Mango-Banana Bread

So, It's vacation, and you promise to yourself that you'll get to the beach with all the intentions of eating good. You bring bananas and mangos and somehow on the trip from Tallahassee to St. George Island the fruit goes from beautiful specimens to Quasimodo.

Will your six year old eat a banana with more blemishes on it than a Daughters of the Confederacy meeting has liver spots? Not bloody likely ....

So what are you going to do with all that mangled fruit? Sweet bread of course.

Turn your oven on to 350 degrees, and grease your favorite loaf pan.

Dry ingredients -

2 cups of AP flour
2 tblsp Cardamom
1 tblsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Wet ingredients -

1 1/2 cups mashed fruit
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar (or honey for a moist cake)
1/3 cup buttermilk (or milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice mixed in)

Mix the dry, mix the wet, combine the two, pour into the pan

Bake for an hour or so , until the tothpick comes out clean.


Dave

Beach Style Tunafish

Cub and I came in after playing hard out in the pool at the beach house. Both of us were starving and so Cub decided he wanted tunafish.

We got out the makings and worked together to create our masterpiece.

1 can of tuna
2 tablespoons of sweet relish
2 tablespoons of mayo
1 chopped hard boiled egg

Mix all together thoroughly and crunch up a few saltines into the bowl.

Let the boy eat it directly out of the bowl, getting it finished before he even gets to the table.

Whats the difference between this and everyday tunafish? .... We are at the beach, thats the difference.

Dave

Pork Curry

Easter dinner was one of my favorites, pork medallions with sage and ham.

I was in charge of dinner this year and we were expecting a big crowd so I ended up slicing up about 3 tenderloins worth of medallions. With the slices I ended up with about 6 inches on each tenderloin that wasn't really big enough to slice. These I ended up cutting into chunks sprinkling with sea salt and stowing in the fridge for a day to two.

The Wednesday after Easter it was time to put those chunks to use. I quickly pan-fried the pork pieces until they were juuuuust done, brown marks on the outside but still pink on the inside. I transferred them to a covered bowl and went on with the rest of the meal.

A quarter cup of bourbon went into the pan to deglaze. Along with that went half an onion, two stalks celery and a pinch of salt to draw out the water. Once that had begun to brown and the liquids began reducing I added two tbsp of chopped garlic and 3 tomatoes cut into quarters from our freezer.

These tomatoes were from our crop last year, I am finally getting close to finishing off all the freezer stock. This year I am really thinking about learning to can them instead just to save freezer room.

Once the tomatoes broke down and released their summery liquids I fished out the skins and stuck an immersion blender in the mix. A few seconds later I had blended up the onions, celery, garlic and tomato into something a bit more like a sauce. It still had quite a few chunks but looked to homogenized.

I dropped a bay leaf in and 2 tablespoons of Yellow Curry powder. I also added half a teaspoon of Garam Masala and a shake or two of white pepper. I mixed all the spices in and then put a two pats of unsalted butter on top and the pork cubes back in to finish cooking and heat back up. Put a lid on the pot (I use my cast Iron 13" skillet for this dish) and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.

While the sauce was being prepared I had a pot of vegetables boiling, I had a couple of chopped carrots and probably 2 pounds of red potatoes. The size of the potatoes and carrots were approximately the size of something you'd want on your plate. Cut them the way you feel comfortable. If you want carrots cut on the bias, then by all means cut on the bias.

Once the carrots and potatoes are fork tender drain them and then put them back in the pot over the heat for a few seconds shaking constantly to dry them out a bit.

Unlid the curry and add a cup of frozen green peas into the golden yellow curry. Let that sauce warm the peas through and then you are ready to eat.

Put the vegetables on the plate, pour sauce over and then add a dollop of Greek Style yogurt (or strained yogurt or sour cream).

Variations include added cashews and raisins at the table to the curry. You could also substitute brown rice or couscous instead of the vegetables.


Dave