Don Genova's Blog

Actually, the first dish I cooked for our dinner on Saturday involved no cooking whatsover.  I have to admit having a weak moment and buying some California tomatoes, was just missing something juicy to bite into other than my dill pickles!

But I jazzed up the tomatoes by quartering them and skewering to each quarter a slice of my very own duck breast prosciutto I made a few weeks ago from Cowichan Bay Farm duck breasts.  A little salt and pepper and a drizzle of Venturi-Schulze balsamic vinegar and I still had a pretty darn local appetizer.

From there it was on to dinner with a recipe from a Delicious magazine, the food mag of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  Gee, why don't we have a magazine like that from the CBC? (don't get me started) I cut up a chicken, rubbed the pieces with olive oil and marinated them with a from-scratch garam masala spice mix, then into a 350 oven for about an hour and a quarter.   I usually follow a recipe to the letter the first time I try it, and that was a mistake.  I thought that this spice rub really needed some salt, and it really did when we tasted the chicken.  Ramona opined that it would have been better to stir the spices into yogurt and marinate and then grill, and I agree.  Maybe next time.  Still, she made up a refreshing cucumber raita and a pot of basmati rice to go with the chicken and it was a very good meal overall….especially when we got to the dessert.

From Lucy Waverman's column in the Globe and Mail on Saturday, Ramona (with a bit of help from me) put together this apple spice cake moistened with freshly made apple sauce. (thanks for the apples, Rob and Susan!) Raisins, cinnamon and a sprinkling of brown sugar on top really made this cake sing!

Sunday dinner followed an outing to a Slow Food Pasta Workshop. I had made a couple of different kinds of dough for a show and tell, but didn't use much of either my tomato pasta dough or my spicy chile dough.  So when we got home I rolled out the rest of the dough.  Pretty, isn't it?

We tucked into a bowl of each kind with a little grated parmigiano-reggiano and just a soupcon of white truffle oil.  Why not, it was the weekend. Dessert was the leftover cake, plus some of the leftover apple sauce and a dollop of vanilla yogurt.  Nothing leftover about the flavour!

I am one of those picky people who can't stand eating a banana that gets into that slightly overripe phase.  I'm not talking black, gooey bananas…but I like my eating bananas to still have some bite to them.  Otherwise, they go into the freezer for future use.

They may look really black when they come out of the freezer, but don't worry, they're still okay on the inside.  If you let them thaw, you can just snip off one end with scissors and then squeeze out the banana, which will be so soft you won't need to mash it, just stir it into whatever recipe you're making.

The following recipe is adapted from The New Canadian Basics Cookbook, by Carol Ferguson and Murray McMillan.  I basically used what I had on hand in the fridge and cupboard, but forgot one great ingredient this time, cinnamon.  So I've added in a teaspoon into this recipe.  The original recipe didn't have bananas in it, and also called for 3/4 of a cup of brown sugar.  I thought that was overkill with the bananas and molasses already in the mix, so cut it out completely.

To jazz up this recipe a bit more, you could use blueberries or some other frozen fruit instead of the raisins listed here, or use honey instead of the molasses.

Cooking tip:  Measure out your oil first in your measuring cup.  After adding it to the bowl, use the same cup, without rinsing, for the molasses.  The oil will help the molasses slip right out of the cup, getting most of it in the bowl, and making your measuring cup easier to clean.

Banana Bran Yogurt Muffins

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup molasses

2 mashed bananas

1 1/2 cups wheat bran

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 400F. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, yogurt, oil, molasses and mashed bananas until well-blended. Stir in the bran, and let stand for 5 minutes. In a smaller bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.  Add to egg mixture, and stir until just combined. Stir in the raisins, just enough to incorporate them into the mix.  Spoon batter into a greased or paper-lined muffin tin.  Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until firm to touch.  Makes 12 muffins.

According to my non-scientific nutritional count, each muffin contains about 248 calories.  You could try cutting down the oil by a quarter-cup and increasing the yogurt by a quarter cup to lessen the calorie count.

1 cup of raisins