Tropical breakfast bread

Last week I had you make a batch of caramel syrup. This week I’m going to show you one of the many spectacular ways in which you can enjoy this divine ingredient.

Bananas reign among my husband’s five major food groups (the others being peanuts, ice cream, potatoes, and more ice cream). 

So, I usually don’t have much opportunity to make banana bread unless they were on sale somewhere and J.H. bought way too many in an excess of enthusiasm.

Nevertheless, this breakfast bread should be on constant rotation in my (and your) house and is an excellent excuse for bringing too many bananas home and allowing them to ripen past the fresh-eating state. This isn’t your mom’s banana bread, though, as I’ve mixed this traditional recipe up a bit and introduced more tropical, almost Taiwanese flavors into one of our favorite breakfast pastries.

Worthy of Chartres

Finely diced, fresh mango is fabulous here, not only for its flavor, but also because when you use a fluted Bundt pan like this one here (see the Tips), you get a little stained glass action going in the ridges, and that makes the morning a whole lot better.

The usual massive amount of sugar found in most banana breads is swapped out here so that you can taste other, more naturally sweet things, like chewy Medjool dates and toasted cashews. 

That fact and the whole wheat flour here might suggest that this is a very healthy meal and almost worthy of health food status, but I wouldn’t take that at all too seriously, since the final caress of caramel makes this look and taste totally luscious and bumps up the sugar quotient quite nicely. 

Serve with hot coffee or some warm milk for the perfect breakfast, brunch, afternoon snack, or late night kitchen run. J.H. wants me to add that ice cream would go very well with this, too.

Smells like Hawaii, too

Tropical breakfast bread chez Huang

Serves 8

Pan and dry ingredients:

Spray oil

2 cups (300 g) whole wheat flour, plus a little more for dusting the pans

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon sea salt

Fruit and nuts:

2 large, very ripe bananas (about 13 ounces / 370 g total)

1 ripe but firm mango (around 10 ounces / 280 g)

6 Medjool dates

1 cup toasted cashews

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger

Cake with caramel puddle

The rest:

½ cup (125 g) unsalted butter, softened

⅓ cup (65 g) dark brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs, at room temperature

½ cup or more caramel syrup, or confectioner’s sugar as needed

1. Set the rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat it to 350°F (175°C). Prepare a medium-sized (6 cup / 1400 mL) Bundt pan or a 9 x 5 inch (23 x 13 cm) baking pan by spraying it with oil and dusting it with flour (see Tips).

2. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a work bowl. Peel and mash the bananas in a medium work bowl. Peel and seed the mango before cutting it into ½ inch (1 cm) dice. Pit the dates and cut into ¼ inch (5 mm) slices. Chop the cashews very coarsely, since you want them to retain some personality. Add the mango, dates, cashews, and grated ginger to the bananas.

The ice cream fiend

3. Using a stand or hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the eggs and beat until the mixture is light and creamy. Stir in the fruit and nuts, and then gently mix in the flour mixture only until everything looks evenly combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, level off the top a bit, and then bake the bread until it is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the thickest area comes out clean (around 45 to 55 minutes). Lightly cover the pan with foil during the last 20 minutes if it is browning very quickly.

4. Cool the bread in the pan for about 10 minutes, as this will make it easier to dislodge the bread. If you are using a Bundt pan, carefully run a thin knife around the edge of the bread to loosen it, and then turn it out onto a plate; if you’re using a loaf pan, just loosen the bread, but leave it in the pan. Immediately brush the caramel all over the bread, letting it soak in and drizzle down the sides. After at least 10 minutes, you can serve it warm. Or, cool it down completely and refrigerate. Powdered sugar may be used instead of the caramel; in that case, sift the sugar over the cooled cake just before serving.

Tips:

My new favorite pan

Get a gorgeous Bundt pan if you want to change up your cake game without too much effort. I mean, look at this cake. It doesn’t need frosting to make a statement. In fact, the frosting would hide its intense beauty. This particular one is called Nordic Ware Heritage and is the 6-cup size, which is relatively small and half the size of a regular (10 to 12-cup pan).

One thing you have to be sure to do when working with a fancy pants pan like this is to oil and flour it properly. Spray oil or butter work fine. BUT be sure work the oil into all of those little fissures, or else you will have a dickens of a time removing that cake.

