Banana oat slice

September 7, 2014

I've been valiantly snacking on all the bananas that arrive here by vege box, but the most recent cohort were a particular challenge - they numbered a dozen and were all destined to ripen at precisely the same time. This called for some serious baking. Not just subbing an egg in a vegan cake, or even a standard banana bread; no, I needed Clotilde Dusoulier's four-banana breakfast slice.

With a couple of substitutions - coconut flour instead of almond flour, peanut butter instead of almond butter - I found that I had everything I needed right at home. It all mixed together into a thick dough with little fuss and baked in precisely the directed time. It's simultaneously kind of banana-gooey in the middle and crispy-oaty on the outside, and impossible to slice neatly.

Bananas and coconut and chocolate go well together, but I found that the flavour here was lacking a little oomph. The sweetness is very understated, and I wonder if some dried fruit might do the trick. Alternatively I'd consider swapping out one of the bananas for some extra peanut butter. I'm at some risk of just converting it into this other slice recipe, but I reckon it's worth persevering. There's the foundation of a fine everyday snack, not to mention a banana-buster, here.

Banana oat slice
(slightly adapted from a recipe on Chocolate & Zucchini)

2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup coconut flour
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 medium bananas
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
120g dark chocolate chips

Preheat an oven to 180°C and line a small baking tray with paper.

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the rolled oats, coconut flour, shredded coconut and salt.

Peel the bananas and drop them into a large mixing bowl. Mash them thoroughly with a potato masher or fork. Whisk in the peanut butter and vanilla. Pour in the dry ingredients from the medium bowl and mix well. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Tip the mixture into the baking tray and use the back of a spoon to even it out. Bake the slice for around 25 minutes, until it's golden brown around the edges. Let it cool completely before slicing.

November 29, 2008: Savoury quinoa cake

It seemed on Saturday that baking biscuits wasn't enough. Even though I knew I'd probably be eating dinner alone I was compelled to prepare a full meal, telling myself that the leftovers would serve me well for workday lunches. A more accurate explanation is that I was at a loose end without an internet connection. Without the ability to write or read food blogs I resorted to creating more food blogging fodder for later! Of course I couldn't refer to my enormous to-cook list of online recipes; actually, it was a good opportunity to try something from my smaller to-cook collection stored elsewhere.

With soy bacon in the fridge and a full packet of organic quinoa in the cupboard I quickly settled on Clotilde Dusoulier's recipe for mushroom, bacon and quinoa cake, taken from her first book Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen. Like the cornmeal crunch I prepared a weekend earlier, this recipe isn't difficult but it takes a quite some time to bring together - the quinoa must be cooked and other bits chopped and sauteed before you even bother with preheating the oven for the 40-minute bake.

It all yields a hefty feed - Clotilde suggests that these 10-12 serves do well on a buffet table and I'm sure she's right. If only mine looked more appetising! Sadly the sauteed mushrooms tinged the entire cake a sickly grey. It tasted fine, though I would have enjoyed more of the crispy crust and less of the moist centre - if I made it again, I'd try spreading it into a larger rectangular baking dish to increase its surface area and crust. The cake's mild flavour is easily perked up with a side salad of rocket and capers.

Savoury quinoa cake
(based on Gâteau de quinoa, champignons & bacon/quinoa, bacon, and mushroom cake from Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen by Clotilde Dusoulier)

2 cups quinoa, uncooked but rinsed
2 cups water
1 mushroom stock cube
145g soy bacon, sliced
1 onion, chopped
600g mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon oil
3 large eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Put the quinoa, water and stock cube in a medium saucepan and bring them to the boil. Reduce the heat to simmer them, covered, until the quinoa absorbs all the liquid - this will take about 15 minutes.

While the quinoa's cooking, heat up a large frypan or saucepan and add the oil. Cook the onion over medium heat until softened (about 8 minutes), stirring it often. Next add the mushrooms and cook for another 5-10 minutes, until most of their liquid has evaporated. Set aside the onion and mushrooms, and use the same pan to cook the soy bacon for a few minutes.

Allow all the above ingredients to cool a bit, then preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and grease a baking dish or springform cake pan.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, salt and pepper. Stir through the quinoa and mushroom mixtures, then the soy bacon and the parsley. Pour the batter into the baking dish and smooth over the surface a little. Bake it for 30-40 minutes, until the edges are golden (or grey-golden!) and crusty, and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow 5 minutes or so for it to cool, then ease the cake edges away from the dish with a knife. Slice and serve warm or at room temperature.

January 3, 2008: Chocolate and zucchini pasta

Zucchini #3 was devoted to a recipe from Ms Chocolate & Zucchini herself, Clotilde Dusoulier. She miraculously managed to develop a savoury recipe featuring the title ingredients of her blog - pasta with zucchini slices and a sprinkling of unsweetened cocoa nibs. This isn't all that's unusual about the dish. Clotilde also introduced me to the absorption method of cooking pasta. Similar to risotto, the pasta is thinly coated with olive oil in the pan before absorbing water or stock until done. Rather than gradually adding the stock and stirring continuously, most of the stock goes in at once and the pasta needs only an occasional, relaxed stir.

