sweet concotions – OwlCat Designs

October 15, 2012December 16, 2017

Banana ‘Fritters’

Or what to so with those ‘ugly’ bananas…

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Maybe I am just weird but I tend to believe that others out there do not like mushy bananas either. You know, the ones that sit in the fruit basket forgotten like the proverbial step child until, without warning suddenly they turn brown, in a matter of hours it seems. Alright, admittedly I am exaggerating, but I just really do not like them even when they start getting the little brown spots. At least not for eating as a banana. No, at that point I will resort to using them up in all manners of ways that I came up with over the years (I don’t like to waste and throw them out after all) from smoothies to sweetener in baked goods and muffins, to ice cream topping, I have tried most anything. How about you guys, do you have any favorite banana-use recipes?

This would be great as a snack or an indulgent breakfast: Pancake batter banana ‘fritters’. Since the bananas get soft and extra sweet as they cook, no need for syrup. Haven’t tried this, but some chocolate spread, like Nutella might be good…

Ingredients

You need a few ugly bananas (very ripe)*
leftover pancake batter (or for a simple recipe go here)
short Bamboo skewers (to fit in the pan)

* one banana makes about three skewers on average.

Directions

Slice bananas into rounds, about 1/2″ thick and thread 3 to 4 pieces onto short bamboo skewers (if you only have the long ones, cut them in half before or it won’t fit in the pan) You want to thread them on like you are making a flat snow man, if that makes sense (so they lie flat)
Heat a skillet over medium high, when it’s hot, add a bit of oil and swirl to coat
Put the pancake batter in a shallow dish and dip, first one side then the other, of the banana skewer until the slices are completely coated in batter.
Cook in the preheated pan until set and slightly browned, then turn over and cook on the second side. Depending on the size of your pan, you can cook 3 to 4 skewers at a time. Enjoy hot!

Because of the skewer they are easy to pick up and eat!
© 2012 SimpleHealthyHomemade

July 25, 2012December 16, 2017

Super Natural Mango Ice Cream

Soft serve state……or popsicle, fantastic either way!

You may have notice that I am ~~obsessed~~ enamored with mangoes. For more on this delicious fruit, see the Mango Cheesecake and the Mango with Sticky Rice posts and a fun side salsa, geeez, I guess I am kinda crazy about them. Since it is really hard to describe a flavor so exotic and sweet that it transports you to faraway places where the sun rises red through the early morning haze and you hear a peacock’s cry in the distance. The view takes your breath away as daylight slowly uncovers the scenery, like unrolling an exquisite silk tapestry…

Well, beyond dreaming, this is not going to get much words from me, except it’ only 2 ingredients and a must-try! No added sugar since mangoes are sweet as a dream, and if you use coconut milk, the whole thing is vegan.

Remember to start this the day before you want to eat the super natural mango ice

Ingredients

2 champagne mangoes, peeled, cut into 1/2″ chunks
about 3/4 cups coconut milk (or half & half*)

*If using half & half, the mango ice is no longer vegan

Directions

Chop and freeze the mango pieces until rock hard. (best overnight, but minimum of 6 hours seems to work)
Blend the chopped, frozen mango pieces, until they look crumbly, like such…
With the machine running, slowly pour in coconut milk (or half and half, if going the dairy route) until the mango crumbles start to blend into a homogenous mass.
Either serve right away (texture is soft serve) or scoop into a small dish or popsicle molds and freeze until solid. Will keep for several weeks, if you can keep your fingers off of it 🙂

July 3, 2012December 16, 2017

Very Merry Blackberry Ice

Many of you are wondering what kind of treat to serve for your 4th of July celebration. It has to be tasty, should ideally not be too filling and still feel good after a full meal, good for a hot barbecue day, but at the same time, you don’t want to go overboard on the calories either. I got just the treat for you: ice cold and healthy and you don’t even need an ice cream maker!
To your rescue comes…

Three ingredient blackberry ice!

I have not read up on my ice box deserts lately, but I suspect that this should actually be called ‘gelato’, since I am not only using cream…very very exited about my animal cracker cookie cutters 🙂

You can vary the amount of sugar you add to this, depending on how sweet the berries are. Just remember to start this half a day in advance or use already frozen berries.

