Bananas will always remind me of specific times and people:

In Infancy: I distinctly remember the smell of banana baby food – it reminds me of being a very little child. Then when I was an older kid, I remember buying a jar of banana baby food with friends and eating it… a flood of memories came back – or more like the feeling of babyhood came back to me… I was there momentarily. Interestingly, I expected the banana baby food to taste great – I must have loved it as a baby – but it was gross!

In Childhood in General: When I was growing up, my mother fried sliced bananas in butter for breakfast sometimes and put them on the side with fried eggs – it was a major childhood treat. This is now one of my comfort foods I make on occasions to feel warm and loved! (My own children haven’t taken to the fried bananas too much.)

The Tween Years: I remember making chocolate coated bananas with those kits you’d buy in the store with my mother. The chocolate was artificial, but if was fun nevertheless!

The Teenage Years: When I was a teenager, my grandparents would stay with us in the summer for about a month every year. I remember my grandfather eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches. This will always remind me of him.

Late teens: In college I studied in France for a few months, in Chinese restaurants in France they serve a banana flambé dessert that’s just out of this world! Funny that I think of a Chinese restaurant dessert in connection to France! (Obviously, I have lots of other food memories in France. But I’m limiting this conversation to bananas!)

And no, I’m not a skinny person! Someone who has this many food memories is not bound to be skinny! ;)

Feel free to share any food memories you have in the comments below. I welcome hearing about how other people enjoy bananas (feel free to include recipes).

To fry bananas, you literally slice them and fry them in butter in a frying pan on low to medium heat until lightly brown on both sides. They get caramelized. Then serve.

I thought my mother’s version was a Spanish or Puerto Rican recipe from her friend, but when I looked around the internet, I saw that it’s very American. There seem to be different recipes for fried bananas around the world. The flambé version in France probably includes liquor.

Soon I’ll post some correspondence between Gloria and me about the German cuisine we remember growing up with – it may be interesting for any of you children and grandchildren of German immigrants.

Bon appetit!

Mama Lisa

Depending on where you live, you may need to find a specialty food store to find some of the ingredients or order them on the internet. It’s possible you could simply substitute the butter for ghee (which the chef in the video says you can) and cake flour for maida (this I’m not sure of and I haven’t tested it myself yet).

Recipe for Banana Dosai

4 ripe bananas
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped cashews
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped raisins
Butter or ghee (a type of clarified butter)
1/4 cup maida (finely milled wheat flour – similar to cake flour in the West)
1/2 cup Rice flour
crushed cardamom seeds (optional)
Sugar to taste

Mash bananas. Add chopped raisins, cashews, rice flour, maida and a little sugar. Mix. Add a little crushed cardamom seeds if desired. It should be a pasty consistency.

Griddle should be at 325 F. Put spoonful of batter on griddle. Put a few drops of ghee on top of batter and let it cook until lightly brown on both sides.

Here you can watch it made…

I’d skip the spicy sauce that the chef in the video recommends, if you’re serving this to children!

This is a good dessert for the Indian Festival of Diwali!

You can find more Indian recipes at at Vahrehvah.com .

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

I used:

1/2 pound Salmon
2 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
3 Cloves Garlic
1 to 2 Tablespoons Ginger
1/4 to 1/3 cup Brown Sugar ( I eyed it – it depends if you like a more or less sweet sauce)
3/4 to 1 cup Water
5 Basil Leaves finely chopped
(In the video they added Chile sauce to the sauce mixture.
I left it out since my son doesn’t like anything too spicy.)

Finely chop the garlic and ginger and then mix them with the brown sugar, rice vinegar and water.

Heat pan on medium low. Add vegetable oil to coat. Add salmon. Cook salmon half way through – about 4minutes. Then flip and cook the rest of the way through – about another 4 minutes.

Add the sauce and chopped basil. Heat till the sauce is warm and serve.

You can watch how to make this recipe in the video below from Food Wishes…

I think I might try this recipe out with tofu next.

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

PS My son and I loved this recipe. My husband, who is a salty person, thought the sauce was a little too sweet (though he doesn’t eat fish – so he only tasted the sauce. I must say the sauce is superb with the salmon!)

PSS Tip on the video for buying salmon: make sure to ask for a center piece and specifically not the tail.

