Dining, Recipes

Thai Fried Bananas

The best fried bananas you’ll ever taste! (As long as you’re not afraid of the deep-fried part.) What gives this dessert that sweet punch is the coconut milk used in the batter, making for a nice thick and sweet crunch. If the preference is for a thinner batter, use water…though you’ll lose that distinct coconutty flavor.

1 cup rice flour
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar
4 firm bananas
3 cups vegetable oil

Heat oil in deep fryer or pan over medium-high heat.

Combine rice flour, coconut milk, baking soda and sugar to form a thick batter. Bias cut the bananas about half-inch thick. Add bananas in batter and coat liberally. Carefully drop battered pieces into hot oil. Use tongs to flip pieces if not using a fryer basket. Fry until golden brown. Remove from heat and drain on towels. Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar or warm honey.

Dining, Recipes

Deluxe Linguine in Garlic Clam Sauce

Made one of the best linguine dishes I’ve ever made last night. The smell of garlic and butter perfumed the entire house–and the food tasted fabulous. Luckily for us, I only made 12 ounces of pasta or the fiance and I would have gorged ourselves past full.

30-40 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4-1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup olive oil (I used a canola/extra virgin olive oil pre-mix)
1 whole head of broccoli, chopped into small florets
4 oz button mushrooms, sliced
2 6.5 oz cans chopped clams, juice retained
12 oz packaged linguine
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (or more, depending on your heat tolerance)
cracked black pepper
dash of salt
dash of garlic powder
shredded parmesan cheese

Boil linguine for 8-9 minutes, until al dente. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat up olive oil and butter in deep frying pan over medium heat. Don’t allow butter to burn. Add chopped garlic and let it infuse the oil for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. Drain clams, reserving clam juice. Add clams to garlic butter mixture and heat through. Stir in clam juice, then increase heat to medium-high. Add broccoli florets and saute until tender. Add mushrooms, and season with red pepper, black pepper, salt and garlic powder. (Salt optional since I feel clam juice has enough salt in it.) Remove from heat, and add linguine and mix thoroughly, making sure that the pasta is coated. Divvy up portions for 2-3 people, lightly sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Dining, Recipes

Too much salt…

…can ruin a brisket. As I discovered when we chowed down on some moist, smoky brisket. The rub had too much salt…since I hadn’t had as much salt in the pantry in a long while. Which really wasn’t a big deal since we ended up removing the inedible rind and dug into some really good brisket.

Lessons learned: go easy on the salt and get a bigger cut of brisket next time. Bigger cuts also mean a lot more charcoal, so don’t forget to get more fuel.

Nothing like a brisket you smoked yourself.