, coffee! -- and set aside. Why add coffee? The answer is it adds a rich, toffee flavor to the bread and contributes to the bread’s tenderness.

In another bowl, mix sugar, brown sugar, an egg and the much-touted applesauce. OK, let’s talk about the applesauce now.  How does it work as a substitute for oil?  According to Seasoned Advice on StackedExchangecom:

In baking, the role of oil is to coat the flour, preventing it from combining with the water (or other wet ingredients) and developing guten. Gluten is what causes dough to rise, and also gives elasticity to the final product - what most people think of as "chewiness."

When you're baking, for example, a cake, or even a pie crust, you want to limit the amount of gluten that develops…A good amount of oil or other fat leads to a lighter, moister, less-glutinous result. The pectin in applesauce can also, to a certain extent, help to inhibit gluten formation in a dough.

The trick when your baking is to get just the right amount of applesauce that needs to be substituted for the oil – too much can give your bread a jelly-like consistency, too little will lead to a tough and chewy end product. Also, I like organic applesauces that have been naturally sweetened for the best results.

And now back to the recipe.  Add the applesauce mixture to the banana-coffee combo.  In a third bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: whole-wheat flour, bread flour (I didn’t have any, so I used regular flour), baking soda, salt, baking powder, and allspice.  Add to that the bittersweet chocolate chips and it’s a wrap.  One more note, I recommend that before you add the semisweet chocolate chips (get the big chips, like Ghiradelli's), you first mix them with a tablespoon of flour and shake them up in a small plastic bag. The flour coating on the chocolate chips makes sure they won’t sink to the bottom of the batter.

All that’s left is to pour the batter into a 8 ½ x 4 ½ bread pan that’s been prepped with a thin coating of butter and dusted with flour so your bread will pop right out after baking.  It takes about an hour in the oven, but keep an eye on the bread at the end, as you don’t want it to overcook. When the middle has firmed up and you can stick a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean, then the bread is done. 

As I put the Canyon Ranch cookbook back in its proper place in my living room bookshelf, I promised myself I would return to it sometime soon – or at least within the next five years!

Banana Bread

Adapted from Canyon Ranch Cooks: More Great Tastes

3 small very ripe bananas mashed, about 1 cup

1/4  cup brewed coffee

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup naturally sweetened applesauce

1 whole egg

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1/4 cup bread flour  (or use regular flour)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

3/4-1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or you can substitute chopped walnuts)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly coat a 8 1/2  x 4 1/2 bread pan with butter and dust with flour.

In a small bowl, combine bananas and coffee. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix sugar, brown sugar, and applesauce. Add egg and mix well. Add to banana mixture and mix until smooth.

In a small bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add to banana mixture and mix until all ingredients are just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan and bake for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on rack for five minutes. Remove from pan and slice when cooled completely.

Chicken with Dried Plums and Olives AKA Chicken Marbella

How long do capers last in the refrigerator?  No need to answer; it’s a rhetorical question.  In fact, I am going to provide you with some advice on that topic that I found on Food52.com:

“I’m hoping that kinda forever is the right answer… They’re [capers] packed in a strongly acidic brine, which as long as they’re refrigerated, protects them against spoilage.”

“I’m pretty sure capers have a fridge-life of a thousand years … I bought one of those Costco bottes once (4 years ago) and still have 3/4 of it. They still taste lake capers.”

And, here’s a winner from Chowhound.com:

“They will last quite a while. I tend to get a little leery when the black specks start to form on them.”

Based on the extensive research above, I decided that I would further investigate the bottle of capers that’s been a permanent fixture in the far back of the middle shelf of my refrigerator for the past four years (ever since I used a teaspoon of the briny pea-shaped critters in a recipe for red snapper). Holding the bottle up to the light, I carefully examined the contents and could detect no obvious signs of mold.

Now that I believed I was safe from salmonella, I had to decide what exactly to do with the capers. Then it came to me. I had recently gone to Cleveland to visit my brother, David. We went out to dinner with my dear friend from high school, Lisa, who just so happens to 1) own the best chocolate store in Cleveland (shameless plug for Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory), and 2) is an incredible cook. She was raving about this chicken dish that she makes in the slow cooker.  “The chicken is so tender it just falls off the bone,” she said. She brought a printed copy of the recipe to my brother’s house the next day, and I transported it back to New York.  It was sitting in my recipe “pile” (the one I keep saying I’m going to file away all the sheets of paper inside) for the past month and, if my memory served me correctly, it called for capers.

