Banana Nut Bread (Serving Size 2 Loaves)

(recipe courtesy Bhavani Arvind; adapted from original recipe provided by Diana Rattray in About.Com's Southern Food Section)

My friend Bhavani had been looking for a Banana Nut Bread recipe. She had called me to say that she is sending over the recipe once she tried it at her home.

She chose the recipe by Diana Rattray featured in About.Com's Southern food section, and modified it a bit to suit her family's taste. Instead of 4 eggs, she used 2 eggs and 2 cups egg beaters, and used 1 1/2 cups of sugar instead of 2 cups as suggested in the original recipe. She mentioned that the bread came out very well, and she and her family loved it.

Here is the link to the original recipe. I did browse through the About.Com site for this recipe, and it has received very good reviews. Please note that this recipe has not been tried and tasted by me.

Banana Bread

Health Rating: Medium

on Bhavani:

Bhavani lives in Westchester, NY with her husband and her 5 year old son. She works in Human Resources at a Corporate Travel Service company.

Diana Rattray's page in About.com

PS: Today my wife is making mini Banana muffins, and my daughter is lending a big hand. It's a favorite snack of mine, and it hopefully turns out good.

Couscous with roasted vegetables (Serves 4)

20 oz Store bought instant couscous plain (568g)
2 1/2 cups water
2 Zucchinis with skin
1 medium Red bell pepper
1 medium Yellow pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp fresh chopped Parsley leaves
1 tbsp fresh chopped Basil leaves
1 medium red Onion
3 tbsp dry raisins
3 tbsp toasted pine nuts

There are so many different ways to prepare this simple Mediterranean dish. We had to go visit someone one evening, and I ended up preparing this for dinner. Mainly I just wanted to cook something real quick as I didn't want to be late.

Pour 2 1/2 cups of water in a vessel along with 1/4 tsp salt and 1 tbsp of olive oil. Once the water is boiling, add the couscous. Shut the fire off, mix the couscous well in the water, and cover the vessel and set it aside. The couscous should be ready in approximately 5 minutes.

In the meantime, cut the red onion, zucchini, red and yellow peppers into similar 1/2 inch size pieces.

Pour 3 tbsp olive oil in a pan on medium fire, add a little black pepper, and then the onion and the raisins. After a few minutes of stirring, add the rest of the vegetables and the desired amount of salt. Cook the vegetables until they start to turn brown, and are cooked and crunchy to taste.

Stir the couscous and put it in a big bowl. Add the cooked vegetables. At this point add 1 tbsp each of freshly chopped parsley and basil, as well as 3 tbsp of toasted pine nuts. Mix everything together properly and serve the dish warm or hot.

Health Rating: High

Ingredient Substitute/s:You can add fresh cut tomatoes to this, grilled chicken, or exclude the raisins and add fresh goat cheese instead. You can get as creative as you want with this dish and veer away from the traditional way of preparation. I am thinking of an Indian version which I will post once I have perfected it :-).

Fennel root & onion (Serves 2)

Above is what a fennel root looks like, available at almost all grocery stores in the U.S. Picture of the dish shows serving size for one person.

The other day while I was on the phone, I was watching chef Lidia Matticchio Bastianich on television with the sound on mute. She is one of my favorite chefs.

She had almost finished preparing a crab dish, after which she made a quick side dish with fennel root and white onion in the same pan in which the crab was cooking. It was pretty simple and basic with olive oil or butter, I don't clearly remember. Then she added the cut fennel root and white onion and sauteed them until they were golden brown. It looked very delicious.

So I went ahead and tried the same dish, but with some modifications. I used a clean pan to start with as I had no crabs cooking, used olive oil, and instead of white onions used red onions as I didn't have white onions at home. Then I thought that if I added some toasted pine nuts and fresh parsley, it would add to the taste. It actually came out great. Here is the recipe.

1 fennel root diced into 1/2 inch pieces
1 onion diced into 1/2 inch pieces
11/2 tbsp roasted pine nuts
2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped fine
Salt to taste
2 tbsp olive oil

Add 2 tbsp olive oil to a hot pan, add the fennel root and onions, salt to taste, and cook them on medium to high heat making sure they don't get burnt and until they are caramelized and golden brown.