This morning, I made a full cake pan of "bavarois aux fruits" (Bavarian Fruit) for this evening…  it’s an easy and cool recipe to make for the summer:

1 liter (4 cups) Fruit Juice of your choice (except pineapple, kiwi fruit, papayas, peaches, mangos, guavas, and figs because the gelatin won’t set due to certain enzymes in these juices.)

6 Gelatin Sheets (4 sheets equal the amount of gelatin in the 1/4-ounce packet of Knox powder gelatin found in the US – therefore in the US you’d need 1 1/2 -1 envelopes which should be 2 Tablespoonfuls.)

2 Egg Whites

20cl (7 ounces) Heavy Cream

150g Sugar (2/3 cup)

Vanilla-flavored Sugar (in France it’s in 7.5 grams poaches, but I think a couple of drops of Vanilla Extract should do) (Optional)

1) Dip the gelatine sheets in cold water if you’re using sheets.  Otherwise, if you’re using powder, mix the gelatin powder with the juice.  Warm the fruit juice on the stovetop on low. (If you’re using the gelatine sheets add them at this point into the tepid/warm fruit juice).  Do not boil the juice or it will ruin the consistency of the gelatin! Stir until gelatin is dissolved – this should take a few seconds.

2) Allow to cool then put in the fridge long enough for it to be half set.  When it is, beat the two eggs whites in a separate bowl until stiff, add the sugar.  Whip the cream in a separate bowl until foamy and stiff and add the vanilla extract. Gently add both mixtures to the half set mixture of juice/gelatin.  It’s better done with a whisk.  Pour the mixture into a glass pie dish.  My cake pan is 12" in diameter and about 3" high (7cm).  Put it in the fridge to set… and voila!

Beware, if you leave it too long outside at dessert time, it’ll somewhat melt,  it’ll look like a mess you’ll need to use a ladle!

Enjoy!

Monique

Note from Mama Lisa: I asked Monique about the consistency of the dessert and she said, "It’s less thick than Jell-O. It’s more or less the consistency of a mousse, but maybe a little more set. So you must serve it as soon as you take it out of the fridge. Then you can cut it and serve it with a cake server."

My sister, Gwen, makes this wonderful blueberry pie every summer.  This blueberry pie recipe leaves most of the blueberries uncooked.  What’s so great about that is that you get the plumpness of fresh blueberries in your pie.  (It doesn’t have the gooey feel of a baked blueberry pie – that might be more appropriate for the cooler weather).  My sister’s pie is a very refreshing treat in the hot weather!

Blueberry Pie Recipe

Ingredients:

6 cups of Blueberries (2 1/2 pints) washed & drained
1/4 – 1/2 cup Cold Water
5 Tbsp. Flour or Cornstarch (we use flour)
Pinch of Salt 
1/2 – 1 cup Sugar (depends tartness of berries)
1/2 cup Water
10 inch Pie Shell Baked (My sister uses frozen – I used a Graham Crust in the photo above.)

1)  Wash and drain berries thoroughly. Mix together 1/4 cup cold water, flour & salt to make a smooth paste (add more water as necessary to make a smooth paste).

2)  Mix 1 cup blueberries, sugar,  1/2 cup water and paste in saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir until mixture thickens. Remove from stovetop to cool.

3)  When mixture is cool add remaining berries and put into already baked pie shell.

4)  Optional – top with fresh whip cream. Mix 1 pint of heavy cream with 2 – 3 Tbsp. of confectionary sugar and whip with mixer.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to my sister, Gwen Eichler, for sharing her recipe with us!

Mama Lisa

It’s time to eat ice cream… with the warm weather here.  Why not make your own wet walnuts as a topping when there’s a special occasion?  I made some for tonight’s Father’s Day dessert:  Wet Walnuts over Vanilla Ice Cream…  My husband’s favorite!

I’m a strong believer in adapting recipes to your family’s tastes, so feel free to leave out the cinnamon from the recipe below, or change the recipe in other ways that suit you best. I’ll include notes at the end about possible adaptations.  We love cinnamon and found the little hint of it to be a nice addition to the wet walnut recipe below.

Ingredients

1 cup Walnuts
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/8 cup corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Chop up the walnuts…

3. Bake the walnuts in the oven on a cookie sheet or baking pan for about 12 minutes.

4. Mix together maple syrup, corn syrup and cinnamon.  Add in the walnuts once they’re done cooking.  Stir and voila!  You’re ready to eat!  Serve over ice cream.

