Rejoice at the sight of a ripe banana

Isn't it amazing the way life takes you by surprise? And that too when you least expect it!

It was just another ordinary day until I spotted a ripe banana (Please note "ripe" and not rotten).

For some odd reason I thought we were out of bananas so I was absolutely thrilled to see this particular ripe one because I wanted to make banana muffins. The recipe I followed is from here.

Banana Cinnamon Muffins

2/3rd cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

2/3rd cup mashed ripe banana

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 & 2/3rd cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C.

Grease muffin tray with oil or line with paper cups. I would advise using paper cups as washing the muffin/cupcake tray is not an easy job!

Mix flour, soda, salt and cinnamon powder.

Beat sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla essence and the mashed banana. Add in the flour mixture. Beat or mix till smooth.

Divide batter equally among the muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes.

Serve warm at breakfast or tea time.

This recipe makes 12 regular sized muffins.

Party with pizza

I have tried some pizza recipes over the past few years but this recipe by chef Rahat is my all time favorite.

Its pretty simple to follow and gives amazing results.

Follow all instructions closely (specially for the sauce and dough) and it will surely turn out great.

Pizza Sauce

1 clove garlic

1/2 kg tomatoes ( 5 to 6 approx. )

pinch of salt

2 pinches sugar

1/4th teaspoon red chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon oregano

2 tablespoons cooking oil

Heat oil. Saute chopped garlic. Add tomatoes, roughly chopped. Season with salt, red chilli powder, oregano, sugar. Stir well.

Cook covered on low flame for an hour, stirring occasionally. Then blend in blender.

Store sauce bottled in refrigerator.

The Dough

3 cups flour

3/4th teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon yeast

Mix salt, sugar and flour. Make a well in the center and add yeast. Add some water in the center and mix with spoon. Then make dough by adding water gradually. Dough will be sticky.

Slightly grease a bowl with oil. Place dough in this bowl and cover it with a wet cloth.
Keep dough in some dark warm place till it grows in size.

Later mix the dough well to form a smooth ball. Roll out dough and spread it on a greased round baking pan.

Note: For medium crust thickness make 2 pizzas out of this dough.

Topping

For the topping I usually use sausages or any left over chicken but here's the proper recipe to prepare it:

300grams boneless chicken

1 or 2 tablespoons oil

1 clove garlic

2 tablespoons lemon juice

sliced mushrooms

salt, to taste

Heat oil. Saute chopped garlic. Add boneless chicken. Stir fry. Add some water, lemon juice and some salt.

Cook till water dries up. Add mushrooms. Dish out and cool slightly.

Assembling

This is the final stage.

When everything is ready preheat oven to 250° C/480° F.

Spread the dough on a greased baking pan. Next spread some pizza sauce and some mozzarella cheese. Spread the cooked topping, level it with fork. Then cheese again, followed by few onion rings and capsicum strips.

Lastly sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon oregano, drizzle some hot sauce and very little olive oil on top.

Now the pizza is ready to go in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes.

Note: You can also use a combination of cheddar cheese & mozzarella cheese.

Devour the chocolate

At Nando's restaurant they have this delicious chocolate cake slice. So far it is the yummiest cake slice I have ever tasted.

Since the past few days we were longing to have it and the feeling would not go away.

Sadly there's no outlet of Nando's in our city. This left us no choice but to hunt for a recipe that would give us a closest replica to that divine cake slice so me and my sister baked this cake. Recipe is by chef Rahat.

Chocolate Cake

125 g butter

1 and 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

3/4th cup cocoa powder

1 cup regular sugar

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 180° C/350° F.

Grind sugar in chopper and keep separate.

Beat eggs with vanilla essence.

In a separate bowl mix together: flour, sugar, cocoa and soda. Add butter, eggs and milk. Beat till mixture is smooth.

Pour batter in greased baking pan.

I would advise to line bottom of pan with butter paper and then grease it a little with oil because it helps to remove the cake easily from the pan when baked.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or till knife inserted in center comes out clean.

For the icing:

Always cool the cake completely before icing it.

For the icing I followed the instructions here. Made a few exceptions though. I used 200g fresh cream and 1 tablespoon cocoa powder with 1 tablespoon sugar.