Je t'aime, melancholie...

Ramadan is knocking and I got a bad bout of nostalgia. I miss UAE. I miss the mood, the food, I got a bad bad craving for Sarai restaurant food (the best Syrian food), I miss the evening crowds in shopping malls, the salty humidity blowing from the sea. I miss being able to go downstairs for a stroll after sunset with Little Miss and not only feel safe but see lots of other parents doing the same. I miss my girl being welcome in proper restaurants, I miss being able to eat anywhere and not worry about the almighty pork in pancakes. And I miss our apartment, not smelling cigarette smoke 24/7 from addicted neighbours. I miss the bread from Organic Café, I miss being able to wear the all-black abaya with black scarf without scaring the living daylight out of people... I miss the respect and courtesy regarding pregnant women, I miss so much...
This, too, shall pass but today I allow myself to indulge in memories.

Joys of multilingual life

Little Miss decided to be a French speaker. She started to speak and answer exclusively in French. She obviously understands when I speak to her and acts accordingly but answers in French. Counts in French, her letters are French. Only her food is still Polish but I guess it will change as soon as she actually learns French equivalents in kindergarden. Oh well, I always said what counts is that she understands my and husband's languages. This way the languages are imprinted in her brain and if one day she decides to use them, it will be so much easier. Understanding what people say to you and around you is very reassuring and confidence-boosting, as any TCK or foreign language learner will tell you. But for now, I have a little francophone at home. Can't wait for the Quebecer accent to come out!

Quick cake update

Two days ago I made the cake from the post below with 3 bananas (I added a table spoon of flour to balance the consistency) and it came out even moister and yummier! It's best the next day after spending some time wrapped in the fridge. Sinfully good!

Midnight Banana

Little Miss has been going to sleep early lately. Probably, because she refuses to nap. And so when the urgent need to eat something sweet got hold of me yesternight, I had to find a recipe that doesn't require use of electric gadgets. Found one and since I tweaked it to the point of making a different recipe altogether, I share it here.

It's a dairy- nut- and soy-free banana bread. It' really sweet, so feel free to use less sugar. Personally I like my cakes sweet.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup olive oil (not virgin, the lighter the better)
• 1 cup brown sugar (I substituted some of the sugar with maple sugar)
• 2 eggs, beaten (by hand - I used a beater but can be done with fork)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice (optional)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (NOT baking powder)
• 1 1/2 cups + 1 tbl spelt flour (can be all-purpose flour or any flour, really)

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 170 C (325 F). With a spoon, mix oil with the mashed banana. Add sugar and beaten eggs. Mix. Sprinkle baking soda and cinnamon onto the mixture and stir. Mix the flour in. Stir just enough to incorporate the flour into the batter. Do not over-stir, the batter is supposed to be lumpy. Pour the batter into a loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour. Let it cool before taking it out of the pan. If you want the cake extra-moist, wrap it in aluminium (or put into tupperware loosely wrapped in wax paper) and put in the fridge. It's better the next day (if you can wait, that is).

It works perfectly in muffins, mini-loaves, cup cakes, just adjust the baking time accordingly (30 minutes for small cup-cakes).

You can use 1 egg and 3-4 bananas. You can substituted melted butter for oil. You can add walnuts or chocolate chips. Vanilla extract instead of cinnamon. Etc etc... 

Enjoy!

I made edible bread

Some of you know - I don't succeed in making bread. Any kind. Ever. Me and yeast do not agree. It refuses to do what yeast is supposed to do. Each and every time. And yet I've continued to fantasize about home-baked bread. The freedom of being able to have the exact bread I want with the exact ingredients and saltiness I want. And then I stumbled upon this site . It has a recipe for a spelt raisin bread. Now, it wasn't the exact recipe I was looking for but it has eliminated my problem. For the first time in my life I got the stupid yeast to work. The dough doubled, bubbled and basically behaved itself in a very yeasty fashion.  The bread looked very handsome, smelled good and Little Miss seemed to appreciate it. I had to tweak the original recipe a little and it came out too yeasty, too dense and too crumbly (in my opinion).  But it was a first success! I won't post the recipe here as my bread wasn't good enough to share with the world but do follow the link, there is a secret to the whole process.

Fruity Goodness

I used to play the Chocolatier 3 game for a while and developed a love for cheesy dessert names. Fruity Goodness is a basic fruit cocktail/smoothie with added nutrition. The proportions and exact components may vary according to taste, allergies and supply, of course. Here is my favourite version

• Frozen wild blueberries (fresh would be even better)
• banana
• milk (animal, nut or grain)/buttermilk/laban/liquid yoghourt
• avocado
• ground chia seeds
• a little raw honey (optional)
• ground cinnamon

Blend, serve. I sometimes add some almond butter, vitamin D or even hemp protein. Mango, strawberries, apple/orange juice instead of milk are delicious variations as well. Just make sure there is some good fat there (avocado, nut butter or some good organic oil) to maximise the nutritional value.

Enjoy!

I'm cold

The temperatures go up and down, as it is usual in April and at the moment they're very down, it's 10am and -3C. It inspired me to make my own manakeesh. I bought fresh active yeast, followed the recipe, the yeast frothed as it should, the dough looked as in the description. But, of course, it didn't rise. Or, actually, it did...but instead of doubling it got like 10% bigger. I tried baking it anyway. Bleurgh is all I'll say. So no pics and no recipe. What is it with me and yeast? It just never works! Never. Not in winter with well-heated kitchen, not in the summer when it's naturally warm. All I got are sore arms from working the dough. Oh well. Still pine after some decent manakeesh but no idea when I can get some close to home...