Before I go forward, a note about capers. According to FineCooking.com, “These little spheres are the flower buds of a prickly shrub that grows all over the Mediterranean … Once cured in a vinegar brine or in salt, they develop an intense flavor that is all at once salty, sour, herbal, and slightly medicinal.”  I don’t know about the medicinal part, but the rest of the description is right on track.

Pulling out the recipe for “Dried Plum and Olive Chicken” from the September 2011 issue of Better Homes and Gardens, I scanned the ingredients to see what else I needed besides the capers. The first items on the list were chicken thighs and drumsticks. Well, I don’t like those. I’m a white meat girl, so I headed to the supermarket and picked up some kosher bone-in chicken breasts (not because I keep kosher, but because they taste so much better). While I was there, I also picked up a can of pitted dried plums (AKA prunes), a bottle of pimiento-stuffed green olives, and chicken broth. Back home in my frig and pantry I had the other items:  garlic, Italian seasoning, bay leaf, honey, and cider vinegar.

An aside here. Those of you who worshiped at the throne of the 1980s cookbook extraordinaire, The Silver Palate (and some 2.5 million of us did!), may think these ingredients sound familiar. Well, that’s because it is very closely related to the cookbook’s arguably most famous dinner party recipe, “Chicken Marbella." As SeriousEats.com blogger Ed Levine put it in his 2009 eulogy for Silver Palate coauthor Sheila Lukins, "She introduced me and millions of others to capers and balsamic vinegar and crème fraîche."

One of the biggest changes in this recipe is its adaptation to the slow cooker. This saves overnight marinating and frequent basting, a real time saver! Plus, the slow cooker method insures your meat will still be extremely tender and fall off the bone. 

So instead of starting the day before, I got up in the morning, and somewhere between brushing my teeth and running out the door for work, I got the chicken prepped. First, I put the breasts on the bottom of the slow cooker and seasoned them with some salt and pepper. I added all the other ingredients on top, saving the honey and vinegar for last.  Then I set the slow cooker dial to “low” and put the timer at six hours. That took under ten minutes, which you really can’t beat.

When I came that evening, the house was infused with the delicious aroma of roasted chicken. I went into the kitchen and opened up the top of the slow cooker, allowing steam to escape in billowing puffs.  Inside the pot, I could see tender looking chicken breasts studded with olives and prunes, and surrounded by a rich brown broth. I decided to stick a fork into one of the breasts, just to see if it was done, and I was rewarded with a tender shred of chicken that I plucked out and sent straight to my mouth. The taste was even better than I expected, a perfect blend of sweet and salty.

While the recipe called for rice, I decided to substitute couscous, another quick fix item.  After bringing chicken stock to a boil, I added the couscous and doctored it up with some Middle Eastern spices, including tumeric and curry powder.  After it sat for a few minutes, I fluffed it with a fork and added a bit of fresh parsley. The best way to serve this dish is to put the couscous on the bottom and then add the chicken, olives and prunes on top and then spoon the sauce over everything.

Now the questions is, do I throw the half bottle of leftover capers away or save them for another year?

Dried Plum and Olive Chicken

Better Homes & Gardens, September 2011

12 chicken thighs and/or drumsticks, skinned OR

    4 bone-in chicken breasts

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 cup pitted dried plums (prunes)

1 cup pimiento-stuffed green olives

2 tablespoons capers

1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning, crushed

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1 14.5 oz can chicken broth

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup cider vinegar

3 cups cooked rice or couscous (see recipe below)

Place chicken breasts (or thighs and drumsticks) at bottom of slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper, then add the plums, olives  and capers (drained), Italian seasoning, minced garlic and bay leaves. Drizzle honey and pour chicken broth and vinegar over the top. Set slow cooker timer for 6 hours on low heat.

Curried Couscous

1 1/2 cups couscous

2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons curry powder

1/4 teaspoon tumeric

1/4 cup fresh parsley

Bring chicken broth and olive oil to a boil.  Remove from heat, add the couscous and spices, and cover the pot for five minutes. Fluff with a fork and add parsley.

