9 years and counting!

9 Years! That’s how old My Foodcourt is 🙂

What started as a journal to document heirloom recipes, soon became a passion and now an integral part of my life. Exploring different cuisines,Learning food photography,Cook-alongs,Bake-alongs, food events, Giveaways,some media mentions,blogging Off and On (at my own pace 🙂 ), moving to another space and then moving back – all this happened during these 9 long years.

I have said this before and will say it again- I have been very lucky to meet talented, generous and ever encouraging virtual friends during these years, who now are my friends for life. Some of them I have met in person too. Thank You my food blogger friends as well as readers of My Foodcourt. I am so glad we crossed paths!

Many of my food blogger friends have stopped blogging now. I miss the camaraderie we enjoyed back then, since we were such a close knit group. Not that it doesn’t exist anymore, but the small food blogging group has now become an ocean and it is a pretty difficult to keep up with the happenings.

I also miss posts from my friend Indira of Mahanandi very much. Mahanandi, as I have said earlier was the inspiration to start this blog in the first place. I am so glad that I met Indira few years back when I visited Sugarland. I wish and hope she gets back to blogging soon!

On that Nostalgic note, I would like to share a recipe for a Banana and Date loaf  to celebrate these glorious 9 years of my virtual life .

The original recipe is from  Lisa’s Lemoy Kitchen . I made a few changes to it. I used part whole wheat and part APF/Maida instead of the spelt flour. Also I reduced the sugar to less that half cup, since I thought 1 cup sugar was too sweet. Also I skipped the pecans,since the little Diva in our house does not like nuts 🙂

I baked 6 mini Banana and Date loaves instead of 1 large loaf and they were gone in no time. This is a great way to use up overripe Bananas.

Here’s the recipe for the Banana and Date loaf

Adapted from  Lisa’s Lemoy Kitchen

Makes 6 mini loaves

Ingredients

1 cup All purpose flour(Maida)  + ½ cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
200g pitted dates (roughly chopped)
½ cup caster sugar or a little less
2 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
3 very large ripe bananas (mashed)
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degC.

Grease and dust the loaf pan or mini pans.

Sift flour and baking soda into a mixing bowl.

Add salt and dates.

Mix to thoroughly coat the nuts and dates.

Use electric mixer, whisk the eggs, sugar and oil until light and creamy.

Add mashed banana and vanilla extract.

Add dry ingredients into the banana batter.

Pour into the loaf/mini pans.

Bake for 50-60 minutes (large pan) or ~15-18 minutes for the mini loaf pans or until skewers comes out clean.

Go Bananas!

Jihvā for Ingredients (JFI) is an online monthly food event, celebrating the Ingredients and what they can do for our Jihvā. This is the brainchild of Indira of Mahanandi. This month JFI celebrates the goodness of Bananas at Mandira’s Ahaar.

These are some of my favourite ways (other than just eating plain bananas) to use Ripe Bananas; very simple recipes yet very close to my heart and palette.

These Banana recipes are being sent to Mandira. Thank you Mandira for hosting this month’s JFI-Banana. 

                           

Kelichi Shikran: The name brings back some warm comforting memories. Shikran Poli was my favourite combination in school days and reminds me very much of my grandmother (I don’t know why but it does!) Mashed ripe bananas (my mom says slicing doesn’t give the same taste to shikran-it has to be mashed with the hands!), sugar and milk all mixed together to the desired proportion that’s Shikran. The taste is as good as it is simple to make it! I also add a few dry fruits like cashews, raisins and dates.If a person like me (not at all fond of sweets) can relish this, anyone can!

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 Kelichi Shikran recipe

Serving: For 1 bowl/1 person

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1 large ripe banana

~ ½ cup milk (room temperature)

½ tsp sugar

Choice of nuts and dry fruits (I have used Cashewnuts, Raisins and dates) 

† Mash the banana with your hand in the bowl you want to serve the Shikran

† Add milk, sugar and the nuts/dry fruits mix nicely.

† Serve with Roti.

                        

Kelichi Koshimbir (Banana Raita): Ok if you are worse than me; as far as sweet tooth is concerned then this is another homely, comforting dish for you. Ripe bananas are sliced and mixed with yoghurt, green chillies, salt, sugar and some cumene powder to make this delicious Kelichi (Banana) koshimbir (Raita).

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Kelichi Koshimbir recipe

Serving: For 1 bowl/1 person

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1 large ripe banana

~ ½ cup curd/ yoghurt whisked

1 green chilly slit and chopped

A pinch of sugar

Salt to taste

¼ tsp cumene powder 

† Slice the banana

† Add the other ingredients and mix well.

† Serve with Roti  

                          

Kelicha Sheera: Sheera is a traditional Maharshtrian sweet, usually served as ‘Prasad’ for Satyanarayan puja.The Sheera that is made for ‘Prasad’ usually has slices of banana in it and most people love this version of the Sheera most; also that it is made for God makes it much more divine! I have already blogged about Mango sheera here. The recipe is the same.Just replace the mango pulp with slices of banana to make this divine Kelicha Sheera.

                          

                                Dancing Banana and friends