Ingredients

12 oz (big carton/box) blackberries
6oz box raspberries or some strawberries
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup to 1 cup half & half, whole milk or cream

Directions

Wash and gently dry the berries by shaking them a little in a colander. Place back into original container and freeze until rock hard, about 6 hours (depends on the freezer)
In the bowl of a good food processor, combine the berries and the sugar, pulse until everything is crushed and starts to resemble a powder.
With the machine running, in a slow stream add milk or half & half through the feed hole on the lid of the blender bowl. You may have to scrape down the sides once or so as you are going through this, but work quickly as the berries will start to thaw rapidly as you are processing them. Keep adding half&half until the berries and the dairy form a creamy mass. The ice cream will be quite soft (almost like soft serve) either eat right away, or place in the freezer for approximately 15 to 20 minutes to firm up a bit before serving.
Enjoy with animal crackers or any other crunchy item you enjoy 🙂

June 11, 2012

Strawberry Jicama Juice with Mint

In the last couple of weeks, I have re-introduced juices into my days again. No no, not OJ from a box. We all realize by now how not so good that might be for you. If you don’t yet, just think about the fact that diabetics are given orange juice when their blood sugar gets dangerously low, to quickly bring it back up… On some days juicing is an easy way to up my vegetable intake, and at least get to some of the nutrition I really should eat but don’t always have time for.

I will not get up on my soap box about sugar today, waaaaay to hot for climbing, but on hot days like this, eating is sometimes not something I feel like doing, but using my juicer always seems to come in handy. My general rule of thumb would be to use fruit only to sweeten your (green, yellow or red) vegetable juices, unless… unless of course you are making a desert. Well, here is more of a desert version, you know, to balance out the green juices in your life 😉

Ingredients

1/2 lb strawberries
1/2 medium Jicama, brown skin peeled off
1/2 cucumber, peeled
1 Chinese pear, quartered and seeds removed
2 sprigs mint, plus some leaves for garnish

Directions

Per your juicer’s guidelines, juice all the ingredients: I started with the softest things, the strawberries. Don’t push down, or you won’t get much juice from them, gently feed them through. Either juice the mint sprigs, or usig a wooden drink mottler, bruise them in the glass before serving the drink. Then juice the Jicama, the cucumber and the pear.
Pour over ice, garnish with mint leaves and serve!
Save the strawberry pulp for another use, unless you have a super Juicer and there is almost nothing left, you can use the rest for baking, pancakes or pop sicles

I bet this would be awesome spiked with lemon vodka… Tropical Island gettaway, here I come! …

May 11, 2012December 16, 2017

Daifuku

Glutinous rice cakes or Daifuku are something you can find at Asian markets all over the world, and that’s where I found them first. But if you know me a little, at some point I can’t leave it at that. I gotta know how it’s made.To ease your fears, no, I wasn’t the kid that opened up the belly of my dolls to find out what was inside. But I suspect that one of the reasons as to why not, might have had to do with me understanding that it would destroy them and my mom most certainly would not find willful destruction (no matter how lofty and glorious the reason behind it might have been) a good enough reason to buy another one. Oh yeah, from the days before the entire living room turned into a toy store when folks have children.

So, back to the subject at hand, I am just intrigued by how things are made, and why. You know that show on tv ‘how things are made’? If I had a tv, totally down my ally :). So of course that does not stop at food either and since part of my philosophy is if you can’t make it yourself, don’t eat it, I had to give this one a shot.

I searched the internet and found tons of recipes, some traditional, using a stove top method, some very elaborate on how to decorate, color or shape into flowers. So this recipe is adapted from various internet sources and in the end, I opted for an easy microwave option to make the dough…

Not quite as pretty and uniform as from the store…

You need to get Mochiko, or glutinous rice flour, which is the main ingredient in these, and something to fill the little cakes with. Traditionally Koshi-an, a sweetened Adzuki (red) bean paste is used, or a, also sweetened, smooth white bean paste, but I have in the past made them using sweetened chestnut puree. Besides sugar, the only other thing you need is potato starch, so the dough doesn’t stick to everything

I have a nagging feeling that the translator flunked English class…

Make sure the entire work surface is covered in ~~corn,~~ I mean potato starch. Cut off a chunk of dough…

…place the filling in the center…

then wrap the dough around it, making a little pillow… And finished!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Mochiko (sweet rice flour, also called glutinous rice flour)*
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cups minus one tablespoon Water
1 tsp pandanus leaf or vanilla extract (optional)
about 1 cup Red Bean paste (or other sweet filling)
Potato starch or other ‘..starch’ to keep the cakes from sticking to everything

* even though the name suggests it, there is not gluten in rice.

