Smackdown - Banana Bread

Nearly 4 years after the last Smackdown, and now I've posted 2 within a couple of months!  

Whaaaaat???

Here we come with - Banana Bread.

 Banana bread and smoothies are the only way I will eat bananas - it took me years and years to enjoy them those ways.  Out of the peel?  I won't eat 'em.  Bleh.

Banana bread is something that once I did start to eat I was still "meh" about, until I discovered the banana bread in Cookin with Coolio which is really the best banana bread ever.

Or is it?

 Coolio has previously battled on Smackdown - and won - a chicken battle.  Today he is up against another of my faves - Chrissy Teigan and her Banana Bundt Bread.

First up - Coolio.  The first thing I have to tell you is the my copy of his book is falling apart at the recipe for this bread because I have made it so many times.  

His bread is made in a standard loaf pan, and is ready in an hour (plus cooling time).  It's a pretty basic one - sugar, honey, butter, eggs, banana, flour.   Classic.

In the other corner is Chrissy Teigen's banana bundt bread.  This story was all over twitter for a while when Chrissy was testing the recipe for her next book and was looking for someone who had ripened bananas they would give to her.  The story was funny and the recipe piqued my interest - coconut and chocolate in banana bread???

This one veers away from being traditional (for me); beside the coconut and chocolate there is also vanilla pudding mix, which is something I am pretty sure I've never baked with before.  This also fills up a big bundt pan - this is a huge cake. 

The Verdict -Coolio wins it with his classic loaf.  Chrissy's is also delicious (dark chocolate FTW) but there is just so much going on - if you want a basic 'nana bread, Coolio is the one.  Feeling fancy?  Go with CT.

Other Smackdowns - 

Chocoloate Chip Cookies

Drop Biscuits

Sneaky Mac n Cheese

Chicken Thighs

Simple Potatos

Rachael Ray vs Sandra Lee - 2 - Beef

Rachael Ray vs Sandra Lee - 1 - Pasta

Smackdown - A Twist on Chocolate Chip Cookies (Salted vs Malted)

Everyone in my fam- The Grandfather included - loves cookies. And chocolate chip cookies reign supreme. Over the years I have tried dozens and dozens of recipes- crisp,soft,cake style, you name it. In the past while I tried 2 cookies - with a twist - and here they are, pitted against each other for your enjoyment. We have the internet sensation Salted Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies from Alison Roman vs Malted Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars from Food 52.

First up, and baked first are the shortbread cookies.  These were all over the internet in the Fall and often labelled "The Best Cookie Ever."  We - me and The Mister - are pretty big fans of shortbread, and I love salty-sweet combos.  So win-win already, right? 

After the dough is rolled into a log, you are supposed to roll it in demerara sugar before slicing.  I skipped that step, but after the cookies were sliced and on the baking sheet, I sprinkled the top of each with a pinch of salt and sugar that I mixed together.

These just might be the best cookie ever.  We loved these. 

Link- Salted Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

Next - the cookie bars.  I wanted to try this because I had no idea that malted milk powder was the same as Ovaltine.  Whenever I see a recipe that calls for malted milk powder I always stop reading because I thought it was some specialty ingredient that I couldn't get here.  Who knew!  Not me.  The other "twist" in this recipe was that the butter is melted and browned before being added to the dough.  Now I am a raw dough eater/tester (don't judge me) and I swooned when I tried the batter.  The flavors of the butter and malted milk powder were distinct and delicious.  Sadly, they disappeared into the baked bar, which was very very good, but neither of the flavors shone through in the finished product.  That did not stop us from inhaling these though.

Link - Malted Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars

The Winner is..........

The Salted Chocolate Chip Shortbread!

Both cookies are amazing and you should try them, but the shortbread were just a little more amazing.

Smackdown - Drop Biscuits

Ok! Let's do another Smackdown, shall we?

 This time we're moving into the land of carbs with biscuits. Drop biscuits.

First up is Trisha Yearwoods Easiest Muffins recipe. Yes, it's called a muffin, but I think that it's more like a biscuit, and this is my blog and my Smackdown.

Anyhoo.

What drew me to this recipe was the incredibly short list of ingredients, and the addition of sour cream. These came together super quick and looked pretty darn good.

They tasted good too - and I loved the tang from the sour cream.

Unfortunately, I found these were best eaten right after they were made, which for a small family caused a problem - we can't eat 12 biscuit/muffins in one sitting.

I took one to work the next day with my lunch, but I did not enjoy it. The many leftovers were tossed a few days later.

Competing against Trisha is The Pioneer Woman's Cheddar Chive Drop Biscuits.

A few more ingredients and a bit more time than the easy muffins.

 But they too came out of the oven looking like a biscuit should:

I usually only buy mild cheddar,so the cheese didn't particularly add anything to the biscuit. The green onion was nice, and they had a good texture. 