Take pan off the fire at this point, add freshly toasted pine nuts and chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

Outstanding and simple dish, very aromatic, and anyone can prepare, no kidding!

Health Rating: High

Ingredient Substitute/s: You can add butter instead of olive oil if you aren't vegan. Where fennel isn't available you can always prepare this with just onions and a couple of tablespoons of fresh fennel seeds from the fennel plant.

If you can't find fresh fennel seeds, red bell pepper would be a great companion to the onions based on their sweetness, according to me.

Grilled Cowboy cut New York strip steaks (Serves 4)

- recipe courtesy Andy Silfen

Hi Friends, sorry for the sudden lack of posting on the blog for over a month now. Had a lot of things going on, and was in the midst of taking care of them. I do have managed during this time, to try some new dishes. Its just that it took a while for me to put it all together.

I am working on new creations as well, still in the experimentation stage that I hope to share as soon as I can, if they turn out well ;-).

In the meanwhile here is a recipe sent to me by my friend Andy. He has been all over me for the last month or so to post this on the blog, else he would be mad!! He was my broker when we purchased our house. I have known him for the last 4 years now. Andy is an avid fan of eating and cooking food. His dish is Grilled Cowboy cut New York strip steaks.

I haven't tried out his recipe as I don't consume beef anymore. I am sure that although health wise its heart attack material (just kidding :-)), taste wise it has the ingredients in it to be a possible winner. Here is the recipe.

2 New York Strips - approximately 3 fingers thick (about 1.5 lbs each)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp Teriyaki sauce

Mix the salt, pepper, and garlic powder together and sprinkle them on each of the strips, on both sides. Let the steaks sit for a while and marinate. Line up the steaks and pour on each steak 1/2 tbsp each of olive oil, soy sauce, and Teriyaki sauce and let them soak in the ingredients a bit.

Grill the steaks for about 8 minutes per side over a hot grill. When you take the steaks off the grill, allow a few moments to rest before slicing.

Andy's note: "The texture and flavor of this meal is one to inspire the soul and should not be eaten too often lest it becomes taken for granted. Serve the above with an excellent salad and garlic bread. Spaghetti also makes a heavenly match with either a nice marinara or clam sauce".

Health Rating: Low (sorry, Andy :-))

Bio on Andrew Silfen:

Andy was born in Westchester NY and lived there all his life. Bottom line, he loves to eat and cook! Often when he eats out, he finds a dish that he likes so much, he comes back home and tries to create his own version of it. Andy is a real estate broker by profession, and here is his website http://www.andrewsilfen.com

Ginger Chili Chicken (Serves 2)

2 pieces of low fat chicken breasts cut into small cubes
1 large onion cut into small pieces
10 black peppercorns ground
1 large piece of ginger root (about 3 inches in length), half of it cut into fine 1/2 inch slices, and the other half crushed into a paste
4 cloves of garlic peeled and crushed once with knife
6 medium sized chillies chopped long after retaining seeds only from 4 of them
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste
1 bunch of coriander leaves chopped fine

One of my favorite dishes, as I love ginger. In a medium sized bowl add the cut chicken breast pieces, a little bit of salt, crushed ginger paste, crushed garlic broken down, 1 tbsp of olive oil, ground black pepper and green chillies, and mix them all together. Let it stay for a couple of hours (again the longer you marinade it, the longer the time all the ingredients get to bind together, and the dish is tastier).

Pour 2 tbsp olive oil in a skillet or pan. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and the remaining cut ginger, and saute them on medium high heat. You don't want the onions to caramelize or get burnt either. Saute this until the onions turn golden brown and the ginger pieces get cooked.

At this point, add all the contents of the bowl along with all the chicken, and add salt to taste. Saute the whole mix on medium to high flame making sure nothing gets burnt. When the chicken is done fully, add chopped coriander to garnish and add great aroma to the dish.

Serve hot with rice, bread, or tortilla and an ice cold beer. This dish is somewhat dry and can also be a great o'dourve to go along with a good single malt whiskey :-)

Health Rating: High

Ingredient Substitute/s: Can also be prepared using tofu instead of chicken for vegetarians. I will add recipe for the veggie version in the near future.