Caprese Antipasto

 
Alarm bells were ringing in my head the other day. - tomatoes were taking over my kitchen! I had a bowl of bright red beefsteaks from my CSA farm share on the counter; my cherry tomato plants had “given birth” to dozens of grape-sized balls ripening on my windowsill; and, of course, I couldn’t resist scooping up handfuls of orange, yellow and purple heirlooms tantalizingly displayed in the local Saturday morning farmers’ market and presently sitting in a large plastic bag on my kitchen table.  So now that I had this smorgasbord, what exactly was I going to do with it all?

Thankfully, I was invited to an empty nesters party over Labor Day weekend. An empty nesters party you may ask? Yes, we had just dropped my younger son, Spencer, off at the University of Delaware and three other couples we are friendly with had done the same with the youngest in their broods. We decided we should get together, whether it was to celebrate or commiserate, or a little of both. (I do have to point out that technically we are not empty nesters as my older son, Sam, just graduated from college and has moved back in with us for now.

Back to the tomatoes. I had cut out a recipe for Caprese salad from the July 20 Wednesday Food Section of The New York Times.  Now it was going to come to my rescue. But, why save a recipe for Caprese salad? Isn’t it just tomatoes and mozzarella? So say the purists. But as this recipe proves, there’s room for a few welcome additions, making it more of an antipasto. And the accompanying Times photo showed just how beautiful it could look -- complete with green and black olives, roasted yellow and red bell peppers, prosciutto, and green and purple basil.

The important thing here is everything should be as fresh as possible. I don’t want to hear back that you purchased your rubbery, bland mozzarella from the supermarket. Splurge and buy it fresh from your local Italian deli or gourmet store. And also, serve it at room temperature so it has a nice creamy texture that almost melts in your mouth. While you’re at the deli, pick up an assortment of good quality olives and some thinly sliced prosciutto de Parma (Yes, it’s worth buying the imported prosciutto).

 













As for the red and yellow bell peppers, I suggest getting them from a farmers’ market or the organic section of your supermarket. Even better, pick them from your own garden if available. Whatever you do, please, just don’t buy them in a bottle, I beg of you. I have to admit, this was the first time I had ever blackened my peppers under the broiler. I was more than a little worried that I would burn them, and I didn’t have any extras to spare. However, my fears proved unfounded, and it turned out to be an easy task. I just placed the peppers under the broiler and turned them with tongs a few times to get their skins thoroughly blackened and blistered.

Then I put the peppers in a brown bag, ensuring that their skins would easily separate and slip off once cooled. Finally, I cut off their tops, deseeded/deveined them, and sliced them into thin strips. The end result was a smoky, sweet roasted pepper that tasted incredible.

The next part made me feel like an artist, only my palette was full of colorful foods instead of paints.  I pulled out a large round glass plate from the inner recesses of my dining room cupboard. First, I filled the center of the plate with thinly sliced, creamy white mozzarella. Then I cut the larger tomatoes into rounds, the medium ones into quarters, and the cherries into halves, then encircled the mozzarella with them and the olives. Next, I draped the prosciutto around the outside and tucked in some green and purple basil leaves. The final touch was sprinkling the plate with kosher salt and drizzling on extra-virgin olive oil and a tiny bit of reduced balsamic vinegar (I like the Balmí brand), which has a bright, sweet taste.  If you want to make the reduced balsamic yourself, heat the vinegar in a skillet until it boils, then simmer until it gets syrupy (will be cut into a quarter of the original volume).

The couples sitting around the table that night each told our “drop off” stories while devouring the Caprese salad and other delicious hors d’oeurvres, drinking wine, and making toasts to the next stage in our lives. We will travel, we will enroll in classes we haven’t had the time to take before, we’ll cook less, go out more … and we’ll all desperately miss our kids and that whole childrearing, carpool-driving time in our lives (although I’m sure we’re not entirely done yet!).  

Caprese Antipasto

Adapted from recipe by David Tanis in The New York Times

2 ripe bell peppers, 1 red and 1 yellow

1-pound fresh mozzarella, at room temperature

2 pounds ripe tomatoes, in assorted colors if possible

1/2-pound cherry tomatoes, in assorted colors if possible

Handful of good quality olives, assorted varieties

6 thin slices of imported prosciutto, more if desired

Handful of basil leaves, green and purple if possible

Kosher salt

Extra-virgin olive oil

Reduced balsamic vinegar

Roasting the peppers: Roast the peppers under the oven broiler, setting them as close to the heat source as possible. Turn peppers with tongs until skins are blackened and blistered all over, 5-7 minutes. Place in a brown bag and seal tightly. After the peppers cool, the skins will easily peel off. You can then cut off their tops, deseed/devein the peppers, and cut them into ½ inch ribbons.

