Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

I am so excited to share this recipe with you! I have never made my own pancake batter before. I've always believed that the shake and pour variety were more my bag until I made these banana pancakes today!

To me pancakes mean a desert - I love nothing more than an American style buttermilk pancake with gooey maple syrup and vanilla ice cream. However, today my love affair with buttermilk pancakes has come to an end as I have now found a new love...savoury banana pancakes served with warm maple syrup and crispy bacon.

Now, this is the type of dish that you would not want to serve on a weekly basis... queue heart attack on a fork! But...every now and then when you wake up a little fuzzy from the night before and you need a stodgy meal to cure the aches and pains but couldn't be bothered getting dressed up to go out for brunch...this is the meal for you!

My mouth is still watering from these pancakes and using the sour cream in the recipe is the midas touch. The centre of the pancakes oozes deliciously with melted banana and sour cream. The combination of fluffy pancake and oven crisped bacon is a party for your taste buds.

And can I just say that taking the time to dust a little icing sugar over the plate is truly and utterly the icing on the cake!!

I encourage everyone to try this dish at least once in their life time - you will not be left disappointed.

Enjoy!
x

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Unsalted butter
• 2 ripe bananas, diced, plus extra for serving
• Pure maple syrup

Note: I also added to this dish rashes of crispy bacon cooked in the oven at 200 degrees celsius until brown and crispy.

Method

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing only until just combined.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until the butter starts to bubble. Ladle the pancake batter into the pan to make 3 or 4 pancakes. Distribute a rounded tablespoon of bananas on each pancake. Cook for 2-3 minutes until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned. 

                                       

Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minute until browned. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel, add more butter to the pan and continue cooking pancakes until all the batter is used. Serve with sliced bananas, maple syrup, icing sugar and crispy bacon.

                            

Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon

Hello everybody! It's been well over a month since I last blogged and my sincerest apologies. However I do have a good excuse...I've been away on holidays for 7 weeks!

Matt, Sadie and I had a brilliant 2 weeks away together in Bali to celebrate my best friends wedding. The trip was pure bliss and we were spoilt rotten. Bali is such an amazing place and the locals are some of the kindest people I have ever met. We can't wait to get back there for another visit.

Sadie and I then travelled on to Sydney, our home town, for 5 weeks of catching up with family and friends. We both had a blast and it was so sad to leave but we couldn't wait to get home to Matt and become entrenched once again in our daily Doha life!

My first weekend back in Doha and we were invited to a cocktail party by our very good friends John & Catherine. J&C live on the same compound as we do and most of our weekends are filled with drinking, eating and swimming in the pool.

It was a fun filled cocktail party, as each couple had to bring their own cocktails to make for the guests. Matt and I decided on Mojito's as they are my favourite (i make mine with lemonade instead of soda water). Anyway, I thought it was also my duty to take along some canapes for us to snack on!

I have adapted this recipe from Nigella Lawson, the only thing I changed was adding sour cream to the top of the pancakes. These little morsels of deliciousness were gobbled down very quickly. We also decided that they would make a great posh looking hash brown minus the sour cream and salmon and instead served with crispy bacon (or turkey bacon for us here in Doha!).

I hope you enjoy!
x

Ingredients

3 eggs
125ml full-fat milk
2 spring onions, finely sliced
2 x 15ml tablespoons olive oil
60g instant mashed potato granules
40g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup sour cream (optional)
300g smoked salmon
1 small bunch of fresh dill

Method


1. In a jug, whisk the eggs, milk, spring onions and olive oil together.

2. Stir in the potato granules, flour and baking powder and finally the lemon juice.

3. Heat a flat griddle, and drop 15ml tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the hot griddle.

4. Cook for about 30 seconds a side, or until golden brown and firm enough at the sides to flip.

5. Once you have made the pancakes, and they've cooled a little, top with a small blob of sour cream and then tear off tiny strips of smoked salmon and place on top.

