Quick and Easy Banana Pancakes

Making pancakes is one of the best ways to utilize ripe bananas, don't you agree?

Banana pancakes - 

Ingredients (about 6 pieces)?

Dry:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet:

• 1 large or 1.5 regular size ripe banana (about 3/4 cup mashed)
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup milk

Others:

• Some avocado oil or unsalted butter
• Some honey or maple syrup
• Some fresh fruits (optional)

How?

Have a big bowl ready and sift in all the ingredients listed under the "dry" section.

Have an even bigger bowl ready, peel and mash the ripe banana there. We will need about 3/4 cup mashed banana in the end. 

Break one egg to a separate bowl and beat it, then pour into the ripe banana bowl. Also pour in 3/4 cup of milk. Whisk the whole thing till evenly blended.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches. Make sure it's evenly blended before dumping in the second batch. Mix till blended again.

Have a non-stick pan ready. Wipe some avocado oil or add two tablespoons of unsalted butter. Switch to medium heat and wait till warm or the butter melts.

Pour in equal amount of batter every time, and try not to let the batter touch one another. I used a ladle for even measurement. Slowly heat up the batter, it'll start to puff up a little bit and the color will turn golden brown on the bottom.

Then carefully flip the pancakes and continue to sear the other side. You can add more avocado oil or butter if needed. The whole thing will take about 1.5 or 2 minutes for each side.

Repeat till you finish all the batter. This recipe yields about 6 medium sized pancakes for me.

To serve the pancakes, have some fresh fruits on top, here I used banana slices and blueberries. Also drizzle some honey or maple syrup. I personally prefer maple syrup, somehow the aroma works better with avocado oil.

For sure the pancakes will smell and taste better if using butter, but I was opting for a less common option here. 

On a side note, for lactose-intolerant people, you can easily find lactose-free milk for the pancake batter, and just use avocado oil for the cooking part. That way you get to enjoy such brunch/snack meal without much worries.

Snake Beans Pork Belly and Dried Anchovy Rice 長豆三層肉小魚乾悶飯

It's more of a "semi" rice cooker recipe because instead of adding all the raw ingredients to the rice cooker, we are actually going to stir-fry some stuff first in a wok then transfer to the rice cooker to finish cooking.

So What's the point of that extra stir-fry or searing work? It'll boost up the aroma, giving it more kick to the final dish. A few more kitchenware to wash, but the end result is totally worth it.

Snake beans pork belly and dried anchovy rice 長豆三層肉小魚乾悶飯 - 

Ingredients (about 5 to 6 portions)?

• 370 grams pork belly
• 2 cups dried anchovies
• 20 snake beans
• 1 stalk scallion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons dried shrimp 蝦米
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons aged Shaoxing wine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 rice measuring cups basmati rice
• Some water
• 1 to 2 red chilies (optional)

How?

Rinse then soak the dried shrimps in room temperature water. Once plump, drain and pat really dry with paper towel. Finely chop the dried shrimps. Destem and chop the scallion. Peel and chop the garlic cloves.

Slice the pork belly to smaller pieces, about 1mm thickness. Make sure to slice the meat in the right direction, so that each piece gets a bit of fatty part. Use 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 2 tablespoons of aged Shaoxing wine to marinate the pork for about 10 minutes.

Trim the tips of the snake beans, peel down fibrous string in the center if any. Once prepped, cut the beans to shorter sections. 

Use rice measuring cup for the raw rice grains, need 3 cups total. Rinse and wash the rice like you normally would then drain and set aside.

Have a wok or big pan ready, drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil and switch to medium heat. Add in dried shrimps along with garlic and scallion. Stir-fry till aromatic but careful not burning the garlic bits.

Add in pork belly, stir-fry and let the meat cook till some fats have been rendered.

Add in dried anchovies. Mix and cook for about a minute. Add in snake beans and cook for another minute.

Transfer washed and drained rice over. Also add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and 2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce. Give it a quick stir-fry. The fat rendered earlier should now fully coated each and every grain.

Scoop this rice mixture to the rice cooker, the inner pot usually. Add some more water. How I measure it is that I usually just pour the water till it merely reaches the edge of the ingredient inside. 

Simply press the start button and let the rice cooker do its job. Once ready, take out the inner pot. 

Fluff the rice then scoop to serving bowls. I also add some chopped red chilies on top, just love that spicy kick with savory grains combo.

The dark soy sauce is more so for the look, making the final dish darker. Its actual taste is not as salty as regular soy sauce. 

So don't worry if you don't have dark soy sauce on hand, but do up the amount of total regular soy sauce used to 4 tablespoons. Also expect a lighter color result in the end.

Other Chinese rice cooker recipes:

• Chinese sausage and shrimp rice
• Aromatic magao chicken soup prepared with Tatung steam rice cooker