Still Jenny from the Kitchen #4

The Essential Banana Smoothie for One


When my lovely friend Sadie told me yesterday she didn't know how to make a smoothie I made an involuntary and very audible gasp. Surely everyone must have a banana smoothie recipe in their repertoire - you never know when or where you might need it!

Although I think Sadie might be the only person on the planet who ever felt they couldn't make a banana smoothie, I thought I had better offer my favourite banana smoothie recipe to you long suffering followers of this blog. Lord knows you need something to cling to when I get started on the topic of Hatchling No.2's toenails, or the time I fell out with a wallaby.

Here's what you need:

One very ripe banana, some milk (doesn't have to be soy, but I like soy in smoothies), half a teaspoon of honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

By the way, can somebody please remind me to buy more honey? There will be a Hatchling riot if the honey pot runs dry - it can get pretty ugly.

There is also a secret ingredient:

FROZEN BANANA. It gives your smoothie that icy cold deliciousness that is usually only achieved by adding icecream. By all means go the icecream if that's what toots your horn, but frozen banana makes a healthy alternative.

Just use one frozen banana for this smoothie.

I know in a shop you'd see a long row of fancy blenders, each in their very own cone of silence, but I just use this:

Less dishes to wash up can only be a good thing, right?

Okay, so I forgot to take pictures of me throwing a soft ripe banana, a frozen banana and some milk into my cup, so please visualise this happening now. Thanks.

Next drop in some honey.

Then sprinkle some cinnamon over the top. I don't know why I add cinnamon - I think because it is always in recipes for banana cake... Whatever the reason, it adds extra depth to the smoothie's flavour. Mmmmm.

Then all that is left to do is to submerge your stick mixer and buzz it all together.

If you could please spill some on your benchtop it would make me feel a whole lot better. I appreciate your co-operation - thank you so much.

Tip this vat of yumminess into a glass, dust some more cinnamon on the top and then run for the hills so you don't have to share it with anyone!

I sometimes have this for lunch, instead of the standard sandwich that I eat for lunch every other day of my life. There's a joke about that, but I won't try and share it with you right now. Remind me again some other time.

Now go forth and make smoothies!!

Jen x

Still Jenny From the Kitchen #3

Ah, its the weekend - that is good.

But wait! What is that I smell? (Work with me here people, I know its hard to smell via a blog post.)

Mmmmm, its the smell of pikelets.

Pikelets, like bonfires, are a current signature of our weekends at home, hanging out as a family. I usually cook them at around 11am for morning tea, but by the time I've finished cooking and we have eaten lots, they have become lunch. Of course I have a couple of helpers:

So now its only right that I share my recipe for making these little round discs of loveliness. You might find they induce happy dances all around at your place like they do at mine:

Happy-Dance Inducing Pikelets

Ingredients:

1 cup self raising flour

pinch salt

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 cup sour milk (sour with 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice)

2 tblsp sugar

1 egg

1 desertspoon melted butter (1oz?)

• Sift dry ingredients, add sugar.
• Mix to a smooth batter with beaten egg and milk, add melted butter.
  (Note: batter should be about cake-mix thickness)
• Heat and grease pan, drop batter by desertspoonfuls on to pan, cook until bubbly on top and golden underneath.

• Flip and cook other side.

Then join in the happy dance going on around your kneecaps and before moving swiftly on to cooking the next round. Once the pikelet frenzy has commenced there is no stopping!

Oooh, and don't forget to save a couple for yourself!!

Enjoy.

Jen x

Still Jenny From the Kitchen #2

Selma's Teriyaki Pork Stir Fry

My big sisters (Pattie and Selma) are both great cooks. From time to time I am handed a recipe which I know has been tried and tested, so all I have to do is follow it the same way Hatchling No.2 follows me (ie. closely most of the time) to be sure of a good result.

Here's a fast easy stir fry from Selma that is so yummy that Union Jack doesn't even notice he's eating bok choy! Many vegetables notice that Union Jack is a bit stand off-ish when he spots them on his plate, and by far green leafy ones cop it the most. Except in Selma's Teriyaki Pork Stir Fry!

Now lets all pray together that he doesn't read this post or I am history.

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic, crushed
750g pork fillets, sliced thinly
6 spring onions, chopped finely
3 baby bok choy (450g) chopped coarsely
1/3 cup (80ml) teriyaki marinade

• Cook pork in batches in heated, oiled wok or large frying pan until browned all over and cooked through. Remove from wok.
• Cook onion and garlic in same wok, stirring, until fragrant.
• Return pork to wok with bok choy and spring onions. Cook, stirring until bok choy is wilted.
• Add teriyaki marinade, cook until heated through.

Serve with rice, or as I did the other night, with rice noodles. Yum!

Make just before serving to ensure maximum crunchy, tasty deliciousness - on the table in 20 minutes.

By the way, what do you do with spring onions?

For a LONG time I would buy a bunch, use half, put the other half into the fridge whilst promising myself that this time I will use the rest up before they wilt. Then, a few days/weeks/months later I would take the shrivelled sad mess from the fridge and throw it in the bin/compost/chook bucket (no, we don't have chooks, we keep stuff for Granny Annie's chooks), thinking to myself "Oh well, better luck next time".

But not any more. Look what I did the other day:

The other day I cut up what I needed and used it. Then I cut up the remainder, put it in a ziplock bag and into the freezer - next time I need spring onions I will whip those babies out of the freezer and shazam! I WILL NOT WASTE ANOTHER SPRING ONION!

And see the little bottom bits with the roots? I put those in my herb garden to see if I might grow NEW spring onions too. Does anybody know if this works? I have so many questions about spring onions - perhaps it s the peanut butter overdose I had at lunchtime... or the distinct lack of dinner tonight.

Last question: How far up the stem do you cut?

I never know when to stop chopping. How far up the stem do you get before you are not meant to use it? I don't know. Can anyone help? If so, please leave me a comment so I can sleep a little bit more soundly tonight... Well, it doesn't really keep me awake, but you know what I mean...

Don't you?

Enjoy the stir fry people - Union Jack, the Hatchlings and I sure did.

Still Jenny From The Kitchen #1

G'day!

I cooked an old favorite recipe last night, which the family (including me) seemed to almost inhale, we were enjoying it so much. I was just sitting here thinking about how good it was when the thought crossed my mind, "Let's share this little culinary gem on my blog!" So here it is:

Tip Top Vegetable Biriani

Food photography - who knew how tricky it could be? Forgive me, I will try harder next time!

Ingredients:

1 large onion, peeled and finely diced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, finely diced
2 teaspoons curry powder
200g orange kumara (sweet potato), peeled and diced
200g basmati rice
500ml stock
100g green beans, cut into 2cm lengths
40g sultanas
50g cashew nuts
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped

• Heat a large HEAVY BASED pan over medium heat for 2 minutes.
• Cook onion in oil until soft but not brown.
• Add garlic and curry powder and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
• Add kumara and cook for 5 minutes.
• Add rice and stock; stir well. Bring back to the boil, cover and reduce to low heat. Cook for 10 minutes.
• Add beans and sultanas. Cook 5 minutes.
• Add nuts and parsley. Remove from heat and stand, covered, for 5 minutes before serving.

Top tip: If you're not vegetarian, add 400g diced pork at the same time as the kumara - deeeelicious!

The Hatchlings love this recipe - not least because they have a thing for fishing out the sultanas first. I think it still blows them away that sultanas are sometimes in your dinner as well as your breakfast!

Happy cooking - and eating!

Jen x