It's November. The year seems to be passing so quickly. Too quickly, almost. Hi-5 if you're still grooving to September by EWF.
I'm thankful that my new book got here (be nice to me mwahahahahaha). I'm thankful that I'm well on my way to complete the 50k target. I'm thankful that I seem to be making more significant progress in the physical department. Let's hope the next one is it?
I seem to be making milestones in my kitchen prowess. Allow me to elaborate.
I baked two banana cakes just under a week ago. One after the other. When I bake more than one cake within a day, it usually means the cake(s) is(are) being given away. And this time it was to a doctor friend who has been helping grandpa with his recovery, making housecalls late into the evening after surgery/a full day at the hospital. Favour is what it is.
I baked the two cakes (I know I'm repeating this. Shhhh.) and both times, was rewarded with this surge of pride and contentment. With this recipe, it is often that the batter ends up separating. That's how I've been making it my whole life because I didn't know any better. Having gleaned more knowledge over the years though, it has been my personal mission to make sure the batter doesn't separate. For any cake I make. It's really a test with this recipe. The result is a tender yet crumbly, moist, and less sweet banana cake than what you find in the cake shops. Fine crumb? Not at all. Buried all through the cake are banana bits, where the bananas are mashed with a fork, so they're not entirely pureed. I use overripe bananas so that contributes part of the sweetness, and I reduce the sugar by quite a bit.
Both times when I mixed up the batter, creaming the standard butter, sugar and vanilla, then adding the eggs...I got a smooth, silky texture, almost buttercream-like. See, Chef A taught me this trick to help stabilise the batter so separation can be prevented. But even when doing this with this particular recipe, the batter is still prone to separating. There has almost never been a time that I can remember where it didn't. This time though, both times, there was zero separation. This can only mean one thing. There was no under or overbeating. The timing was near perfect.
Both cakes rose and browned, and the top crust was the way it should be. A nice crisp that strangely complements the tender, crumbly, moist goodness with each bite, with surprise bits of fruit. No soggy crust. No walnuts either, since they're expensive and the cake is good without them anyway. And of course, my little cinnamon bun monster is strangely allergic to walnuts. Just walnuts. The cake was sliced, and half of it gone before even sitting to cool for half an hour.
No separation! Whee~~~~~~
It's an achievement okay. Stop looking at me like that.
Another achievement in the kitchen was the day right after that when mum turned to me and said:
"Cut the turnip for stirfry please."
"Uhhhh mum. You want me to cut the turnip?"
"Yup."
"You sure?"
Just a bit of backstory so you'll understand. Cutting the turnip for stirfry means finely julienne. This was a test my mum had to go through to gain her late mother-in-law's (yes, my late Ah Ma) approval in the kitchen. Everything else was easy. This though. Working with a bulky turnip on a little wood chopping block and a knife. To finely julienne is no easy task. Cannot grate. Not allowed. Mum's never 'trusted' be enough to entrust this task to me. I've been practicing with other things like ginger and carrots and onions...so for her to ask me is a huge deal. To me at least. I've never attempted jiu hu char when cooking alone. For fear of the finely julienned turnip requirement.
"Yes, I'm sure. Faster la."
So I start on the tedious, looming task of finely julienning the turnip. One filled stainless steel bowl later, I'm done. With no slicing of fingernails or fingers. Blood free.
"Uh mum? Can pass ah?"
She peers over. Doesn't say anything.
Nuts.
Later on as she's frying the turnip, she turns to me.
"Good job. Pass."
Oh the relief and the joy bursting forth from my innermost wanting-to-be-good-in-the-kitchen being! And the elation at my efforts and skills being declared adequate. I could weep for joy! Only I didn't actually weep. But I'm happy!
And now I need to stop typing because my eyes are starting to hurt from staring at this font. I'm also taking a break from the whole 50k endeavour. Let's see how long this 'break' lasts. Lol.
Ps. Now I really really really know I passed the julienne test because a few hours after I penned this blurb, mum told me to go julienne twenty shallots to make you chang. Again, no casualty fingers or fingernails. Yay!
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