These held up well as leftovers, and got the seal of approval from my father. 

The winner - by a hair - 

The Pioneer Woman. 

The texture, appearance and leftover factor pushed it over the edge.

Smackdown - Sneaky Mac n Cheese

Sneaky food is everywhere these days - avocado in chocolate mousse, prunes in cake, oats in smoothies, pureed veggies in EVERYTHING. 

And I have nothing against sneaky food, especially since my lovely child becomes more and more picky each day. 

Sneak away, my friends, sneak away. (Foodwise, that is. Behave yourselves!) 

Here's our 2 competitors 

Food Networks Mac n Cheese with secret ingredient cauliflower 

vs 

The Sweet Potato Chronicle's Sweet Potato Mac n Cheese

In the Food Network's corner is mac and cheese that was served as a side dish with bbq chicken in the Jan/Feb 2014 issue.  Cauliflower is cooked until soft in milk, then pureed, and cheese is stirred in.  Sauce done.  Add your cooked noodles, a splash of pasta cooking water, stir, and serve.

I enjoy Food Network magazine and have cooked some good dishes out of some issues.  Regardless of the outcome, I'll be adding this to my list of go to recipes.

Over in the SPC's corner is Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese.  This is a more traditional m&c - a traditional white sauce that has cheese and mashed sweet potato stirred in, and peas are added to the pasta cooking water for the final minutes of cooking.  

This book and I do not get along - I had a high number of iffy/failures from the book.  But this recipe produces a smooth and delicious mac and cheese, with bonus peas.

This was another toughie - these were both excellent recipes that I would make again and again.

The verdict?

Mac and cheese with cauliflower, from Food Network.

I love how simple but flavorful the sauce is - no roux, no flour - and the creaminess the cauliflower adds.  The sweet potato mac is also delicious, and also a must try.

Recipes

Food Network Mac and Cheese

Sweet Potato Chronicles Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese

Smackdown returns - Amanda Hesser vs Coolio

If you're a long (long, LONG) time reader of this blog, you may remember back in 2007-2008 I did a short series of posts pitting chefs and their books against each other to highlight an ingredient and choose a winner. See here for a refresher, if you'd like.

I never meant for my Smackdown posts to go away.  I had more planned, even some partially completed, but you know how it is.

But now kids, it's back.

The first Smackdown of 2013 - Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte vs. Coolio's Cookin' with Coolio.

  

 And the Smackdown Ingredient?  Chicken Thighs.

The recipes?  Amanda's (may I call you Amanda?) Chicken roasted with sour cream, lemon juice and mango chutney, and Coolio's Superfry Chicken.

Now neither of these recipes specifically call for chicken thighs, but that's what I had in my freezer. 

Let's start with Coolio.  I have really enjoyed all the recipes I've made out of his book, and his banana bread is one of my all time favorites.  I chose his Superfry Chicken because I knew it would work well with the thighs, and how yummy does garlic onion and balsamic vinegar in fried chicken sound?

 I cut the thighs into pieces so we were having Superfry Nuggets.  These were really really good.  Great flavor, and quick to prepare with ingredients you most likely already have in your cupboard.  Sure, frying is messy and not the healthiest, but it's ok to do once in a while.  Next time I might add a bit more onion and garlic and let it sit for a bit, as some pieces were more flavorful than others.

 Next is Amanda's dish.  I have owned this book for a long, long time and love it.  But I must admit that while I have read and re-read it countless times, I have only tried once recipe.  This one though, I've had marked since I first read the book. 

The chicken is covered in a creamy sauce of sour cream, mayonnaise, mango chutney and lemon juice, and cooked quickly in a hot oven.  In addition to using thighs instead of chicken breasts, I also subbed the mango chutney out for peach chutney, because it was cheaper.  My only beef with this recipe was the cooking time.  After 15 minutes the thighs were not cooked through.  But this was really good - quick and tangy and the sauce, although super fattening, was soooo good.  I saved the extra sauce and used it to top sweet potatos a few days later.  

Argh, I have to admit, it was really hard to pick a winner here.  But I am giving this Smackdown to...

Coolio.

Recipes for both of these great dishes here:

Superfry Chicken

Chicken Roasted With Sour Cream Lemon Juice And Mango Chutney

Smackdown - The Frugal Gourmet vs Galloping Gourmet - Simple Potatoes

Okeydokey, I'm moving on to two new chefs for Smackdown. I've gone back a few years for this one. Graham Kerr, aka The Galloping Gourmet started his TV show back in the 70's. Jeff Smith, aka The Frugal Gourmet began his PBC show in the 80's.

