Banana Bread

I like banana-based desserts, for some reason. Here is a banana bread recipe I kind of patched together which worked wonderfully well. Enjoy.

You will need:

4 overripe bananas (should be about 400 ml when mashed) + 85 ml milk + 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
OR
5-6 overripe bananas (should be about 550 ml when mashed), no milk
285 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup brown/muscovado sugar
110 g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs

Preheat oven to about 180 degrees. Grease a bread tin, about 20cm x 12.5 cm. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, in a smaller bowl. In a separate, larger bowl, cream the sugar and butter, then mix in together with the eggs, mashed bananas, vanilla extract, and cinnamon (and milk mixture, if you're using it). Fold the flour mixture into the banana/egg/sugary mixture, then pour into the bread tin. Shove in the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until golden brown and baked through (poke with a toothpick or something thin - if it comes out clean, your loaf is ready). Take it out, put to one side to cool down for 15-20 minutes, then remove from the tin carefully and leave to cool on a rack. Serve buttered and delicious.

Enjoy.

Ceviche

Ceviche is a lovely South American dish of raw fish, coriander, and citrus fruit. And... that's about it, really. At least, the basics are really basic. But there are lots of possibilities to expand on the base. So go wild. This is the most recent, very basic, but quite fantastic version I used.

500g salmon, cut into 1cm-long strips
500g white fish (can't remember which type, since it was in Estonian), ditto
1/2 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 cup lime juice, ditto
1 chilli, seeded and finely diced
1 1/2 tomatoes, finely diced
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 small red pepper, ditto
Coriander to taste and serve
Dash of Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste, oregano
Avocado to serve

Combine everything in a non-metallic bowl or dish (glass or plastic) and leave to sit for at least 4 hours or overnight. Serve with the avo and extra coriander.

I feel I should point out that this doesn't keep, so it should be eaten within 24 hours. These proportions should serve 6-8.

If you're feeling adventurous, substitute your fish for other fish, or even prawns or other seafood; or add grapefruit, pomegranate, garlic, basil, etc. Go wild.

Have fun.