What I do is spray oil all over the inside of the pan and then run a pastry brush up and down each ridge. Don't overdo it with the oil - you don't want it to puddle in the pan - but be sure that it completely coats the surface. Then, sprinkle a tablespoon or two of whatever flour you are using inside the pan. Rotate and shake the pan to cover every scintilla of the surface with flour, and the knock out the excess by tapping it with your hand. 

Red-cooked chicken chez Huang

This is without a doubt one of my husband’s favorite things to eat. 

He will get this really wistful look on his face at times, and I know what’s coming down the pike: a reminiscence about how much he loved this dish as a child. Red-cooked chicken was one of the few dishes his mother made well, and when I see that look, he will be sitting there, remembering a great meal he once had at home, getting hungrier with each passing minute. And I know what I'll have to make for dinner.

But even although this called “red-cooked chicken,” it’s not the chicken that makes him so deliriously happy here – although he certainly loves it – it’s the potatoes. Lots of potatoes soaking up lots of sauce is his personal idea of heaven. Again: Mom.

Red-cooked anything is a specialty of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai area. These two culinary goldmines that circle around the mouth of the Yangtze River are home to many savory delights, but red cooking is one of the most famous.

Potatoes, mushrooms, & chicken

You will require excellent soy sauce here (get Taiwan’s Wan Ja Shan or Kim Lan brands, if you can, as the flavor is excellent), as well as rock sugar, Shaoxing rice wine, ginger, and green onions. Everything else is optional.

The potatoes are courtesy of his mother, who hailed from the port city of Tianjin, which is further north along the coast near Beijing. Spuds are a much bigger deal there in Hebei than in the Yangtze area. They also turn this into a more stick-to-your-ribs dish that people in colder climes love, meaning that this is a bit of a crossbreed. But it’s a family dish that really knocks it out of the park.

Anyway, about those little tricks that make this casa de Huang dish extra special:

First, I like to caramelize the rock sugar. This is a whole lot easier than it sounds, since all you need to do is basically simmer the lumps of sugar in some oil and water until they melt and turn a golden brown. What this does is change the chemistry of the sauce – most importantly, the texture. Caramel turns thin sauces into unctuous robes that cling to meat and vegetables rather than run down to the bottom of the dish. It then combines with the soy sauce and rice wine to become a seasoning unto itself, something with great depth, delectable flavor, and divine mouth feel.

Caramel lends foods a satiny gloss that is almost impossible to duplicate. Your diners will be instantly seduced by the appearance, even before those first enticing whiffs reach across the table and grab them by the nose.

Caramel has this slightly bitter undercurrent that also cuts through the intense sweetness of the sugar, while the toasting of the sugar lends a slight taste of toffee that will echo around your mouth.

I am going to have you make more than you will need for this recipe, since it should end up changing your life, or at the very least making your food a whole lot better. A touch of vinegar in the mix amps up the acidity a notch, which will help discourage mold, since caramel syrup keeps for a couple of weeks if you stash it in the refrigerator. The little slick of oil in there also helps to tamp down colonization by foreign bodies (see Tips). I tend to store it in a covered glass bottle so that I can microwave it or set it in a pan of hot water to loosen up.

Amber goodness

There are lots of directions here for the caramel, but don’t get discouraged. It is super easy to make – you’ll see that for yourself the first time you actually do it – but it’s also so incredibly hot that I want to ensure that you don’t get burned, hence the detailed steps.

In addition, note the directions on covering the pan and not using your spoon to stir the sugar – these two steps will keep the sugar from seizing up and forming crystals in your otherwise silky caramel. You don’t want that.

If you’re short on time, go ahead and use plain old rock sugar or, if you absolutely must, regular white sugar. Rock sugar is infinitely preferable, since it will lend silkiness to the texture, and also won’t leave behind a sour aftertaste.

I toss in black mushrooms for their meaty aroma and incredible perfume. Lots of green onions and ginger add considerable zip to the dish, and the potatoes soak up all of these interesting elements. The chicken – it turns out – ends up being more of a supporting character here, as it tosses its meaty flavors and butteriness into the ring, but it’s not the star of the show. Not as far as my husband is concerned, at least.

Serve this with lots of hot steamed rice and a green vegetable. Expect applause.