Cut the mozzarella in to 1/4 inch slices. Slice the larger tomatoes into rounds, quarter the medium-sized tomatoes, and halve the cherry tomatoes.

Arrange mozzarella slices in the center of a large platter.  Surround with tomatoes. Add roasted pepper strips and olives. Drape prosciutto around the platter. Garnish with basil leaves. Sprinkle salt over the platter and drizzle with olive oil and reduced balsamic vinegar.

Serves 4-6.

Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

I made three-dozen strawberry rhubarb muffins because I refused to use my reading glasses.  If I had used them, I would have clearly seen that the recipe yielded 1 1/2 dozen muffins, not 1/2 dozen. As a result, I thought I needed to double the recipe to fill up my muffin pan.  The good news is that many people are happy with me – my husband for one, my colleagues at work, my yoga teacher Mary, BFF Roberta, the gardener, and the ladies on my town tennis team. And I have leftovers!

Well, I’m still probably not going to wear my reading glasses. Most likely, it’s for the same reason that I refuse to enter "50" on the Stairmaster at the gym even though I passed that half-century mark a week ago. However, I will pay more attention next time I make this recipe for “Whole Wheat Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins,” which I adapted from the Web site http://www.simplifylivelove.com./

So, why was I making strawberry rhubarb muffins? Because you can only get locally grown rhubarb at your area farmer’s market for a short time – which is right now, at the beginning of June! Plus, there are incredibly tasty strawberries, coming straight from Hudson Valley farms, which are currently in season.

In case you’re not familiar with rhubarb, its stalks look like celery, but usually a bit thicker. Rhubarb stalks have a reddish sheen on the outside and a light green interior. When you buy rhubarb, pick out firm stalks without any brown or soft spots. Unlike celery, you probably won’t want to eat rhubarb raw as it is extremely tart. Most commonly rhubarb is cooked with sugar and used in pies and other desserts. Whatever you do, don’t eat the leaves as they are toxic!

The Rhubarb Compendium at rhubarbinfo.com says the plant’s earliest records date back to 2700 BC in China where it was cultivated for medicinal purposes (as a laxative, LOL!). Marco Polo, who knew all about the Chinese rhubarb rhizome, talked about it at length in the accounts of his travels in China. And one other fun fact: Wikipedia.com notes that while rhubarb is usually considered a vegetable, a New York court decided in 1947 that since it was used in the United States as a fruit, it was to be counted as a fruit for the purposes of regulations and duties.

When chopping the rhubarb, there’s no need to peel it, just toss out any stringy bits as you slice.  Also, remove the tops and center piths of the strawberries before cutting into pieces.

Full disclosure now, these are not low-fat muffins. Besides the fact that I used rhubarb, strawberries and whole wheat flour, the rest is what my friend’s husband calls “taste crystals” – or basically those yummy but fattening ingredients like brown sugar, butter and canola oil – plus some vanilla and cinnamon and a few other necessary items.

One of those “necessary items” is buttermilk.  Now, don’t worry if you don’t have this or can’t find it at the supermarket. I make my own. What you do is take one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice and mix it with a cup of milk. Make sure to let it stand for five minutes before using.  It works perfectly every time!

Another helpful note, I use whole wheat pastry flour, which gives you a lighter, airier muffin in my opinion.

After mixing all the ingredients together, and filling each of the muffin cups 2/3 full with the batter, the next step is to make the streusel, or crumbly topping. (Remember, I said it wasn’t a health muffin!) It’s a mixture of cinnamon, brown sugar and butter. The butter needs to come straight from the frig, nice and cold.  I like to “cut” in the butter by pinching and squeezing the ingredients through my fingers. I recommend taking of any rings you may have on your fingers (and put them in a safe place!) as your hands will become extremely greasy.  Sprinkle the streusel over the batter and they’re ready to go in the oven.

Now go share them with all your family and friends, and don't forget the gardener!

Whole What Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg

1 cup buttermilk (see blog for subsitute)

1/2 cup canola oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups chopped fresh strawberries

1 cups diced rhubarb

Topping:

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon cold butter

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin pans.

