Pork Chops & Chicken

Sour Cream Bacon Banana Bread with Salted Sticky Honey Pecan Glaze

Yep it's a mouthful of a title, but its quite possible the greatest thing I have ever made. I am sure I am not the first person to think of a banana bacon bread, but this sort of evolved for me from scratch.

I had a package of bacon that I needed to use up. I was originally going to crisp up the bacon and make chocolate covered bacon. Just to have around as a snack. Why not? But then I had some bananas that needed to be used. Banana's for some reason, do not last more than a day or two in my apartment without going brown. Banana bread was obviously on the table and then I thought, what if I crumbled bacon into the banana bread? What if I made a sour cream banana bread? And what if I put honey pecans on top? Later, in a last minute decision, I put two pinches of kosher salt into the glaze to add a double punch of sweet and salty like the bread itself. And that's how it happened. That's how the greatest creation of my life came to be.

I didn't expect this recipe to be so coveted. A bunch of people have asked for this because I told Mario Batali I was planning this on twitter. Thanks to his RT, and some friends on FB, the recipe is going up now. The pics were taken with an iphone since it was only an experiment. Forgive the quality.

 

Recipe via CHOW, written by Adela Jung.

Difficulty: Easy | Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins | Active Time: 20 mins | Makes: 1 (9-inch) loaf

 

This banana bread starts as a thick, tangy batter full of mashed banana, and emerges from the oven with a golden-brown crust and a moist, almost cake-like texture.

Game plan: We tested this recipe using a stand mixer, but it could easily be made by just stirring all the ingredients together in a large bowl.

This recipe was featured as part of our Cooking with Winter Ingredients photo gallery.

INGREDIENTS

• Butter, for coating the pan
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting the pan
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 very ripe medium bananas, mashed (about 1 1/4 cups)
• 1/2 cup sour cream

**Added Ingredient: One package of bacon cooked crispy, and crumbled.

 

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Coat a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with butter and dust it with flour, tapping out the excess. Whisk together the measured flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl to aerate and break up any lumps. Set aside.
2. Place the sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until thoroughly combined, about 2 minutes. Add the bananas and sour cream and mix until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the flour mixture, and mix until just combined.
3. Turn the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, the top is golden brown, and the bread is pulling away from the sides of the pan, about 1 hour.
4. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Slide a knife around the perimeter of the pan, invert to release the bread, and cool completely on the wire rack before serving.

** Once it's cooled, place on a large serving plate or cake display with plenty of room for honey pecan glaze to drizzle over the top and sides.

 

Notes:

I tweaked this recipe by using 3 bananas and a little more sour cream. Be mindful of the baking powder. I used a brand new tin of baking soda and it caused the batter to spill over a bit while it was baking. So, put your banana bread pan on a sheet pan to catch anything in case it does spill over.

 

 

Glaze via Mikes Table

• 1.2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1.2 stick (4 Tbsp) butter
• 1/8 cup honey
• 1 cup pecans

**Added Ingredient: 2 pinches of kosher salt or large granualed sea salt.

Chop half cup of pecans and leave some peices whole.

In a heavy saucepan, add the butter (chopped into 2 pieces), sugar, and honey. Bring these to a boil over medium-low and stir frequently until the sugar is dissolved.

**Turn off the heat. Toss in the pecans and salt and stir. Allow to cool but still be slightly runny so you can pour over the top of the bread.

Spoon the mixture on top of the cooled banana bread leaving most of the larger pieces on top of the bread. Allow it to drip down the sides.

Slice and serve.

 

Southern Dirty Shrimp In Beer Sauce With Corn Bread

My first time cooking with shrimp and it was a massive success. This is a southern recipe. Deep down dirty south. Even though this is my own recipe, I kept it true to form until the end. I made a few slight modifications that in my opinion helped rock this dish. I added BBQ sauce and flour to thicken and add even more flavor to my sauce. "Dirty" can be a way to describe southern and creole food, a way to describe the south in general, and in this case it has a double meaning of dirty south and dirty hands. You have to peel the shrimp and getting glorious beer sauce all over your hands that must be licked off not wiped off with a napkin.

The reason this recipe came to be was excess skillet corn bread I made with Sticky BBQ Chicken. So to get rid of it, I decided Dirty shrimp would be the way to go. A long gone BBQ joint in Boston called the Linwood Grill was my inspiration for this recipe. They Made a PBR dirty shrimp bowl that was out of this world.

Also, the call to use Pabst Blue Ribbon proves yet again that there is a time and a place for every beer. I am sure many beer geeks will dispute that, but I haven't got time for their beer snobbery. Not when I made this awesome recipe.

Recipe for Knock Off House Of Blues Skillet Corn Bread. Make this recipe in advance as it takes a while to bake.



Dirty BBQ Shrimp

Ingredients:

2 # Shrimp uncooked (Peeled optional)
1 cup butter
1 white onion chopped
1 tbls. chopped garlic
splash of lemon juice
4 tsp. thyme
4 tsp. oregano
3 bay leaves
3 tsp Oldbay seasoning
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. garlic powder
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 tbls. worcestershire sauce
16 oz or 2 cups Pabst Blue Ribbon (1 Tall Boy)
2/3 cup sweet and tangy BBQ sauce
1/2 cup flour or 2 to 4 tbls. cornstarch



In a separate bowl combine all dry spices.

 

In a large pot melt the butter and add the onions and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until onions become translucent. Add a splash of lemon juice and the worcestershire sauce to the onions while the onions are cooking.




 

Add the shrimp, spices and beer to the pot and simmer. By not peeling the shrimp, the beer gets trapped with the meat and holds on to the flavor better.



Let the shrimp simmer in the spices and beer until the shrimp becomes a little firm and pink. Once the shrimp is fully cooked, add BBQ sauce and flour and allow sauce to thicken a little bit. Remove bay leaves and rosemary stems.

 

In a flat bowl, place cornbread in the center and smother with shrimp and sauce. Serve hot and with lots of napkins. Don't be afraid to get your hands in it and peel the shrimp and lick the sauce off!

Buttermilk Coffee Cake

 

I have been  using this recipe for years now for coffee cake. Sadly this isn't a recipe I created myself, but I am glad to give this one props.

I found it looking for a decent recipe for coffee cake. When I saw that it said Best Coffee Cake, I scanned though the ingredients to see what made it the best. First time I have encountered a recipe for coffee cake with buttermilk in it. I had some left over from making bread and gave it a go. I have only been using this recipe ever since.



Can you believe I forgot the cinnamon for the ingredients shot? The most vital ingredient for coffee cake duh!



Best Coffee Cake

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar packed
1 cup butter
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans)
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda




1. Preheat over to 350°F (175°C). Grease 9x13 baking pan, set aside.
 
Side Note: Now I do have floured baking spray, but I opted for the old school way to grease a pan. Vegetable shorting and flour.




2. combine the first 6 ingredients until crumbly. Reserve 1 cup of crumb mixture and set aside for topping.




3. To the remaining mixture add the rest of the ingredients from the buttermilk to baking soda and stir by hand to combine. Mixture will be slightly lumpy.

Side Note: It does say mix by hand but, I just rolled it a few times in the Kitchenaid and it was fine. I was careful not to over mix.




4. Pour batter in to the prepared baking pan. Top with the reserved crumb mixture and bake for 25 - 30 minutes. Make sure you test the cake with a wooden tooth pick or tester to make sure it come out clean. Serve warm.

Makes 16 servings.