Directions:

Mix the M0chiko, sugar, water and extract (if using) in a bowl, and mix well with a fork
Microwave on high for 2 minutes, carefully remove the bowl (HOT) and stir, then return to microwave and cook another 1 1/2 to 2 minutes (depending on the power of your device). The dough should now be smooth and super hot.
Cover a cutting board (or other work surface) with potato starch (or whatever else they sold you at the Asian market 😉 and leave the dough on it to cool slightly.
When it can be touched, cut a piece of dough off (about egg yolk sized, out of lack for a better comparison), flatten into a disc and place a tablespoon fo filling in the center. Make sure the dough piece and your hands are covered in starch before you start. Note: To start, until you get the hang of it, use a teaspoon of filling, it’s a bit easier.
Cover the filling with the edges of the disc so as to encase the filling completely. Set aside, seam side down, on a potato starch dusted tray or plate, and repeat until all the dough is used up.

April 10, 2012December 16, 2017

Fromage Blanc

It took me years to figure out what the elusive desert ‘cheese’ was we had back home, it was called ‘Blanc Battu’ short for fromage blanc battu and it is delicious with some fresh berries! Helpful but uninformed people over the years suggested farmers cheese and friendship cheese, but nehh, not the same AT ALL. Turns out you can make it at home here in the US quite easily with ingredients that are not too hard to come by. * Happy dance* ( In am doing that a lot lately, hmm)

Fromage Blanc culture is available from New England Cheese Making and the process couldn’t be simpler.

You need:

Milk, culture (see above) stainless steel cauldron (just kidding, you only need a pot) Thermometer, a colander and butter muslin. For a fresh and soft desert cheese (ok you can also drain it more and mix it with herbs or drop spoons full into your Spinach Salad, but if you leave it a little more moist it makes the best desert, and healthy too!) Again, for a fresh and soft cheese like this, the fresher the milk the better the cheese is going to taste. If you have access to a farm, where you can get yourself some raw milk that would taste the best. If you’d like to make it fat free or at least with less than the whole fat content, let your raw cow milk sit for 12 hours in the fridge, then skim off the layer of cream that forms on top (and make butter with it for example)

1 gallon milk
1 pack fromage blanc culture

Directions

In a large pot heat the pasteurized milk to 86 degrees.The best and easiest way to do this is by placing the pot in your sink and filling the sink with warm (not hot) water. (86°F isn’t all that hot…)

Once at temperature, sprinkle the direct set fromage blanc culture over top, let sit 2 minutes then stir and mix in well.
Cover and let the milk sit undisturbed at 72°F for 16 hours (you can do as little as 12 hours, but I have found I like the taste best after about 16), in the colder month you want to add some warm water to the sink every so often.
After the required time, you will have something like this, kinda like a thick yogurt consistency

Ladle into butter muslin lined sterilized colander and drain for 3-4 hours (if you are going for more of a cream cheese texture, you can let the whey drain out for up to 12 hours), scraping the sides of the butter muslin every so often if the cloth becomes clogged. (One trick to draining this properly is to hang the knotted cheesecloth from your kitchen faucet)
For true Blanc Battu, place the drained curd in a bowl and using your handheld mixer/egg beaters, beat until smooth.

I know I have mainly berry pictures, but it is super yummy on a nice piece of crusty bread with some chives sprinkled over

Use fromage blanc instead of sour cream in your favorite recipe or dressing.
Whey makes a terrific fertilizer for your plants: Unless you are going to use it for something else, don’t juts dump it, give it to your (indoor or outdoor) plants. The year I started making cheese, my fig tree had the most figs ever!

