Posts Tagged With: cinnamon

Bahamian Banana Breakfast Bread

Posted on February 11, 2013 by pauldelancey

Bahamian Breakfast

BAHAMIAN BANANA BREAKFAST BREAD

INGREDIENTSBahBBBr-

3 bananas (overripe ones are better)
1/2 cups pecans
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter (softened or melted)
1/2 cup raisins
2 eggs
2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour

Makes 1 loaf. Takes 1 hour 30 minutes.

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9″ x 6″ or 9″ x 5″ baking or loaf pan. Peel bananas. Put bananas in large mixing bowl. Mash bananas with potato masher or fork.. (Did you know that you can buy on AmazonTM the HutzlerTM 571 Banana Slicer? Look at the reviews. They’re hilarious.) Chop pecans or grind with spice grinder until all the pecan bits are quite small.

Add pecan bits, cinnamon, butter, raisins, eggs, baking powder, sugar, salt, nutmeg and vanilla extract to mixing bowl. Mix with fork. Blend with electric beater set on “cake.” With electric beater running, gradually add all the flour. Blend until the batter is smooth.

Spray pan with no-stick spray. Pour batter into pan. Put pan in oven. Cook for 45 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick or fork inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let cool for 20 minutes. Turn pan over onto a plate.

1) Bahamian Banana Breakfast Bread is a great example of alliteration.

2) Alliteration is when all words start with the same sound or letter.

3) Al Simmons was a Hall of Fame baseball player.

4) He hit .390 for the Philadelphia Athletics.

5) Philadelphia Athletics is not alliterative.

6) But the Anaheim Angels were.

7) Now they are called the Los Angeles Angels.

8) Which is still alliterative.

9) Thank goodness for Major League Ball, keeping alliteration alive.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Moroccan Harira Soup

Posted on September 19, 2012 by pauldelancey

Moroccan Soup

HARIRA SOUP

INGREDIENTS

2 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
1/2 pound chicken breast
1 14.5 ounce cans chick peas, also known as garbanzos
1 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 large onion
1/4 cup rice
5 tablespoons lentils
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon Vegetable MagicTM spice
1 tablespoon fresh celery
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro (or 1 tablespoon dried cilantro)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley (or 2 teaspoons parsley flakes)
1 tablespoon flour
2 lemons

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT

colander, if you have one.

PREPARATION

Pour chicken broth and water into large cooking pot. Add shredded chicken. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Use this time to shred chicken in food processor.

(Food processors are truly wonderful labor-saving devices for that special chef in your family. So give one as a gift. Also give a box of chocolates or a case of beer, lest the chef interpret the food processor as another step into kitchen drudgery. Remember, an enraged chef has access to sharp knives.)

Use colander to drain chick peas.(If you are like most people and do not have such a utensil, carefully pour the water out of the can of chick peas. Ask for a colander for Valentine’s day.)

While shredded chicken, broth mixture simmers, dice onions, cilantro, and celery. Add chick peas, diced onions, tomatoes, rice, lentils, cinnamon, cumin, paprika, pepper, turmeric, and vegetable spice.

Stir frequently while bringing soup to boil. Simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally. If soup is too thick for your liking, add water until you obtain your desired consistency.

Add celery, parsley, and flour to soup, Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While soup simmers, cut lemons into halves. Serve soup with lemon halves on side of bowl. Add squirts of lemon to taste.

TIDBITS

1) Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour starred in the 1947 movie, Road To Morocco.

2) My mother had lunch with Mrs. Hope.

3) Mom rarely served garbanzo beans for dinner.

4) When I was small my family went on vacation with another family. Their names are lost in the sands of history. A diner served our two families lots of garbanzo beans.

5) To keep us kids happy, the adults promised us a penny for every garbanzo bean we ate. I managed to earn the princely sum of seven cents.

6) However, a kid in the other family ate about 100. I highly suspect he became an industrial giant.

7) I had this dish at the Moroccan restaurant in Disney’s Epcot Center in Orlando. It cost about $15.

8) So now you know what you can charge whenever you get to be as famous as Disney.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Hawaiian Eggs

Posted on August 12, 2012 by pauldelancey

Hawaiian Entree

HAWAIIAN EGGS

INGREDIENTS

2 medium onions
1 8 ounce can pineapple pieces
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tomatoes or 1 pound can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon corn flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 hard-boiled eggs
1 cup rice
2 cups water

PREPARATION

Mince onions. (You have purchased a small processor, haven’t you?) Drain water from diced tomatoes. Saute the onion in butter. Remove the pineapple pieces. Keep the juice.

Blend the corn flour, 2 tablespoons reserved pineapple juice, vinegar, ginger, diced tomatoes, pineapple pieces, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Add this mix to pan and half of the remaining pineapple juice.

Heat on medium heat for 2 minutes. Simmer for 8 minutes more. Peel eggs. Cut eggs in half lengthwise. Cook rice according to instructions on package.

Cook rice and water according to instructions on bag. Spread this exciting rice on plate. Add eggs. Spoon sauce over rice and eggs.

TIDBITS

1) “Pineapple” is slang for “hand grenade.” This term derives from the appearance of American hand grenades during World War II.

2) Hawaii is one of the only two states not to allow gambling. The other is Utah.

3) Pineapples were unknown to the ancient Romans.