6. Decorate each salmon topped pancake with a tiny feather of dill.

Chili Con Carne

I love Mexican food and I love Nigella Lawson so what better combination than Nigella's Quick Chili! I have changed the recipe slightly however the recipe comes from Nigella Express - one of the best cook books out there in my opinion!


I served this chili with rice, cheese, sour cream and warm tortilla bread oh and icy cold Corona Beers!! Hopefully by the time you're reading this post I'm sitting on the beach in Bali enjoying a beer and meal with friends! At the moment I'm trying to cram 6 weeks worth of clothing into one suitcase and have ordered in pizza as the thought of cooking is just not an option right now! Why do I leave things to the last minute?!


Please try this chili - it hits all the right spots and is a great alternative to other mince meat recipes like the stock standard bolognese!


Enjoy
x


Ingredients


500g minced beef
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cardamom pods, bruised
1 x 500g jar good quality tomato and chunky vegetable sauce for pasta
1 x 300g can mexican beans (you can buy the spicy or normal variety)
1/4 teaspoon dried chili flakes (optional depending how hot you like it and whether you have used spicy beans or not)

Method


1. In a hot, heavy based pan cook the mince for about 5 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden fork to help it brown.


2. Stir in the spices and add the tomato-vegetable pasta sauce and beans. Also add the chili flakes if you so desire.


3. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.


4. Serve with rice, cheese, sour cream, tortilla breads.

Rice Salad

My mother in law Kate is an amazing cook! I have learnt a lot from her and can't wait to be in Sydney to learn some new recipes and tricks!

This is a very very simple rice salad that Kate has been cooking for years. You can make the salad in the morning, pop it in the fridge and then serve at a bbq, picnic or with a nice piece of steak or chicken for dinner.

I think it's the dressing that makes it!!

Ingredients

2 cups rice, cooked and cooled

1  carrot, finely chopped

1/2  red onion, finely chopped

2  celery stalk, finely chopped

1  capsicum, finely chopped

1  small can of tin corn, drained

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup cream

1 tablespoon chicken stock

Salt & pepper for seasoning

Method

Cook rice and set aside to cool. Once the rice is cool combine vegetables with rice. Make your dressing. I find the easiest way to make the dressing is to pour the cream, mayo and stock into a small plastic jar and shake well. Pour over rice and vegetables and combine. Season with salt and pepper.

How easy is that!!! And the rice salad is so tasty!

Jewish Coffee Cake

At the end of last Summer as my family and I were getting ready to leave Abu Dhabi, we had a small gathering of close friends to say goodbye. My friend Nancy who became like a mother to me while I was living in Abu Dhabi made a Jewish Coffee cake for desert. Now, when I heard coffee I was instantly skeptical... you see I don't drink coffee...can't stand the stuff! So I thought I would not like the cake at all! Boy was I wrong. Nancy's cake was quite possibly the best cake I have ever eaten and there was no coffee in sight!

I decided to make the cake for Thursday night desert as we had our very good friends John and Kathryn over for a BBQ. I scoured the internet for different versions of the recipe and there were plenty. I settled on the version that seemed similar to Nancy's - where the filling was full of cinnamon and sugar.

I also decided to research the history of the cake as the Jewish faith would have to be arguably the oldest religion in our history, however I think my Muslim friends would beg to differ! Jewish Coffee Cake is actually known as Ashkenazic coffee cake and dates back to the 17th Century in Eastern Europe. The original recipe did call for coffee but today's versions are completely caffeine free. In contemporary Jewish homes coffee cake is often served for breakfast on Shabbat and holidays, and at the breakfast table after Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av.

This cake while baking makes your kitchen smell of warm cinnamon donuts and is best served warm with cream or ice cream. Also, it lasts at least 5 days in an air tight container.

On a side note, tomorrow my family and I are leaving Doha for a 2 week holiday in Bali where I don't think I'll be able to blog. Sadie and I are then off to Sydney for a month to see family and friends. While I'm in Bali I have organised for a couple of recipes to be posted. 

I hope you enjoy

x

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan. Combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar, butter and eggs until smooth. Add the flour mixture and beat until smooth. Finally, stir in the sour cream and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the nuts, confectioners' sugar and cinnamon.