Notes on adapting the recipe:  The corn syrup is optional.  It lightens the flavor of the maple syrup.  I mixed pure maple syrup with "pancake" syrup.  This gave it a lighter flavor too.  Some people add in a little ginger powder for a different flavor. You could also use less syrup if you want to be conscious of calories.  I’d say you could get away with using a total amount of 1/2 cup of syrup.  In that case your walnuts won’t be as syrupy.  However you adapt it, if you use these general guidelines above, it’s hard to go wrong with wet walnuts. You’re basically mixing walnuts and sweet syrup.  What can be bad about that?!

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

Ayako said (regarding the photo above): "This is my Miso soup bowl. Most Miso soup bowls have beautiful pictures and they have covers."

I said to Ayako:  "That’s interesting that you eat miso soup with chopsticks. Do you drink the broth at the end? Here, in restaurants, we use big, deep spoons to eat it."

Ayako replied: "We drink the broth at the end by putting our mouths on the bowl.  In Japan, it’s not against good manners to do that, especially when eating Japanese food such as Miso soup, Udon or Soba.  We drink western soup with spoons.  In some restaurants, Miso soup may taste better than ours at home.  But the important point is that each family has its own tastes.  Generally people in northern areas prefer red miso and ones in western areas, especially Kyoto areas prefer white miso. But it depends on each family. It’s interesting"

Thanks for sharing that with us Ayako!  Very interesting!

Mama Lisa

Hat tip:  Thanks also to Linda Austin of Cherry Blossom Memories for sharing her Miso traditions too.  Linda’s Mom is from Japan.  She wrote, "My mom insists on using red miso, someday I’ll try white."

Miso Soup is pretty quick and easy to make!  I made it for the first time this past weekend.  My whole family liked it, though my 7 year old daughter only ate the broth with rice (no seaweed!).

The one possibly tough part of making miso soup is finding the ingredients.  I got mine at a Japanese specialty food store in a nearby town.  The owner also gave me tips about making the soup!  So it was an interesting trip.  If you don’t have a store like this nearby, you can get the ingredients on the internet.

I made a large pot.  So I’ll give you the quantities I used for the recipe. Then I’ll tell you how much you need to make a small quantity and you can double it or triple it or whatever you want.   It’s good to learn how to adapt recipes to your own needs.

Here are the quantities I used to make a large pot of soup:

20 cups of water
5 cups of Dried Bonito Flakes (mackerel)
1 1/2 cups White Miso Paste
1/4 to 1/3 cup Dried Chopped Seaweed
1 to 3 bunches Thinly Sliced Scallions
1 (4 to 8 oz) package Cleaned White Mushrooms, Thinly Sliced (If desired)
1 to 2 (14 ounce) Packages Firm Tofu, Cubed
Salt to taste (you can also use a little sea salt if desired)

First you make the Dashi which is the the broth for the soup.  Ayako Egawa from Japan gave me instructions for making this.  The rule of thumb is to use 2 cups of water to 1/2 cup dried bonito flakes (pictured below). 

1. Here’s how you make the Dashi Broth:

Boil the water.  Turn off the flame.  Put dried bonito into the water and stir.  Let sit for 10 minutes.  Then you want to take out the bonito.  You can do this by straining the broth through a colander and into another pot.  I did the straining twice to get rid of all the bonito.  Then you discard the bonito.  The broth that’s left is the Dashi.*

2. Put the broth in the pot back on the stovetop and warm it up on a medium to medium-high flame.  But do not boil it – especially after the miso has been added.  Many people believe boiling miso ruins its beneficial health effects.

3.  Add the miso paste (the rule of thumb is 1 Tablespoon of miso paste per 1 cup of water.)  Stir in the miso paste to dissolve.  Add the other ingredients (feel free to leave out any if you don’t like them).  Note: I used the seaweed in the photo below – a little goes a long way!  I originally put in 1/2 cup and you can see how much is in the bowl at the bottom.  That’s why I changed the amount in the recipe to 1/4 to 1/3 cup.  (I think a rule of thumb would be about 1 teaspoon dried seaweed per 1 – 2 cups of water. I would start with less, you can always add more!) 

You can adjust the amounts of the mushrooms, tofu, scallions and seaweed used to suit your family’s taste.  (Some people even put in carrots, buckwheat noodles and even a little sesame oil and soy sauce.)  We wanted a lot of scallions – and I think it added flavor to the broth.  Whatever you choose, simply warm up the final ingredients, add salt to taste, and voila, it’s ready to eat!