4) Pineapples were originally native to Brazil and Paraguay. Brazil has won the most World Cups in soccer. Coincidence? Perhaps …

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

 

Categories: cuisine, food, history, humor, recipes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Niter Kibeh (seasoned, clarified butter) From Forthcoming Cookbook

Posted on August 10, 2012 by pauldelancey

Ethiopian Appetizer

NITER KIBEH

INGREDIENTS

1 pound unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

PREPARATION

Mince garlic cloves. Melt butter on low heat in saucepan. Add garlic cloves, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, and fenugreek seeds. Simmer on lowest heat, between off and warm, for 1 hour. Stir occasionally.

Put bowl beneath colander. Pour buttery liquid into colander. Discard solids in colander. Keep buttery liquid. This Ethiopian butter may be stored in the refrigerator.

Makes two cups. Be the first on your block to do so.

TIDBITS

1) In 1870, the French Emperor Napoleon III asked his nation to come up with a substitute for butter.

2) In 1870, the German Kaiser’s armies at Sedan captured Napoleon and over 100,000 thousand soldiers under his command.

3) This was one of the decisive defeats in the Franco-Prussian War.

4) This war gave birth to the German nation, the French Republic, and sowed the seeds for World War I, the rise of Nazi Germany, and World War II.

5) We are less sure if Napoleon III enjoyed margarine on his toast during the battle of Sedan.

6) Maybe if Napoleon had spent more time instead getting the world’s first machine guns from his nation’s arsenals to his troops in the field the war would have turned out differently.

7) But then we wouldn’t be able to have cinnamon toast with fewer calories.

8) There are pluses and minuses to every culinary advance.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, food, history, humor, international, recipes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Posted on July 14, 2012 by pauldelancey

Jamaican Entree

JERK CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS

4 chicken breasts or about 3 pounds
1 cup green onions
1 white onion
3 garlic cloves
3 tablespoons jerk spice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon allspice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
6 tablespoons vegetable oil

PREPARATION

Cut chicken into squares 1-inch wide. Dice green onions, onion, and garlic. Put chicken in mixing bowl. Add green onions, white onion, garlic, jerk spice, cinnamon, thyme, and allspice. Coat the chicken squares thoroughly with the spices. Add soy sauce and water. Mix again. (If your hands aren’t completely messy, you haven’t been mixing enough. Oh. Oh.)

Cover mixing bowl and refrigerate for 3 hours. (Three hours? You mean after all this work I can’t eat it for three hours? Dear reader, I feel your culinary pain. Still, this dish is worth waiting for. However, for those who have ravenous, important, career-changing guests arriving in just one hour, next time read the recipes through before attempting them, for goodness sakes.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put chicken into one or two baking dishes. Coat chicken with cooking oil. Bake for about 50 minutes.

TIDBITS

1) Water covers about 71% of the Earth’s surface.

2) Chicken breasts do not.

3) However, there is a rough equivalence of water and chicken breasts on the surface of the Moon.

4) More and more scientists are suspecting water exists below Mars’ surface.

5) They are, however, strangely silent about the possibility of chicken breasts as well.

6) Or even drumsticks.

7) The old line, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” was developed on Earth and according to current knowledge was never even told when astronauts roamed the Moon.

8) But the joke continues to be told on Earth even though NASA’s manned-lunar program is over.

9) Hah!

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

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Berbere Burgers From Cookbook, “Eat Me”

Posted on April 24, 2012 by pauldelancey

Moroccan Entree

BERBERE BURGERS

INGREDIENTSBerbeHB-

1/2 head lettuce
1 medium yellow onion
1 tablespoon Berbere spices (See recipe for BERBERE SPICE MIX INGREDIENTS, if you can’t find the mix)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
8 buns or 16 multi-grain bread slices
1 cup grated Mozzarella cheese
no-stick spray

UTENSILS

electric skillet

spice grinder (To make your own Berbere spice mix.)

PREPARATION

Tear lettuce into bun-size pieces by hand. Peel and dice onion. Put Berbere spices, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, coriander, ginger, parsley, pepper, salt, and ground beef in mixing bowl. Pretend you’re making the mortar for the mighty Egyptian pyramids as you mix everything together with your hands. (Edible pyramids. What a concept.) Make 8 hamburger patties.

Use non-stick spray on frying pan. Put 4 patties in pan. Cook on medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip patties over and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Don’t squash the patties with your spatula. This forces the juices out of the patties. (I also don’t recommend flattening oranges with your spatula for a similar if not more spectacular reason.) Patties should have no pink remaining. Repeat to make 8 patties. Toast buns.

Put a patty on each bun bottom. Top with lettuce and cheese. Put bun top and, violà, you have a burger so tasty you’ll want to conquer all of North Africa just to bring this dish’s culinary greatness to all its peoples.

TIDBITS

1) Most world conquerors, such as Napoleon, Cortes, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and Julius Caesar didn’t bring much culinary enlightenment to their defeated nations.

2) Pretty much just death by the thousands and enslavement.

3) What would it have hurt them to give their newly enslaved peoples a wondrous culinary novelty in compensation?

4) Oh sure, there are such things as Napoleons and Caesar salad.

5) But those military geniuses didn’t come up with them.

6) The Caesar salad was invented last century at Caesar’s hotel in Tijuana Mexico.

7) Indeed, it is also verifiable that Julius Caesar and all of the Julian-Claudian Emperors had nothing to do with the comedic brilliance of Sid Caesar.

8) Frederick the Great did encourage potato production in his Kingdom of Prussia, the precursor to modern Germany. The mighty tuber enabled Prussia to feed all its people even though its lands were repeatedly invaded by its enemies.

9) To this day, one may still buy French Fries in Germany.

10) Well done, Frederick.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, food, history, humor, international, recipes | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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