April 8, 2012December 16, 2017

Sticky Rice with Mango (Khao Neeow Mamuang)

Sticky rice, also called glutinous rice (even though there is absolutely no gluten in rice) is eaten sweet as a snack or desert a lot of places in Thailand, in the northeast of the country it is also served along your meal, unsweetened of course. That rice finds its way into meals from breakfast to desert isn’t surprising for a country where rice is a main staple in the diet, after all the verb ‘to eat’ in Thai is tantamount to ‘to eat rice’

For me, nothing says Thailand more than getting a serving of sticky rice with mango from a small place off a street corner somewhere. Vendor’s specialize in this dish and often you will find a line of people when mangoes are in season. That’s what I look for 😉 where the locals eat, it’s always the best. It’s served with sweetened coconut milk and is just delicious! Back home I would order it at Thai restaurants any chance I’d get, but alas it was often unavailable due to seasonal availability and because, unfortunately the restaurant often thought that ‘common’ food was not what should be served to guests in their establishment. 🙁 Imagine my joy when a few years back, I finally figured out that this exotic desert was actually pretty simple and easy enough to make at home. Cheaper and available whenever the lovely grocery store carries yummy mangoes. Win & win! Now I just have to figure out how to make the taro desert I can only get in Thailand…

You need to start this several hours before you want to indulge, since the rice is first soaked, then steamed.

Ingredients

1 cup sticky rice*
2-3 ripe mangoes, cut into bite sized pieces
1 can coconut milk (not the light kind)
2-3 tbsp palm sugar

Directions

Soak the rice in cool water overnight or at a minimum 4 hours
Line a bamboo steamer with cheesecloth and over the sink pour the rice into it to drain. Fold the cheesecloth over the edges so it doesn’t hang down and catch fire (tried that, and no, it doesn’t improve the flavor). Cover with the steamer lid.
Set your bamboo steamer over a pot or wok of boiling water, and steam until the rice is cooked and yields softly to the bite. It will have a tacky consistency, will be slightly shiny and the rice grains will stick together. Takes about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, gently heat 3/4 of the can of coconut milk in a sauce pan, add the coconut sugar and stir to dissolve.
When the rice is done, transfer to a bowl and add the rest of the can of coconut milk, stir to mix. Let stand a couple of minutes until evenly moistened, then serve with mango and sweetened coconut milk.

If I get a good deal on mangoes, like I did this week, (hence the mango cheesecake, and this) I will make a good batch of this and keep the rest in the fridge, to reheat as needed for a quick exotic snack or desert anytime 🙂

*You can get this type of rice at most Asian stores, look for glutinous rice, sticky rice or sweet rice. Regular rice won’t work. It comes in white as well as purple!

If you find you end up making this a lot, you can get yourself an authentic sticky rice steaming contraption at Importfood.com as seen in the picture to the right here. I so far have used my regular (Chinese) bamboo steamer with results that make me happy 🙂

Nomnomnom nom nom…

April 3, 2012December 16, 2017

Banana Chocolate Raw Pudding

There are days when chocolate is the only thing that will do. And today I had one of those days. To make up for it, there is nothing like treating yourself with something yummy, delicious even decadent! Yay, treat time! Decision made, but good things don’t have to be bad for you. And yes, you can have this even if you don’t eat sugar. The only sweetness comes from the bananas! Let them get nice and ~~ripe~~ ~~over-ripe~~ brown, and you’re in business! Easy to make and guilt free too 🙂

Ingredients

2 over ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
about 1/2 cup milk (dairy or almond)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp ground flax seeds
2 tbsp chia seeds

Directions

Mash the banana with a fork
Add the milk, stir until well blended
Add the cocoa powder, flax seed and chia seed and stir it all together until mixed
Refrigerate overnight

February 27, 2012December 16, 2017

Chocolate Coconut Rounds

There they were, sitting timid in the middle of my fruit basket trying to pretend they were not there. Overripe bananas, like the poor step child in an old fairy tale. Since I only like to eat them when they are still a little green, these brown things in my fruit basket are definitely not my thing. But over time I have come up with various ways to use them up, using them for smoothies, pancakes or baking, after all they do provide a great source of natural sweetness without adding sugar. And yes, I have to admit before I did that, sometimes they would get thrown out. So that’s why they are scared. But fret not bananas, I have something yummy to turn you into 🙂

What do you do with your past prime bananas? Any favorites?