    

Spread half of the batter into the 9x9 inch pan. Sprinkle a layer of the nut mixture, then spread the remaining batter and top with the rest of the nut mixture. Spread the melted butter over the top.

Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, until cake springs back to the touch.

Individual Banana Loaves

Sadie and I love bananas! I like mine sliced served on hot buttery toast and Sadie likes her peeled and served straight up! Unfortunately the Middle East does not produce their own fruit or vegetables so we have to import everything. I buy my tomatoes from Holland, my oranges from the USA and my potatoes from Australia....and pay dearly for them! Bananas are imported from the Philippines and my house keeper back in the UAE once told me that bananas are the Philippines biggest export and she was very proud of the fact! Unfortunately because the bananas have to travel a long distance, by the time they get to us they basically have a days' shelf life before they are too ripe and bruised to eat. This means that I pretty much buy bananas on a daily basis! 

I had 2 bananas that were bordering on dodgy so instead of wasting them I decided to bake! I searched through some of my cooking magazines and came across the following recipe from Taste Magazine. These mini loaves are delicious, very moist and sweet enough to have without the icing. I used icing just for the beauty shot. They can be stored in an airtight container for 4-5 days however, I have frozen mine so that Sadie can enjoy them in her lunch box!

Ingredients

Butter, to grease

1 1/4 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup castor sugar

125g butter, melted, cooled

2 eggs

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup pure icing sugar (this is optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease mini loaf pans. (The recipe called for 8 x 1/2 cup pans, mine were slightly bigger and made 6). Combine the flour and sugar in a large bowl.

Whisk the butter and eggs together. 

Add to the flour mixture with the banana and mix until well combined.

Spoon the cake batter evenly among the greased pans. Use the back of a spoon to smooth surface. 

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cooled completely, mix the icing sugar with enough water to make and icing thin enough to pour. Drizzle the icing over the cakes and set aside to set. 

Matt's Penne Pasta

Well, it's been a CRAZY week! My daughter turned 2 on Tuesday and we've had a birthday extravaganza since then! I have tried a couple of times this week to post an entry on my blog but to no avail. It started Tuesday with me trying to bake a cake in my shocking gas oven, only to have it burn to a crisp. After the cake incident, I thought I'd whip up some cupcakes which were OK but not great. And we've eaten out every night this week that there was nothing else for me to post!

However, today I set my mind to it! I was going to write my blog! Matt has been begging me for ages to cook him his favourite pasta meal. A meal that when I first came up with the recipe (yes I created this dish!) Matt turned his nose up at it but within 15 minutes he was singing its praises!

I came up with this recipe about 4 years ago when we first moved from Sydney to Melbourne. I remember feeling like a pasta dish but was over the stock standard Spaghetti Bolognese that I was cooking on a weekly basis. I flicked through a few cook books and magazines and I think I used some recipes for inspiration and truthfully whatever was in the fridge!

This pasta dish turned out to be a huge success! Such a success that Matt started requesting his penne pasta almost every week and it got to the point where I was sick of it! I actually haven't cooked this pasta in over a year so it's fitting it made its return tonight for my blog.

Lastly, for any vegetarians reading, this pasta sauce tastes great without the chicken and even staunch meat eaters won't miss the omission of chicken!

Enjoy

Ingredients

500g chicken breasts, diced
2 x zucchini, thinly sliced in circles
2 tbl spoons olive oil
zest and juice of 1 lemon
150g feta, crumbled
300g penne pasta
200ml light pouring cream
chili flakes to your liking
salt & pepper to season

Method


Cook pasta according to packet directions. Meanwhile heat oil in a large hot pan and add chicken. Saute chicken until the meat is no longer pink.

Add the zucchini and cook until tender.

Once the zucchini is cooked through, add the lemon zest and juice and the chilli flakes. Cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

Drain the pasta and toss through the sauce, making sure to combine the ingredients well together. Stir through the cream. Turn off the heat and add the feta cheese, combining all ingredients together gently.

Serve immediately.