Keep your bananas in the fridge

I realized recently I could keep bananas indefinitely--in the fridge.

I don't know about you, but I like my bananas at a very specific stage of ripeness--almost ripe, but still a little green and firm. The problem is that all the bananas in the bunch get there at the same time, meaning that I either have to eat an entire bunch of bananas in a day or two or have to eat some mushy, overripe bananas.

Then I discovered that I could keep the entire bunch of bananas at that perfect stage of ripeness--by sticking them in the fridge as soon as they hit perfection.

Refrigeration keeps things from ripening further (which is why you should never put tomatoes in the fridge). The peel of the banana will turn black after a few days, but the banana inside will still be perfect. And cold, which can be a plus this time of year.

Plum cake

This cake might end up a little mushy, but that's because of all the delicious plum juice leaking into it. The cornmeal/semolina gives it a really nice grainy snap that contrasts well with the plums. Another treat too awesome not to share with everyone at work.

From epicurious:

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely ground cornmeal or semolina flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of kosher salt
13 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 plums, cut in half and pitted
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Grease and lightly flour an 8 x 2-inch round cake pan or an 8-inch springform pan, tapping out any excess flour. Set aside. In a small bowl, toss the cornmeal, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer, until pale yellow and creamy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the whole eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in the lemon zest and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and blend until just combined.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Place the plum halves, skin side down, at even intervals on top of the batter. Sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the fruit and batter. Bake until the cake is golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Nectarine-goat cheese galette

I ended up taking this in to work yesterday, because it was too pretty not to share with a bunch of people.

And delicious! And simple. It's really just crust, nectarines, and goat cheese. It would be even more delicious with, say, some arugula and chopped nuts sprinkled over the top; or some prosciutto; or a lemon juice-butter-herb sauce; or really anything. It's more of a savory tart, so it's easy to throw some salad or prosciutto on top and call it a meal.

From Spicie Foodie:

Olive oil pastry:
2 cups all purpose flour
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil, or a light tasting one of your choice
⅓ cup cold water, plus extra if needed
pinch salt
½ tsp sugar

Filling:
whole milk or egg wash for brushing
Nectarines cut into thin wedges, I used 5 large
1 large log of goat cheese

Pastry Instructions:
Mix the flour,salt and sugar until well combined. Make a well in center and add olive oil and water. Mix and knead into a smooth dough. Use your hands to gather the dough into a ball. Wrap with plastic wrap or place inside a plastic bag. Leave to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes of resting, preheat the oven to 375F, roll out dough to a large circle and to your desired thickness. Crumble and spread goat cheese around center, but leave about 1 inch or 2.5 cm of outer dough to be folded over later. Next arrange the nectarines on top of goat cheese, use as many as you like. Fold the extra outer dough over the toppings, like you see in the finished images. Brush the dough with a little whole milk or egg wash. Bake in center of oven for 20-25 minutes or until the dough feels crispy and is golden brown.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Baked apples with oatmeal crumb topping

I've made baked apples before, but these are apple halves with essentially an oatmeal cookie crumble topping. Two of these make a lovely breakfast.

From skinnytaste.com:

2 large apples, cut in half
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
4 tbsp quick oats
pinch of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350º. Cut apples in half and remove core and seeds with a small pairing knife or spoon.

In a small bowl combine butter, brown sugar, flour, oats and cinnamon. Spoon on top of the apple halves and sprinkle with cinnamon. Place on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Nectarine and blueberry slump

Are you sensing a theme with the nectarines?

A slump is like a cobbler, but cooked in a skillet on the stovetop as opposed to the oven.

From chow.com, reprinted below:

For the dumplings:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal (fine or medium ground)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup half-and-half
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

For the filling:
5 medium nectarines, pitted and cut into eighths (about 4 cups)
3 cups blueberries (about 1 1/2 pints)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
For serving
Heavy cream

Stir together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and ginger in a large mixing bowl to combine and break up any lumps. Mix the half-and-half and melted butter together in a small bowl until evenly combined. Pour the half-and-half mixture over the flour mixture and stir until just combined (the dough will resemble a cornbread batter). Set aside.