*FYI  Ayako and the man in the Japanese food store both pointed out that you can alternatively make the Dashi (broth) by using Dashi powder – but the versions of Dashi powder that I found had MSG in it.  That’s why I made it with the Dried Bonito Flakes instead.  The man in the store insisted that restaurants use the powder, making me wonder if we’re eating MSG when we have miso soup in some restaurants.  I guess that’s all the more reason to learn to make it yourself!  This way you know exactly what’s in it!

Many thanks to Ayako Egawa for teaching me how to make dashi!

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

PS Here’s "The Miso Soup Song" – a Korean Folk Song

UPDATE: Check out this later post to learn about some Miso Soup Traditions!

You can put whatever you like into savory matzo brei.  Here are some suggestions: fry up any of the following first: chopped onions, green or red peppers, mushrooms, or other vegetables that you might put into a normal omelet.  You can also add cheese and/or herbs to savory matzo brei.  If you’re using cheese, I’d recommend Swiss or cheddar cheese – but use whatever you and your family like.

Here’s how you make Savory Matzo Brei:

Recipe for Savory Matzo Brei

3 Eggs
3 Matzo
1 Tablespoon Milk
Salt and Pepper to Taste

1) Fry up any vegetables you want to use in a little oil or butter, until lightly brown and soft.  Set aside.

1) Soak matzo in water for a minute or two to soften (no longer than that).  Take the matzo out of the water.

2) Break matzo into small pieces with your hands.

3) In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the milk (like you would for scrambled eggs).  Add salt and pepper and stir.  Then stir the egg mixture in with the matzos.

4) Put pan with vegetables back on medium heat heat.  Then add the egg mixture.  Break up like you would scrambled eggs while frying.

5) Add small cubes of cheese if you’re using cheese.

When it’s firm (not liquidy), it’s ready to eat.

Bon appetit!

Mama Lisa

PS If you’d like to try something different, check out my recipe for Matzo Omelet.

I’ll give the recipe here for a matzo omelet. It’s inspired by the dish called Matzo brei. There’s a little story behind this and I’ll tell it in a moment. Matzo brei means fried matzo. The traditional way to make it is with a lot of matzo – you generally use equal eggs to matzo. Jewish people eat it around Passover. A matzo omelet is different, it’s an omelet with matzo in it – more egg less matzo!

A few years ago, my mother-in-law was explaining matzo brei to me. I suppose I misunderstood her explanation. I went home and made a traditional omelet for my husband with matzo in it. I made it using a little matzo per egg. It turns out that he loved it! I made him omelets like that for years, thinking I was cooking authentic Jewish food. My bad! I wasn’t. I had come up with a new invention: a matzo omelet. It wasn’t until this year, when my sister-in-law taught me the real way to make matzo brei, that I learnt the difference. I personally prefer the matzo omelet to the savory matzo brei.

So let’s get to the recipe! I’ll start by saying the you can put whatever you like into the matzo omelet. Here are some suggestions: fry up any of the following first: chopped onions, green or red peppers, mushrooms, or other vegetables that you might put into a normal omelet. You can also add cheese to the matzo omelet. I’d recommend Swiss or cheddar cheese – use whatever you and your family like.

Here’s the basic recipe for the matzo omelette:

Matzo Omelet

3 Eggs
1 Matzo
1/4 c. Milk
Salt and Pepper to Taste

1) Melt butter in a frying pan, fry up any vegetables you want to use on medium heat.  When they’re soft and lightly brown, turn off the heat and set aside.

2) Beat the eggs with a fork. Add the milk, salt and pepper and stir again.

3) Break up the matzo into bite sized pieces and put into the egg mixture.

4) Stir the matzo in the with eggs

5) Put the frying pan with the vegetables back on medium heat and add the egg mixture.

6) Once the omelet starts to get firm you can add cheese to half of the pan.

7) Once the cheese starts to melt, and the omelet gets less liquidy, you can flip half of the omelet over the other half. I flipped it and cut it in half to help it cook more quickly. You may need to lower the heat if the bottom starts to cook too quickly.

8) You can flip the omelet again after a couple of minutes, make sure the inside gets cooked. Once the eggs are firm on the inside, you’re ready to eat it!

Bon appetit!

Mama Lisa

PS I used whole milk for the omelet because we had it in our fridge for another recipe. I don’t normally use whole milk, but 1%. The whole milk gave the omelet a more custardy taste. More yummy, though more fattening. Interesting to know as a cook!

Next: Recipe for Savory Matzo Brei