The truth about nuts

Feed the birds, the papers said, on account of the snow and a frosty surface. Leaving the magnificent bird shots to AnneTanne and my cousin's oldest son F. (see next post), I devoted my energy to a menu of nuts. This is what got eaten: Brazilian nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts and cashew. This is what the picky fellows didn't touch: pine nuts and almond slivers.

Banana Bread with Pecans

And the baking continues. In Velt's magazine Seizoenen (3/2009) Emilie Heller really gave away some kept secrets from the Joy Luck Baking Club she had as a child with some friends. A Californian recipe from a distant aunt of the author's. Zillions of banana bread recipes flock pages like these, but I had 4 overripe bananas and I was charmed by the possibility of little sugar. And rightly so.

Banana Bread with Pecans (by Emilie Heller)

Serves 10-12 (in a regular rectangular cake tin)

3-4 ripe bananas (I used 4)
50 g butter
80 g brown sugar (I used 2 teaspoons of honey)
225 g whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
100 g chopped pecan nuts
1 egg
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
optional: some finely chopped dates

Preheat the oven at 190 °C.

Mash the bananas with a fork.

Stir together butter and sugar. Add the egg.

Add dry ingredients. Combine everything.

Add the pecans at the end and the optional dates.

Oil a cake tin, dust it with flour.

Bake for about 1 hour in a moderately hot oven (I set it at 180 °C.)

Note: I used two teaspoons of honey. You read that right. Out came a highly edible baked item perfect for after-dinner nibbles.

Yummy dressing and a few useful cupboard items

White almond paste, white sesame paste (tahini), and peanut butter are my favorite items to make a salad dressing or to be used on a slice of bread.

I've made this potato and red bell pepper salad with pine nuts before, see link here, but I prepared it again with a dressing for which you need white almond paste. Almond paste makes for a slightly and naturally sweet dressing without use of something sweet such as vinegar.

Here's the recipe for sauce amandine from Taty Lauwers' book Cuisine nature à toute vapeur which I recommend (old ISBN number 2-9520338-1-1).

Yummy dressing: Sauce amandine

2 tablespoons almond paste
3-4 tablespoons tepid water
1/2 pressed clove of garlic
1 tablespoon parsley
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 shallot
some salt or soy sauce or tamari

Chop the shallot very finely, stir the water into the almond paste, then further combine all ingredients, stir well.

Special Breakfast: Millet

December started with a shift: a diagnosis of (minor) hypertension. I asked for four to five months extra time to introduce a couple of lifestyle improvements. One, no salt. Two, less caffeine. Third, less fretting and more cardio.

I started with variations on breakfast and my beloved oatmeal: cooked grains such as millet (gierst) or quinoa as first meal. I simply cooked millet for 20 minutes (5 extra minutes resting time) in 2,5 times water the savory way: with some dried oregano.

I added cottage cheese, a speck of Argentinian honey and the luxury item: dark berries flown into the supermarkets from South America. Add pollen and add nuts.