How to warm up a morning...

      Waking up early to a cold dark kitchen with the drowsy of sleep still on my mind I shuffle through the stained recipe sheets piled in the cabinet until I found it. The perfect ratio of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs whipped together, transformed into edible joy: banana streusel muffins. They are my favorite gift to give as they scream/seductively whisper deliciousness to all those they meet. Moist crumbles of pillow-y cake texture under crisp sweet brown sugar and caramelized butter, how could they not bring a smile and brightness to anyone’s day?

     Now the secret to the perfect banana bread or muffin or cake or whatever is the banana itself. It is next to impossible to make these things spontaneously; usually these treats are made out of desperation to rid the kitchen counter of the browning-black fruits. In order to avoid begrudgingly made baked goods (no one wants to enjoy dessert made out of necessity rather than pleasure) freezing the bananas is the solution and, as it turns out, the only way to bake banana treats in general. By freezing them you do two things:
      1) You preserve the banana flavor while it is at its peek, the darker and more grotesque looking they appear, the better. For as the fruits ripen they develop more sugars, essential flavoring to your bread or muffins.
      2) As the bananas are thawed they release yummy banana-y liquid vital to establishing moisture of crumb and flavor.

 Banana Sugar Crumb Muffins

12 regular sized muffins

• 1 ½ cups flour

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

• 3 frozen bananas or 1 cup thawed overnight or microwaved and mashed

• ½ cup sugar

• ¼ cup brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 1/3 cup melted butter

• 1/3 cup brown sugar

• 2 tbsp flour

• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp butter (room temp)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease regular sized muffin pan or line with cupcake papers.
In a large bowl mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In a smaller bowl mix together bananas, sugar, brown sugar, egg and melted butter.
Combine wet ingredients into the dry, stir until just combined and moistened (don’t over work the batter).

Spoon the batter into the muffin pan approximately 2/3rds of the way full.

In a separate bowl, crumble together the last 4 ingredients with your hands into a coarse meal. Sprinkle this crumb topping onto the awaiting muffins.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and batter free (moist crumbs are okay).

The First Step is Acceptance…

Its been going on a majority of my life…this addiction…and I feel I must now confess it to you all before the problem gets any worse: I am an Asian food junkie. I know, I know it’s not healthy to be obsessed but I just can’t help it! Whether it’s Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Eastern Chinese, Japanese, Korean- I adore and am captivated by it all. The flavors are so warm and fresh, interesting and unique, wonderful and just plain fab-tab-ulous! From ginger to lemon grass, kimchi to sriracha, soy to fish sauce, black bean paste to sesame oil- it’s all too wonderfully overwhelming!!! *goes into a minor food pondering coma*

Sorry about that, but you get the point I love Asian cuisine. Others may be a little weary for me, my roommate at camp confessed her fears that I was in actuality a Chinese woman trapped inside a skinny German teenage body…But at least I know I have a problem…right? Now I can work on getting over the addiction; perhaps over indulgence is the answer…yeah…I’ll just make so much Asian food I get sick of it…that should work!-No? You disagree? Too bad, I’m doing it anyway :)

So this week’s recipe:

Ginger-Soy Tilapia and Stir-Fry
Serves 3-4

• 3-4 frozen Tilapia fish fillets (or any white fish)
• 2 tsp and 1 tbsp diced ginger (separated)

• ¼ cup soy sauce

• Red and black pepper
• 1 tsp garlic chili paste aka sriracha
• ½ tsp toasted sesame oil
• ½ tsp honey

• ¼- ½ head of cabbage (cut into shreds)

• 1 can of bean-sprouts (drained and rinsed)
• ½ cup julienned carrots
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• ½ large onion (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (diced)
• ½ cup summer squash cut into ½ in strips

(substitute any veggies you see fit, broccoli is always wonderful, water chestnuts, baby corns, eggplant, peas, etc)

The Fish:

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. Cover a cookie sheet in parchment paper or foil leaving enough excess to fold over so you can make a pouch for the fish to bake in. Lay the fillets on the paper or foil and drizzle with 1 tbsp soy sauce, some toasted sesame oil and ginger. Seal the fish ‘packet’ by scrunching the foil or paper onto itself and poke the top with holes using scissors. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the fish is no longer pink.

The Sauce:

In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, combine the soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic chili paste, remaining ginger, garlic, honey, pepper and cornstarch. Whisk with a fork until nicely combined. Set aside.

The Stir Fry:
While the fish is cooking, heat a large skillet of wok with a tsp or so of oil on medium high heat. Once the oil is smoking, add onion and sauté until caramelized and cooked clear. To caramelize onions simply allow them to cook until they begin to stick and there is a golden color on the bottom of the pan (this is fond). Add dribbles of water to unstick everything. Repeat the process until onion is cooked.


Next add the carrots and mushrooms, sauté with a similar process used above until cooked. Add squash, sauté until cooked. Add cabbage and bean sprouts, cover the pan with a lid and reduce heat to medium. Steam until the cabbage is cooked.

Pour in sauce, stir around and cook until thickened.

Serve :)

Chana Masala

Picnicking outside at lunch is becoming less than enjoyable. The formerly sunny spot in front of theatre lobby has transformed into a cold air tunnel, funneling unfortunate chills over our crisscrossed knees and forcing the casual eating atmosphere into a calamity. :( No more veggies are springing from the garden, school has hit its overwhelming rhythm and some lady frowned at me the other day for wearing white (I had no idea the whole white after Labor Day was such a big deal).

So besides having to find a warm place to enjoy the luncheon hour, I have also had to turn towards the microwave. Its power to bring me the warms of home through bubbling soups and stews is a grand one but who has time to slow cook stew when they’ve got homework to do? The struggle with the falling of autumn (teehee, fall-autumn, get it) comes not in the food itself but the fact that everything one makes takes FOREVER to cook and tend to in order to develop flavor…or so I thought.

Chana Masala, my new comfort food. The warmth of turmeric, chilies, ginger simply embraces my soul as my mind curls up in the caramelized onion, steaming tomato, chickpeas, squash and eggplant…What more does one need to satisfy themselves after slogging through homework, classes and their irritations? So, because I’m in a rush this week, here is only one recipe but the dish that has kept me happy to thrive in these hectic times.

Chana Masala

Makes 2- 3 servings (depending on your veggies)

• ¼- ½ onion
• 1 tbl diced fresh ginger
• 1 small squash, (summer or winter) ½ inch diced
• 1 very small eggplant, ½ inch diced (optional)
• 1 glove garlic (optional)\
• 1 tsp garlic chili paste
• 3 tbl cumin seed
• 1 tbl turmeric (more or less depending)
• 1 16-oz can chickpeas, rinsed

• 1 16-oz can of diced no salt added tomatoes

• Salt to taste

(optional garnishes include lemon juice and cilantro)
(other vegetable options include carrots, sweet potatoes, normal potatoes, peas, spinach leaves etc)
Begin by sautéing the onion until caramelized (on a medium heat adding water to deglaze the pan every once in a while). Once the onion is no longer opaque, add the ginger and the diced vegetables. Stew until squash in completely cooked through.

Add the garlic, cumin, and turmeric. Toast these briefly. Add chickpeas and tomatoes.

Bring the masala back to a simmer on medium-low heat and leave it on the stove melding for however long you want (up to an hour).

If adding peas or spinach add this right before serving, should only take a minute for these to cook through.

And enjoy! It keeps in the fridge for up to a week and is super awesome for school lunches.