Banana Fritters with Vanilla and Saffron Soft Cream

Trying new things in the kitchen is necessary for growth. Just like in any other relationship, if you don’t spice things up from time to time and experiment, the pilot light goes out.

That being said – experimenting is tricky. You’re not always sure how your ingredients are going to react to new additions in the kitchen. Sometimes protein won’t stiffen, no matter how much you beat it, and if you’re unfamiliar with your equipment you could end up with white stuff all over your face. Whoops.

But I am not one to shy away from experimentation.

Soft Cream. I invented it.

My ice cream wouldn’t get hard for me – perhaps I need to work on my pick-up lines?

I followed a recipe I saw on Lifehacker.com (contain your sniggers, please) for easy peasy ice cream. Simply combine heavy whipping cream and condensed milk and beat on high for about 10 minutes, add flavouring, shove it in the freezer and your surname could be Baskin or Robbins.

A week later my “ice cream” still resembles soft serve on a sunny February day.

Look, it tastes really good. I added saffron and vanilla extract for flavour and it’s a winning combination. It smells like marshmallows. Yum. I know there’s something really simple that resulted in its inability to freeze. But right now I’m over trying to figure out where I went wrong and I’m sticking with my story – soft cream FTW!

I had a few leftover, over-ripe bananas so I hauled out Tannie de Villiers’ Kook en Geniet for a fritter recipe.

I used the recipe for pumpkin fritters and simply replaced the pumpkin with mashed banana.

So everything was working just fine until the first batch. The batter was quite runny and I was struggling to wrangle it in the pan. I decided to improvise. I added some more flour and two tablespoons of oats to the batter to thicken it up.

Well, congrats Sam! You’re making flapjacks.

If I’ve learnt anything through trial and error, it’s that you don’t need to do no trying or erring with Tannie de Villiers’ recipes. The first batch of fritters (sans my additions) was by far the tastiest.

Banana Fritters
2 cups of mashed banana
1/2 cup of flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt
1 tbs oats if preferred (they were tasty)
butter for frying (tastier than oil)

Mix bananas, flour, salt and baking powder. Add egg and mix together.
Heat butter in pan. Add spoonfuls of batter to pan. Fry for about a minute or two, check if it’s lifting easily, flip and fry for another minute or until golden brown on both sides. Drain on roller towel. Repeat until batter is finished. I didn’t sprinkle with sugar as I served with soft cream.

Serve with soft cream, or ice cream. Use it, don’t use it…

RSC Dessert: Coconut milk crepes with mango filling

The final installment in my Ready Steady Cook Challenge.

Right, two more ingredients left on my list: Coconut milk and mango. Mango in September. What a challenge indeed. My only option was to use dried mango, a first-time ingredient in my kitchen.

Coconut milk crepes filled with mango

After wrestling with many ideas in my head, this one was a favourite because it’s also perfectly springy: light ‘n summery crepes with warm, sticky mango and rich coconut milk. Just like the little bear’s porridge, it was just right.
I’ve tried the Shape Low-fat and Easy Cookbook recipe for crepes before and it was a great success. I simply adjusted the recipe this time to include my listed ingredients.

Ingredients

Crepes:
1 cup coconut milk
3 large egg whites
100-120 ml water (recipe called for 80 ml, but because the fat free milk was replaced with richer coconut milk, more water was needed to keep the batter thin)
1 cup cake flour
2 tbs sugar
Cook ‘n Spray

Filling:
200 g dried mango, soaked in hot water
2 tbs coconut milk
pinch of cinnamon

Mix egg whites, coconut milk and water in a bowl with a hand mixer. Then gently whisk in flour and sugar. Leave to stand for about 30 minutes.

Heat up a small pan until it’s medium hot. I can’t explain how hot medium hot is, you’re just going to have to experiment. Once the first one flops (which it will – it’s a rite of passage in crepe making), you’ll know if your pan is too hot or too cold.

Once it’s hot, spray with Cook ‘n Spray.

Pour batter in a thin stream into the pan. Swirl around to just cover the pan lightly. Cook for about one minute or until the crepe starts peeling at the sides. Then turn over, but it’s more fun if you flip them over. Do this over and over and over until your batter is finished.

In a hot pan, fry mango until sticky. Add 2 tbs coconut milk and let it cook away. Once soft and sticky, fill the crepe with the mango. Roll it up and slice in half with a diagonal slant – it looks more zhuzh that way. Sprinkle a bit of lemon juice and cinnamon on top and serve.

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