This recipe is grain and sugar free, the only sweetness comes from the banana, so it isn’t your traditional cookie, if you like things sweet, you might want to add 1/4 cup of sugar or some stevia. These are more like a piece of 70% cocoa chocolate, flavorful but just subtly sweet.

And without further ado here is how to make them:

Ingredients

1/2 cup egg whites (about 4)
2 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
2 cups unsweetened, shredded coconut
1 cup ground almonds, natural not blanched
6 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 cup almond butter (cashew butter or other nut butter would work as well)
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp coconut flour
1 dash of salt

Directions

Combine shredded coconut, ground almonds, coconut flour and cocoa powder in a bowl
Add the mashed bananas
Melt the coconut oil together with the almond butter and stir until smooth, add to bowl
Add the egg whites
Mix until everything is fully incorporated
Divide dough into two portions and between wax paper, work each one into a roll of about 1 1/2” to 2″ diameter.
Place in the freezer for about 1 hour or until nice and solid.
Preheat the oven to 350°F
Remove one roll from the freezer, and slice into rounds 1/2″ to 3/4″ thick, place ona lined cookie sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
In the meantime, repeat the same with the other roll.
Let the rounds cool down on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

November 25, 2011December 16, 2017

Egg Nog Ice Cream

All year I wait for Egg Nog Season 🙂 Who doesn’t love that thick, sweet, delicious beverage that comes with Christmas time and disappears from the shelves before it gets warmer again? I think the question really is, what was first Egg Nog or Winter? *grin* And it appears I am not the only one that feels that way, it seems pretty much every culture in the western world has their own recipe for this (western dairy drinking cultures, that is). From Egg Nog in the english speaking world, to “Eierlikör” in german, and the italian “Zabaglione” isn’t that different either, even Rocky drank it (hmm okay so he skipped the booze, skipped the sugar…he just wasn’t as refined as the rest of us) The basic recipe is always along the lines of eggs, cream, sugar, spices and some sort of liquor, from Rum to Cognac to Madeira to Brandy to Vermouth, anything goes it seems.

And while you are most certainly welcome to make your own Egg Nog (knock yourself out, just be sure to use very fresh eggs), this one is definitely for the lazy. But thanks to that I am now (finally) the proud owner of a tiled back splash in my kitchen. Yaha, all by myself. So I think it’s okay to take some tasty shortcuts every so often, specially if you are eating right most of the time, a treat here and there is not going to do any harm. And since Wawa has such great ready-made Egg Nog in their dairy department, I don’t really feel too bad about this desert. Use your favorite brand, I tried some fancier and pricier ones, but prefer the taste of Wawa’s Egg Nog.

Did you know:

Egg Nog in Canadian french is called: Lait de Poule (Chicken Milk)
The term Egg Nog is though to come from ‘egg and grog’ a colonial term for the drink made with rum and eggs

You need:

Egg Nog (I would get about 1 qt, drink the rest 🙂 )
2 tbsp dark Rum or Cognac for every 2 cups of Egg Nog, optional
Special equipment needed: Ice Cream maker

Depending on the size of your ice cream maker, you can make less or more of this. My little machine holds about 2 1/2 cups. You want to be careful not to fill the freezer bowl too much, since the volume will increase as the ingredients freeze. Also make sure you have the freezer canister frozen for at least 24 hours (or whatever it says in your user manual) unless you use a manual one, in which case I believe you need ice cubes and salt.

Directions

Turn on your ice cream maker, pour 2 1/2 cups of chilled Egg Nog into the freezer canister, add rum, if using.
Churn until thick and creamy, (in mine, this process takes about 10 to 15 minutes) turn off and transfer ice cream to freezer proof container to harden completely.
Freeze at least overnight before serving.
When you’re ready to serve, place ice cream in the fridge for a little to soften a bit so it can be scooped better

Serve with Caramellinis or cookie of choice or coffee or Kahlua coffee liquor or more egg nog 🙂