Red-cooked chicken chez Huang

Huángjiā hóngshāo jī  黃家紅燒雞

Jiangsu, or thereabouts

Serves 4 to 6

Marinating chicken

Caramel syrup:

3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil

1 cup (more or less) yellow rock sugar, preferably in relatively small chunks

1 cup (240 cc) water, divided in half

1 tablespoon rice or apple cider vinegar

Chicken and vegetables:

Around 1½ pounds (700 g) chicken wings, cut into sections (or thighs, preferably with the skins on)

3½ tablespoons regular soy sauce

½ tablespoon dark soy sauce

3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil

10 thin slices fresh ginger

5 green onions, trimmed and chopped into 1-inch (5 cm) pieces

8 dried black mushrooms, soaked until supple, trimmed, and cut into quarters (strain the soaking liquid)

½ cup (120 cc) Shaoxing rice wine

1 cup (240 cc) boiling water,

2 medium Yukon Gold or baking potatoes (or up to 6, if you are feeding someone like my husband)

Green onions from the garden

1. To make the caramel syrup: use a medium-sized stainless steel saucepan for the caramel since it’s non-reactive (meaning it will not cause a chemical reaction, like aluminum will) and its light color will help you notice when the sugar is turning amber. Pour the oil into the pan and add the rock sugar. Heat these together over medium-low heat, gently shaking things around occasionally. The hot oil will soon start to open up the fissures between the crystals, so use a wooden spoon to lightly tap on the sugar as it heats up. When the lumps start to noticeably crumble, whack them a bit harder to encourage them to dissolve into a wet sand. (If a couple of large lumps remain, don't sweat it – they will break down later in Step 2.) Put your spoon to one side and don’t use it anymore.

2. Pointing the pan away from you so that you don’t get splattered, add half of the water. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, cover it for a few minutes to wash down any sugar crystals in the pan and give the rest of the lumps a chance to dissolve, and then uncover. Add all of the vinegar and bring the liquid back to a full boil without stirring.

3. Briskly boil it for around 10 minutes, swirling it now and then, until it starts to turn amber and caramelize. When the syrup is an even golden brown, lower the heat to medium-high and – while again directing the pan away from you – carefully add the rest of the water. The syrup will boil furiously at this point, but the water will serve to immediately lower the heat and prevent the sugar from burning. When it subsides, swirl the hot caramel around until it is smooth. Pour this into a heatproof measuring cup to cool. Makes 1 cup (240 cc).

Way too many/still not enough potatoes

4. Wipe the chicken parts with a paper towel and place them in a small work bowl. Pour the two soy sauces over them, toss well, and let the chicken marinate while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

5. Add the oil to your wok and set it over medium-high heat. Add the ginger and half of green onions (reserve most of the chopped green leaves for garnish in this very brown dish), and stir these around until they brown. Scoot them up the side of the wok. Add the chicken to the wok, but reserve the marinade. Brown the chicken on all sides, getting a little caramelization going if you can (revel in the amazing aroma while you're at it), and when the chicken is browned on all sides, add the mushrooms, their strained soaking liquid, the rice wine, about ¼ cup (60 cc) caramel syrup, and enough boiling water to barely cover the chicken. Simmer the ingredients over medium heat until the meat can be easily pierced through the thickest part with a chopstick, around 15 minutes for wings, 25 minutes for thighs. (You can make the dish ahead of time up to this point. Let the chicken rest in the sauce for up to 3 days, which will only make it taste more amazing.) Use a slotted spoon to remove the chicken from the wok to a large work bowl. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning with more soy sauce or caramel or rice wine as desired.

6. While the chicken is cooking, peel the potatoes, if you like, and cut them into 1-inch (2 cm) cubes. Add these to the sauce left in the wok, add the cup (240 cc) of boiling water, stir, and simmer the potatoes until they are barely tender. Raise the heat to high, add the chicken, and rapidly boil the sauce down until only around a couple tablespoons remain and a fine gloss robes each piece. Sprinkle on the green onions, toss one final time, and serve.

Tip

If you would like a more standard dessert-type glaze with no oil, either melt the rock sugar in half of the water and caramelize it as directed above before adding the second half of the water, or else follow these directions for the caramel recipe I made to go with moon cakes.