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Oldies But Goodies: Roquefort Salad Dressing
October 21, 2024

Oldies But Goodies: Roquefort Salad Dressing

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for a Roquefort Salad Dressing  You will find the recipe  here. Want to dive deeper into our…

Cheese, Salad Dressings, Vegetarian
Mediterranean Greens and Phyllo Pie
October 19, 2024

Mediterranean Greens and Phyllo Pie

Need a delicious way to eat your greens?  This Mediterranean Greens and Phyllo Pie is just what your need. This recipe makes a large pie and, with a little reheating in the oven to crisp the phyllo layers, lasts for days.  This recipe is from…

Appetizer, Main Dishes, Spinach, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Tahini and Honey Banana Bread
October 15, 2024

Tahini and Honey Banana Bread

Bored with all the traditional recipes for banana bread?

Here is a unique variation on the traditional banana bread recipe—one replete with optional (and tasty) Middle Eastern vibes.  (If you are a banana bread traditionalist, don’t pass this recipe up because of the perhaps-unfamiliar Middle Eastern ingredients. This bread is very very good any way you prepare it– served plain or drizzled with the exotic tahini and honey sauce. )

This Banana Bread comes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook, Plenty More. The book can be ordered through your local bookstore or purchased through Amazon here.

Over the nine years of Blue Cayenne’s existence, I’ve happily cooked many Ottolenghi recipes–particularly the early cookbooks that featured Ottolenghi’s collaboration with Palestinian chef Sami Tamimi. I’ve featured a few of the recipes on Blue Cayenne. Here, for instance,  is a link to another favorite Ottolenghi recipe: Tandoori Chickpeas. That recipe is exceptional. Trust me, you need to make this one…soon! Here is a photo: 

Ottolenghi and his gifted cooking crew (Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller and Tara Wigley) just published a new cookbook, Ottolenghi Comfort. I’ll keep you posted on my cooking adventures in that book. (I have my eye on a recipe for Coconut Rice With Peanut Sauce and Cucumber Relish. How wonderful does that sound?)

Here is the recipe for the Tahini and Honey Banana Bread as I prepared it in my kitchen. 

Tahini and Honey Banana Bread

October 15, 2024
Print This
Ingredients
  • For Banana Bread:
  • 2 C. pecans (chopped)
  • 3 large ripe bananas
  • 1 1/4 C. packed light brown sugar
  • 3 eggs (lightly beaten)
  • 1/2 C. plus 1 1/2 T. whole milk
  • 5 T. grapeseed or safflower oil
  • 2 C. all-purpose flour
  • 1 t. baking soda
  • 1 1/2 t. baking powder
  • For the Tahini Sauce
  • 5 1/2 T. unsalted butter (softened)
  • 1/4 C. tahini paste
  • 7 oz. honey
  • 3/4 t. coarse sea salt
  • Crushed pistachios (optional)
Directions
  • Step 1 Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan with parchment.
  • Step 2 Bake pecans for 10 minutes in the oven on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Remove from the oven, cool and chop coarsely. Set aside.
  • Step 3 Mash bananas and put them in the bowl of your stand mixer along with the sugar and eggs. Mix. Add 1/2 t. salt and milk into the banana mixture. Add the oil and mix.
  • Step 4 Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda and add to the banana mixture in the bowl of your stand mixer. Beat at medium speed for about 5 minutes.
  • Step 5 Stir in the chopped (and baked) pecans. Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for about one hour until a skewer stuck into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.
  • Step 6 Prepare the optional tahini sauce. Stir the tahini paste into the softened butter to mix thoroughly.
  • Step 7 To serve the banana bread with the tahini sauce, spoon butter/tahini sauce over slices of the bread. (The original recipe called for grilling the bread on one side before drizzling on the sauce.) Drizzle honey over the tahini sauce and sprinkle coarse sea salt to taste over the slices of banana bread. Sprinkle (optional) finely-ground pistachios over the bread. Serve.

 

 

 

 

Bananas, Breads, Desserts, Vegetarian
Carrots and Birthdays
October 11, 2024

Carrots and Birthdays

It’s our birthday! Blue Cayenne is nine years old. Our first post was on October 6, 2015. Here we are more than six hundred  posts later still cooking and writing and photographing. Who knew? We certainly didn’t. Neither I nor my ever faithful Chief Quality…

Carrots, Side Dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Rustic Turkish Lentil Soup With Sizzling Mint Butter
September 30, 2024

Rustic Turkish Lentil Soup With Sizzling Mint Butter

  This started out as a recipe post. Sadly, it has become a eulogy to a gifted chef.  Greg Malouf has died.  He and his former wife, food writer Lucy Malouf, did much to introduce the western world to the delights and subtleties of  Middle…

Soups, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Oldies But Goodies: Double Chocolate Banana Muffins
September 15, 2024

Oldies But Goodies: Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for Double Chocolate Banana Muffins–a perfect breakfast muffin as we slip into Fall. You will find the recipe here.

Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.

And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page: Blue Cayenne..If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.

 

Bananas, Breads, Breakfast Dishes, Vegetarian
Summer’s Kiss: Plum and Rose Pie Bars With Almonds
September 14, 2024

Summer’s Kiss: Plum and Rose Pie Bars With Almonds

As you know if you read this blog, I love plums. I asked ChatGPT to write a haiku about plums. Here it is.  Crimson orbs of joy,sweet tang dances on my tongue—summer’s kiss in fruit. Summer’s kiss. What a beautiful metaphor capturing the delight of…

Desserts, Plums, Vegetarian
Sweet and Sour Tofu With Corn
September 12, 2024

Sweet and Sour Tofu With Corn

  This Sweet and Sour Tofu With Corn is a wonderful Asian-inspired tofu recipe.  Preparation is pretty fast, too—perfect for a lazy end-of-summer meal. It’s beautiful, too.  Curious about tofu? Tofu was first produced in China more than 2000 years ago, probably as a happy…

Tofu, Vegetables, Vegetarian
Buttermilk Biscuits With Strawberries and Cream
August 28, 2024

Buttermilk Biscuits With Strawberries and Cream

Love biscuits?

This crisp-tender sweet biscuit is a perfect base for those oh-so-wonderful end-of-the-season (have I used enough hyphens here?) strawberries in our farmer’s markets right now.  

This recipe is from Stella Park’s extraordinary cookbook BraveTart. You can order this great cookbook through your local bookstore or on Amazon here.

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen. 

Buttermilk Biscuits With Strawberries and Cream

August 28, 2024
Print This
Ingredients
  • Biscuit Recipe Ingredients
  • 2 C. all-purpose flour
  • 1 T. baking powder
  • 2 t. sugar
  • 1 1/2 t. kosher salt
  • 1 stick unsalted butter (cold, cut into cubes)
  • 3/4 C. buttermilk (cold)
  • Garnishes
  • Fresh strawberries
  • Whipped Cream
  • Sparkling Sugar
Directions
  • Step 1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray 8-inch cast iron skillet with cooking spray.
  • Step 2 Sift flour into a bowl. Add baking powder, sugar and salt to the sifted flour. Whisk to combine all the ingredients. Add butter cubes and mix butter into the flour mixture with your fingers. You want the butter to be well-mixed into the flour with some small pea-sized pieces of butter visible.
  • Step 3 Stir the cold buttermilk into the flour and butter mixture. You want the ingredients to come together into a sticky ball. Roll the dough ball into some flour that you have sprinkled onto your counter. Shape the dough into a 6-inch square, fold in half. Repeat shaping and folding twice more. In the end you want a dough that you can shape into a 3/4-inch thick rectangle. Cut dough into squares or rectangles and arrange (touching) in your prepared cast iron pan.
  • Step 4 Bake in a 400 degree F. oven for about 35 minutes. You want the biscuits to be golden brown on the tops and sides. Remove biscuits from oven and allow them to cool on a rack.
  • Step 5 Meanwhile, slice strawberries and add sugar to your taste along with a little vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Set aside for about half an hour to let the strawberries marinate and soften.
  • Step 6 Whip some cream with a bit of sugar and a pinch of salt.
  • Step 7 To serve, split biscuits. Spoon on some strawberries and their sweetened juices. Top with a bit of whipped cream.
  • Step 8 Cooks Note: I sprinkled some sparkling sugar on the top of the biscuits after moistening the tops of the biscuits with a bit of whipped cream. I bought the sparkling sugar from King Arthur Baking.

 

Breads, Desserts, Strawberries, Vegetarian
Oldies But Goodies: Buttermilk Molasses Quick Bread
August 23, 2024

Oldies But Goodies: Buttermilk Molasses Quick Bread

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldie But Goodie recipe is for Buttermilk Molasses Quick Bread, a bread that would be just right as the base for some…

Breads, Oldies But Goodies, Vegetables, Vegetarian

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