I was never a huge fan of Graham Kerr, but I bought a couple of small cookbooks of his second hand a couple of years ago. I've always liked the Frugal Gourmet; my parents and I would watch him on PBC when I was young. I've got a few of his books and all the recipes I've tried from them have been fantastic.

So here's a Gourmet challenge - Galloping vs Frugal. And the recipes? Simple potatoes.

Up first is the Galloping Gourmet. From his book The Galloping Gourmet Cookbook - Favorite Dishes: Italy, Australia, New Zealand, here's Ngaruahoe Potatoes, which are basically potato skins.


And from the Frugal Gourmet and his book The Frugal Gourmet Whole Family Cookbook we have Italian Fried Potatoes.


Let's start with the
Ngaoo - Ngaee - Nypoopotato skins from Graham Kerr. First off, this may be the most awful cookbook I own. Who edited this thing???? Almost every recipe has something missing, whether it's an ingredient amount, cooking temperature or time, something. Some of them have "handwritten notes" from Kerr, which after seeing all the omissions makes me think they typed this book up, fixed what they saw after the first read through, and then called it a day. This recipe calls for _ cup cream and tells you to bake the potatoes for 1 to 1 hours. Another recipe calls for cup butter, cups clarified butter, tsp fennel, tsp something else. I hope the editor of this book got smacked after publication. They deserve it.

But the dish. It was boring as hell. After your spuds have cooked you slice them in half, scoop out the innards and mix them with cream, tomato and green onion. Stuff it back in and serve. They needed something - more veggies, spices, cheese - to make them more interesting.


The potatos from Jeff Smith on the other hand were fantastic! Thinly sliced and pan fried twice (to make them crispy) with olive oil and garlic. A little more fussy and time consuming, but well worth it.

Well we've obviously got a clear winner here! To be honest I thought this one might be a tie. I love potatoes so much that it's rare they're not my favorite part of a meal. The Frugal Gourmet's potatoes will grace our table again soon. The Galloping Gourmet's book will soon grace the donation pile.

Italian Fried Potatoes
from The Frugal Gourmet Whole Family Cookbook
serves 4 to 6

2 lb russet potatoes, peeled
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
salt to taste

Slice the potatoes thinly. Heat a large non stick frying pan and add half the oil. Add the garlic and the sliced potatoes. Pan fry on one side until lightly brown. Turn and brown the other side. Remove from the pan and allow to cool. Heat the pan again with the remaining oil and cook again on both sides until nicely brown and tender.
Salt to taste and serve.

__________________________________________

Up next on Smackdown, dishes from two of Scott's least favorite Food Network male hosts!

Smackdown Round Two - Rachel Ray vs Sandra Lee

I had fun when I pitted Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee against each other for Presto Pasta night over at Ruth's that I thought I'd try it again, but this time with two recipes for main courses.

As a reminder to those who may have missed the last one, Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Get Real Meals battled against Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade Cooking 2 in a pasta competition.


Do a Google (or other) search on the Internet for Sandra Lee and you'll find that people have some very strong opinions about her. Or just read the comments from my other post. Honestly,I can't really get into a debate on whether Sandra Lee is good or bad. Her shows are not televised in Canada; I saw two episodes when we were on vacation earlier this year and I don't remember too much about them - I was lying on the couch zonked out on codeine and alcohol (don't try this at home kids!) after breaking my toes. I don't own any of her books - the one pictured above was borrowed from the library a couple of months ago. I flipped through it, copied down some recipes that sounded good and took it back. So please don't hate me that I don't hate her. Perhaps I just don't know any better.

So here's Round Two of Smackdown - Rachel Ray vs Sandra Lee. Battle Beef!

Our first dish is from Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Get Real Meals. Meatball and Spinach No-sagna.

This was pretty good. Like Rachel's pasta recipe from the first smack down, it took way longer than 30 minutes, probably more than an hour, but it was good. It's basically huge meatballs baked over spinach with tomato sauce. Lasagna with no noodles. Hence the No-Sagne name. There was wayyyy more than 4 servings here. I don't know if I would make this again, although Scott loved the leftover meatballs (not so much the spinach) and ate meatball subs for lunch for days.

And here is Crispy Orange Beef from Sandra Lee Semi Homemade Cooking 2.


I LOVED this dish. This dish also had a cooking time of 30 minutes and unlike Rachel Ray, the Crispy Orange Beef delivered. Such a small list of ingredients (beef, garlic, marmalade, beef broth, chiles and soy sauce) came together fast for a fantastic dish. Neither Scott and I are fans of marmalade. I loved it in this dish, he didn't care for the pieces of peel so much. Next time I make this (oh yes, there will be more than one next time!!!!) I think I might push the marmalade thru a sieve to take some of the peel out. Perhaps Scott would like it better that way. If not, more for me!

Sorry to say, Sandra Lee haters, Sandra wins Round Two. Don't hate me!