In another large bowl, gently fold the nectarines, blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice together, then transfer the mixture to a large straight-sided skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the fruit starts to release some of its juice, about 6 minutes.

Drop 8 large dollops of the dumpling batter over the fruit mixture and reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer, covered, until the dumplings are cooked through and the juices are bubbling, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove the lid and continue cooking until the dumplings are springy to the touch and no longer sticky, about 5 minutes more. Serve warm, drizzled with heavy cream.

Pickled nectarine and burrata salad

It sounds weird, I know. But this is actually the most delicious salad I've had in a while.

Burrata is fresh mozzarella with a near-liquid center. If you can't find it, fresh mozzarella is fine.

From Bon Appetit, reprinted below:

2 nectarines, thinly sliced
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
4 cups mixed bitter greens (such as arugula and mizuna) (I used regular mixed greens)
1 cup fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil plus more for drizzling
8 ounces burrata or fresh mozzarella, cut or torn into 1-inch pieces

Toss nectarines, onion, vinegar, and sugar in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper. Let sit 10 minutes. Pour off pickling liquid from nectarines and onion, reserving liquid. Add greens, mint, 2 tablespoons oil, and 2–3 tablespoons reserved liquid; toss to combine. Place burrata on plates, top with salad, and drizzle with oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Nectarine sorbet

Ohhh, fresh ripe nectarines. Nectarines and peaches are divine this time of year: but there's nothing so disappointing as a hard, tasteless, out-of-season peach.

I got some nectarines that were super-ripe, and made this sorbet with them. It's amazing to eat cold, sweet nectarine sorbet after a long, sweaty night at work.

6 ripe nectarines
2/3 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Cut the unpeeled nectarines in chunks (discarding the pits) and cook with the water over medium heat until the fruit is soft and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the sugar. Let cool to room temperature and puree until smooth. Add the lemon juice. Chill thoroughly, then mix in your ice cream maker.

Peach-basil julep

Necessity is the mother of invention, right? Last night, as service was winding down at the restaurant, I found myself discussing peaches with the chef and line cooks. We had some good ones, really juicy, and I proposed making peach juleps for the end-of-the-night cocktail.

Alas, we could not find any mint.

"Well, give me some basil," I said, "and we'll see what happens."

(Since I've made basil juleps before.)

I muddled together some fresh torn basil and pieces of fresh peach, added Maker's Mark and grapefruit bitters, and voila! The peach-basil julep was born.

Later I threw in some fresh blackberries, too, but that is purely optional.

Warning: this drink is a bit chunky. But that's the best part, I think, as you can slurp down all the boozy fruit pulp in the bottom of the glass.

1 ripe peach
1 bunch fresh basil
Maker's Mark or other bourbon
Grapefruit bitters

Muddle together 4-5 basil leaves and 1/3 peach, in pieces, until pulpy. Add 2 oz bourbon and grapefruit bitters. Shake with ice, and pour out into a glass. Garnish with basil.

Individual peach cobblers

I saw this recipe posted on Facebook yesterday, and I thought, why not?

Warning: it didn't turn out so well.

I should have known better than to follow a recipe that called for canned peaches (and SO MUCH butter; I used half the amount the recipe called for and it was still way, way, too much). Fortunately, the end result was at least moderately tasty, if not pretty.

So, notes: don't use canned peaches. Use fresh. (2-3 large, peeled, chopped). Half a teaspoon or so of melted butter in each tin will be plenty. I'm not sure if it was all the butter or the peach juice or a combination, but my cobblers overflowed the muffin tins (put a cookie sheet underneath, just in case) and you may need to cook for 10-15 minutes longer than the recipe calls for. I had to cook for close to 30 minutes before the dough was cooked all the way through.

And I couldn't make the individual cobblers look pretty; eventually I just scraped everything out and lumped it together in a bowl. For all that, you might as well just make one big peach cobbler.

Still, it was a cute idea.

