Cooking Session 24
Coffee Banana Bread + Instagram Reel Recipes + What To Cook This Week
I'd quickly like to catch you up on why I have been missing in action for the past two months. After almost a decade of suspecting endometriosis and suffering through off-the-charts pain, I underwent surgery to officially get a diagnosis and treat the condition. I knew I also had very extensive adenomyosis which was confirmed as well. It all went well but we discovered during surgery that everything was not as it seemed and that I might be headed for a hysterectomy in a few months.
It is now officially a month since the surgery and I am healed, rested and excited to be back in the kitchen. Batches of the incredible "healing" veggie and lentil soup I made before surgery and froze are all exhausted (I will share that recipe soon!). So let's get cooking!
If you haven't tried out coffee in your banana bread, you need to fix that right away! It is an incredibly delicious flavour combination. Imagine the sweetness of banana balanced by the robust, lively bitterness of coffee? Yum right? And just look at that airy crumb and the high top! This banana bread is just amazing all around ....
Each week I'll suggest three easy dinners, a sweet treat, a salad and a couple of extra recipes (healthy breakfasts, seasonal broths, things in jars etc.) to get you organized for the week and make meal times easier!
Dinners
Risotto Soup (Rice & Butter Bean Minestrone)
Pumpkin Garlic Sage Spaghetti
Oven-Baked Thai Green Chicken Curry
Sweet
Better-For-You Sticky Date Pudding With Toffee Sauce
Salad
Crunchy Thai Style Cabbage Salad
Extras
Good Breakfast Veggie Muffins
Date Cashew Milk
Kitchen Sense »
Sauteing Onion & Garlic
If a recipe calls for sauteing onion and garlic at the start, always cook onion first before adding garlic later. Onion takes longer to cook and soften whereas garlic burns easily. Cook the onions first and when they have softened, caramelized and finishing up, add the garlic and cook very briefly. This will ensure that your dish is free of burnt, bitter bits of garlic.
I love working with fresh producers, especially fruit and veg farmers. I have recently created some delicious recipes using Australian Onions - Turmeric & Caramelized Onion Focaccia & Golden Onion Rice Nuggets. Check them out (full recipes are in the video captions). I am also on TikTok, so come say hi!
Cooking Club News
May's cookbooks of the month are One Pan Perfect by Donna Hay and Flavour by Ottolenghi. I am enjoying exploring both books along with the other members. Yesterday I cooked this gorgeous Balsamic Pot Roast Chicken, a dish that was absolutely delicious (according to my boys) and really quick and easy to make. It has been added to my weeknight roster.
It is wonderful to see everyone cooking and posting their dishes and chatting about their experiences (successes and fails!) in the club. Come join us! It's free!
I have also started a discussion thread where people can share their latest cookbook buys, books they have on their wishlists and what cookbooks they would like to cook from! And a special code to get one month Premium Membership to Eat Your Books for FREE!
Join the Cook Republic Cooking Club
Food In Prose
"I like the idea that something could become bigger, bolder, fuller and more intense as it withers, contracts, softens and breaks - it seems a great irony. This is exactly what happens when you slowly cook sweet, ripe tomatoes in a warm oven. They intensify exaggerating everything that's already there: colour, sugar, complexity. The heat caramelizes them, but also brings a trace of bitterness. Tarragon, with its intense, aniseed flavour, is the most amazing herb to use with tomatoes, so I don't hold back - it gently perfumes the tomatoes during cooking.
~ Gill Meller (Gather Cookbook)