The use of stock brings extra flavour to the pasta and I liked adding the veges in to cook with it, making it a one-pot meal. But the real flavour revelation is the cocoa garnish! It adds a depth and darkness to an otherwise mildly flavoured dish, playing the role I'd usually hand to mushrooms. As much as I love parmesan, it's best to add it here with a light hand - its combination with cocoa nibs is surprisingly rich.

Clotilde posted this as a meal-for-one on her blog some time ago, and it's also printed in her first cookbook to serve 4 (this is the version I referred to).


Chocolate and zucchini pasta

3 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
400-500g dried short pasta
6 cups stock (I only actually used about 4 cups)
1 enormous zucchini (or 4 small, or 2-3 medium), slicely finely into rounds
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons cocoa nibs, coarsely crushed
grated parmesan

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the garlic and onion, cooking for a couple of minutes over medium heat. Next add the pasta and stir thoroughly so that the pasta is evenly coated in the oil. Pour in stock to cover the pasta and set aside the rest. Turn the heat down and simmer the pasta with the lid on, giving it the occasional stir for even cooking. After about 5 minutes add the zucchini.

Continue simmering the pasta with occasional stirring. The pasta will start absorbing the stock and the stirring becomes more important to ensure even absorption as the liquid level decreases. After about 5 more minutes, test the pasta for texture. Add more stock or water if the pasta is dry but not finished, and repeat the covered simmering and stirring until it is al dente.

Season to taste and serve sprinkled with cocoa nibs and parmesan.

July 29, 2007: An indoor picnic

Our community of Queensland migrants welcomed two new members, Kerrie and Daniel, this weekend. To celebrate their arrival I wanted to cook everyone a meal but with our posse stretching to about 13 members there was no chance of a sit-down dinner party. Instead I devised an indoor picnic, where we could enjoy lounging about on cushions and spill lunch on checkered blankets with the comfort of oven-baked food and protection from Melbourne's wayward weather.

I was in no doubt as to what would emerge from the oven: trays of golden brown pastry. Vegan pastry, no less! Borg's frozen puff pastry (it's at Safeway) is as tasty as any buttery supermarket pastry I've tried. I used it to make (non-vegan) "meat" pies and party-sized non-sausage rolls and had a jar of Chinese-style barbeque sauce at the ready (for the record, the pies are easily veganised and there's been some discussion of tweaking the sausage rolls with silken tofu).

The pastries were really the main event of this meal, and they drew the appreciative comments, but I knew I had to feed my guests some veges too. Pictured above isn't a couple of pear quarters, but actually some rosemary braised fennel. This recipe comes from Clotilde Dusoulier's first book Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen. I've just borrowed the book from the library and it's a cute as the blog (and as Clotilde herself, of course!). This dish had the advantages of complementing the faint whiff of rosemary in the pie filling and of being served at room temperature, allowing me to prepare it early.

The second side was composed of potatoes, leeks and artichokes - another dish that can simmer away in a pot long before guests arrive and then be reheated just before serving. The recipe comes from the lovely ladies at Mondo Organics and is my favourite side dish for these pies. Leftovers can be wrapped up in pastry themselves as another winter meal.

While these sides are each excellent pastry partners, they ended up being rather similar in colour and texture. I probably would have done a bit better to choose just one of them and then rely on a crisp green salad for a bit of lift. Live and learn, right? Luckily Jo-Lyn stepped in with some crisp, fresh produce - cucumbers, mint and fruit for Pimms all round (pictured at the top)! This summery gesture was supported by a generous serving of sunlight through our north-facing windows.

You know that any meal managed by me would have to include dessert, but you'll have to wait until my next post for that one. For now, you just get a couple of new vege recipes.

Rosemary braised fennel
(from Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen by Clotilde Dusoulier)

4 small fennel bulbs
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup stock
1 tablespoon lime juice

Cut the stalks off the fennel, quarter them and then cut some of the core off - make sure the 'leaves' are still connected together.

In a large pan, heat most of the oil over medium-high heat. Add about half of the fennel so that they're not crowded up, and then brown them on each side. Leave 'em for a few minutes and don't be too impatient! When the first batch is done, transfer them to a plate and repeat with the remaining oil and fennel.

Return all of the fennel to the pan, then sprinkle it with the salt and rosemary. Add the wine, stock and lime juice, bring it to a simmer and cover. Turn the heat down and cook the fennel until tender, about 20-25 minutes. Remove the lid and cook down the liquid until it's syrupy. Clotilde reckons this will only take about 5 minutes, but my fennel juice took at least 15 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature.


Winter potatoes with artichokes, leeks and mint
(from a Mondo Organics newsletter)

1 x 400g can artichoke hearts
500g potatoes, peeled
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons dill
3/4 cup olive oil (I'd suggest reducing this to 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup "chicken" stock
300g leeks, chopped
2 tablespoons mint
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Place the first 7 ingredients in a large saucepan or casserole dish and simmer on low heat, covered, for 45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the mint and lemon juice just before serving.