From tablespoon.com, original recipe reprinted below:

1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 dash salt
3/4 cup milk
1 stick melted butter
2 cans diced peaches
cinnamon, to taste
brown sugar, to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put 1 teaspoon of melted butter into each regular-sized muffin tin. Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and milk by hand. Put 2 tablespoons of batter into each regular-sized muffin tin on top of the melted butter. Next, put 1 tablespoon diced peaches on top of the batter in each tin. Sprinkle with brown sugar and then cinnamon. Bake the regular-sized muffin tins for 12 minutes. Let them cool almost completely before taking the mini peach cobblers out of the pan.

Blueberry cobbler

From Real Simple:

2 pints blueberries
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Heat oven to 375° F. In a shallow 1 1/2-quart baking dish or a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate, toss the blueberries, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1 tablespoon flour. In a medium bowl, combine the baking powder, salt, lemon zest, and the remaining flour and sugar. Add the butter and blend with your fingers or 2 knives until coarse crumbs form. Add 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cream and mix until a shaggy dough forms. Drop mounds of dough over the blueberry mixture. Bake until the berries are bubbling and the top is golden, 35 to 40 minutes.

Chicken salad puff pastry sandwiches

Leftover chicken = chicken salad, right?

Chicken salad is basically just cooked chopped chicken, some celery, some raw onion (I use shallots), and enough mayo to hold it together. Salt and pepper to taste. I threw in some pecans and an apple, too.

Then I took two thawed sheets of puff pastry, cut each into 6 rectangles, and baked those at 400 for 10 minutes. Layer and eat.

Warning: this is flaky and delicious. It will make a mess. A tasty mess.

Coffee with an orange peel

This is shockingly good.

Sounds weird, I know. A friend of mine at work turned me onto this trick. Take any ordinary cup of coffee (with or without milk, sugar, whatever, cappuccino, espresso, etc.) and carve off a slice of orange rind above it. Wipe the orange peel around the lip of the coffee mug, squeeze it over, then drop it in.

What you have is a cup of coffee redolent of citrus and dark chocolate, with substantially reduced coffee bitterness.

Now I have to start keeping oranges around the house.

Duck fat and grapefruit salad

Awwww yeah. Hot duck fat poured over napa cabbage. Just what you always wanted, right?

It's actually a much more balanced salad than it sounds. The crispy raw cabbage is cut by the acidity of the grapefruit but then there's the richness of the duck fat. Delicious hot or cold, but best hot.

2 grapefruit
6 cups shredded napa cabbage
1/4 cup duck fat
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

Grate the zest off the grapefruit and set aside. Cut out the segments (without the pith or membrane) and juice the remainder. Save the grapefruit segments and juice. Shred the cabbage and place in a large bowl.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the duck fat over medium heat and add the shallot. Cook til softened, add the remaining duck fat and the grapefruit segments and juice. Stir until hot. Add the vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Pour the dressing over the cabbage and toss to mix. Serve immediately.

Roasted golden beets, potatoes and apples

Just that: roasted chunks of golden beets, new potatoes, and two apples. Mix with some olive oil to coat, salt liberally, and roast at 425 until the potatoes are done. The apples add a nice sweetness, different from the sweetness of the beets.

Spicy chicken thighs with rhubarb-cucumber salsa

I worked three doubles back-to-back last week, so by the time my day off rolled around, I was exhausted. All the stuff I'd pre-cooked for the week was gone, but that was okay, because I had a party to cook for. 

Okay, not really a party, more like friends sitting around eating and drinking wine, but it was still a lot of fun. I thawed some chicken thighs I got at Costco and made this. It was a big hit; I was a little unsure of the rhubarb-cucumber salsa at first (raw rhubarb is kind of weird), but after sitting out for a while, it was actually pretty good. Light, refreshing, crunchy.