In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla.  Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fold in strawberries and rhubarb. Fill greased muffin cups two-thirds full.

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon (chopped pecans optional).  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Spinkle over batter.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool before removing from the muffin pan.

Makes 1 1/2 dozen muffins.

Five Spice Glazed Salmon and the Best Kale Salad Ever

Have you ever grown tired of that favorite recipe of yours? You know, the easy-to-make one that you can throw together relatively painlessly after a long day and everyone in your family loves it? For the past eight years I’ve been making my friend Hillary’s recipe for baked salmon with a honey mustard glaze topped with ground up Ritz crackers and dotted with butter. Bob and I were lovin’ it, and then one night last month I made the salmon and we decided that we never wanted to have it again…ever! Hence, the search for a new recipe.

I’m happy to say that the Inspired Chef got inspired and found a tried and true replacement – “Five Spice Glazed Salmon,” which I discovered on FineCooking.com. It’s now our new go-to favorite. Not only that, I made it for dinner one night when a group of friends were camped at my friend Jan’s house during Hurricane Irene. Everyone loved it and wanted the recipe, and now they’re getting rave reviews when they serve it to their friends. Knowing it’s got a broad stamp of approval, I’m now passing this on to all of you.

Before we go any further, I bet you’re wondering, “What exactly are the five spices in five spice powder?” Good question! The ingredients include: Szechuan peppercorns, ground cloves, fennel, cinnamon, star anise and cinnamon. And a little extra information – Szechuan peppercorn is not a pepper at all, but rather a reddish brown berry that comes from the prickly ash bush. According to About.com, “It's thought that ancient Chinese were attempting to produce a "wonder powder" that encompasses all five tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and a fifth taste that is alternately known as hot, pungent or spicy.” If you smell it, it comes across as a fiery clove scent. (Hmmm, maybe a new Yankee Candle fragrance?!)

So, now you may be wondering, “Just how is five spice powder involved in this recipe?” Another valid inquiry. You mix it with honey, soy sauce and minced garlic, then pour it over your salmon, letting it marinate for a bit, say 15 minutes, to let the sauce soak in.

In fact, I made this dish tonight and it was so easy, which was very good for me as we were having our friend Alex for dinner and I got so absorbed at work that it was already 5:30 pm before I left the office. Alex was due at an hour later, and this would usually put me in a total panic. However, I am proud to say I remained calm (relatively). I picked up wild salmon on the way home. And, since I’d already made the glaze last night, all that was left to do was place the fish in an oven-safe pan and drizzle the glaze over it. While it was marinating, I whipped up a batch of killer kale salad (recipe below).

Then I put the salmon under the broiler and, voila, dinner was served. Any more questions? I thought so! Comment as you see fit below…

Five Spice Powder Salmon

FineCooking.com

1/4 cup honey

4 tsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce

1 1/2 tsp. five-spice powder

2 large cloves garlic, minced

Four 6-oz. skin-on salmon fillets (preferably wild)

Nonstick cooking spray

In a small bowl, whisk the honey, soy sauce, five spice powder, and garlic. Put the salmon skin side down on a large plate and pour the honey mixture over it. Flip the fillets so they are skin side up. Let the fish marinate for 15 minutes at room temperature.

Position a rack six inches from the broiler and heat the broiler on high. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil and coat with cooking spray.
 Arrange the salmon skin side down on the other half of the baking sheet. Brush the salmon with any remaining marinade from the plate.

Broil the salmon for approximately 10 minutes or until it's cooked through.

Autumn Kale Salad with Pine Nuts, Currants, Garlic & Lemon

Susan Lawrence Gourmet, Chappaqua, NY

4 bunches leaf green kale, stems removed, chiffonade*
2 cups grated parmesan cheese
3 bunches scallions, finely chopped
2 cups dried currants
2 cups toasted pine nuts
1/2 cup lemon juice
2-3 tsps. chopped fresh garlic
1 cup extra virgin, fruity green olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Mix olive oil, lemon juice and seasonings. Toss with remaining ingredients.

*Note from the Inspired Chef: I find the best way to prepare the kale is to rinse the leaves, remove the stems with a sharp knife, then dry them in a salad spinner or with paper towels. Once the leaves are totally dry, place them in the food processor and pulse until well shredded.