Crispy Orange Beef
Sandra Lee Semi Homemade 2

1 1/2 pounds flank steak, cut in 1-inch strips
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup cornstarch
Vegetable oil, for frying

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1 cup low-sodium beef broth
1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
10 small dried Thai chiles
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Season flank steak strips with salt and pepper, then toss with cornstarch. Shake off excess.

Fill a large frying pan with enough oil to cover the bottom by 1/4 to 1/2-inch. Heat the oil to 365'. Working in batches, fry the steak. Do not crowd pan. Drain on paper towels. Set aside.

For the sauce: Heat the oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat and cook the garlic until fragrant; do not let the garlic brown. Add orange marmalade, 1/2 cup beef broth, soy sauce, and chiles. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes. In a small bowl, stir cornstarch into remaining 1/2 cup beef broth. Stir cornstarch mixture into simmering sauce. Return to a simmer for 3 to 4 minutes until sauce thickens.

Sandra Lee suggests serving the beef with frisee and crisp noodles. I served mine with rice.

Our results stand thusly - Rachel Ray 0, Sandra Lee 2. I'm off to choose two new competitors for another Smackdown. Any suggestions? Bobby Flay vs Anthony Bourdain? Ina Garten vs Paula Deen? Lidia Bastianich vs Giada De Laurentis?

Presto Pasta Nights - Rachel Ray vs Sandra Lee

I thought I'd do something a little different for Presto Pasta Night this week. I've picked two pasta recipes by two Food Network cooks and have pitted them against each other!

First up we have Rachel Ray. I am not really a "Rachel" person, but have no strong feelings one way or another about her. I prefer to not watch her on TV, but Scott has occasionally bought me her magazines and I've found a few mighty tasty recipes in them. Last year I received a Rachel Ray cookbook for my birthday. We've had a couple of not so great dishes from the book, but some nice ones too.

Her competitor today is Sandra Lee. I had never heard of Sandra Lee before last year when I read various negative comments about her on some blogs. (Her shows are not shown on the Food Network here in Canada.) Earlier this year Anthony Bourdain bashed her and other Food Network cooks quite harshly. I used to love him, but lately it doesn't seem like he does anything but be a snarky jerk. I have enough snarky jerks in my life, thanks. Anyway, when we were in Maui earlier this year I saw two episodes of her show. It wasn't fantastic, but I don't remember it as being God-awful either.

And then I came across one of Sandra Lee's books at the library. Smackdown time!



Let's start with Rachel Ray. From 30 Minute Get Real Meals we prepared Cauliflower-Pumpkin Pasta.

I was hesitant to make this pasta because I don't like pumpkin. But Scott does, so we went with it. This took longer than 30 minutes (I forgot to set my timer), but was very nice. Who knew pasta and pumpkin were such a good match? This was quite rich for me. If I made this again I would do smaller portions along a big green salad.


From Sandra Lee Semi Homemade Cooking 2 we chose Angel Hair with Roasted Red Peppers, Feta and Herb Dressing.

This was A-MAZ-ING. Faster than fast; the dressing is made and the other ingredients are de-canned or prepped while the pasta is cooking. It was easy, light tasting and delicious. This would be good in the summer when you don't want to be at the stove for too long, or any day that you just need a quick meal.



And the winner was..........Sandra Lee. While both pastas were tasty, Sandra pulled ahead with the faster cooking time and lighter tasting dish.



Angel Hair with Roasted Red Peppers, Feta and Herb Dressing
adapted from Sandra Lee Semi Homemade Cooking 2

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh basil
2 tb lemon juice
2 tb water
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
16 oz angel hair pasta
12 oz jar roasted red peppers
1/2 of a red onion, thinly sliced and soaked in cold water
6 oz crumbled feta cheese
2 1/2 oz can sliced black olives

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until tender.
Place the oil, herbs, lemon juice, water, salt and pepper in a jar. Shake until blended. Set aside.
Drain the red peppers and roughly chop. Drain the olives and set aside.
When the pasta is done, drain and place in a large bowl. Add the peppers, drained onion, feta and olives. Toss well. Pour over the dressing and toss again.


Cauliflower-Pumpkin Pasta
adapted from 30 Minute Get Real Meals

1 tb olive oil
4 garlic cloves
1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 lb linguine or fettuccine
1 cup pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling - that has spices and sugar in it)
1/4 cup non fat or 1% milk
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
nutmeg
salt and pepper

Saute the garlic in the oil for a couple of minutes until fragrant. Add the cauliflower and broth. Cover and simmer until the cauliflower is very tender.
Cook the pasta in salted water until done. Drain and reserve.
When the cauliflower is tender, turn up the heat and add the pumpkin puree and milk. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper, then add the drained pasta. Toss to coat, and serve.