From Bon Appetit, reprinted below:

1 habanero or two jalapenos, seeded and stemmed
2 garlic cloves
2 scallions, thinly sliced, white and green parts divided
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
6 large skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
Kosher salt
1 1/2 cups 1/4-inch cubes rhubarb
1 cup 1/4-inch cubes unpeeled seeded English hothouse cucumber
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 500°. Line a baking sheet with foil. Pulse chile, garlic, and white parts of scallions in a food processor until finely chopped. With machine running, drizzle in soy sauce, then olive oil; process until emulsion forms. Transfer sauce to a bowl.

Place chicken thighs, skin side up, on a work surface and slash each crosswise at 3/4-inch intervals down to the bone. Season lightly with salt. Place on prepared baking sheet and brush with sauce. Bake until skin is crisp and an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 165°, 20–25 minutes. Broil on high for an additonal 2–3 minutes for crisper skin, if desired. Let rest for 5–10 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss rhubarb, next 5 ingredients, and green parts of scallions in a medium bowl to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper and let stand for at least 10 minutes to allow flavors to meld.

Serve chicken with rhubarb salsa alongside.

Apple blueberry pie

What do you do with three soft apples and part of a container of blueberries?

Combine them to make pie, of course.

You could also make a crisp; but I felt like pie. I used this pie crust. I peeled and chopped three apples and added a large container of blueberries. To that I added 1 cup of sugar, a few tablespoons of flour, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. I stirred, I poured all that into the pie crust, added the top layer of crust, and brushed it with an egg wash. I baked at 425 for 15 minutes, lowered to 350, and baked for an additional 30 minutes.

Rhubarb pie

Oh, rhubarb. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

It's fully spring in the Pacific Northwest, which means rhubarb is here, but not quite yet strawberries. Which is fine--while strawberry-rhubarb pie is a tremendous thing, a plain ol' rhubarb pie is also tremendous.

The great thing about this pie is that the tartness of the rhubarb is still present--dulled a little by the flour and sugar, but very delicious.

Use this pie crust.

For the filling:

5 cups sliced rhubarb
1 1/4 cups sugar
5 tablespoons flour
2 pinches cinnamon (or ginger, or cardamom)

Mix together, add to bottom pie crust, and add top pie crust. Decorate/cut vents as you see fit. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then lower the oven to 350 and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes.

Rhubarb crisp

Rhubarb is another one of those great harbingers of spring. Usually paired with strawberries, it's also great on its own (provided you sweeten it a little, as rhubarb is pretty tart). This crisp is sweet and tart together, and trust me, it didn't last long enough to cool down. We scarfed it up hot out of the oven.

3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 cups sliced fresh rhubarb
2 cups sliced peeled apples
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a large bowl, combine sugar and cornstarch. Add rhubarb and apples or strawberries; toss to coat. Spoon into an 8-in. square baking dish. In a small bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over fruit. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until bubbly and fruit is tender. Serve warm with ice cream if desired.

Banana bread

I've made this banana bread before, but I thought I'd try a new recipe this time. This one seems moister to me (then again, I used one more banana than the new recipe called for). It also has the added advantage of being simpler, with fewer ingredients.

Freeze your overripe bananas and save them for banana bread--when you thaw them, they'll turn black, but that's what you want. The bananas will be soft and the flavor will be intensified.

1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup/2 large mashed bananas
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350, and grease a loaf pan. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Whisk eggs, sugar, bananas and oil in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients and stir til just combined. Pour into loaf pan. Bake 60-70 minutes or until done. Let cool in pan 15 minutes.

Kale and avocado salad with lime-Sriracha viniagrette

You know I can't resist a good raw kale salad. This one has avocados (2 for $1, on sale) and a lime-Sriracha dressing. Yum, yum!

Salad:
1 head of kale, stripped from the stems and torn into pieces
2 avocados, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper

Dressing:
Juice of 1 lime
2 teaspoons Sriracha (or more to taste)
Olive oil

Mix the lime juice and Sriracha together, then drizzle in olive oil while whisking until an emulsified dressing is formed. Add Sriracha to taste. Pour over the salad, then using your hands, massage the dressing into the kale. Let sit for at least an hour. Add salt and pepper and serve.