Hi, foodies in the Hive!
for a fun movie night at home?
Today's Wednesday and a beautiful day. Hopefully, you've been having a nice week. I spent my evening watching movies last night, and today I want to show you my recipe for mushroom and plantain bread, which could serve as dinner by itself, since it is a protein bread without added sugar; besides, it has olives and capers which makes it festive and flavorful.
Ingredients:
2 cups diced ripe plantain
2 cup wheat flour
1 cup water
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons olive oil
pinch of salt
1 cup drained sliced mushrooms (canned)
1/4 cup stuffed olives, chopped
1/4 cup salted capers, chopped
Enough margarine to grease the baking pan
I used a rectangular pyrex, 1.5 Lt. capacity. Pyrex are my favorite for soft and moist breads. Then I can store them in the fridge in the same pan I used to bake them.
Let's make delicious bread!
This plantain and mushroom bread contains a little wheat flour. I usually make this bread with rice flour, but I didn't have any today; I also added olives and capers, which provide some contrast to the sweetness of the ripe plantain.
The first thing I did was to cut the plantain in such a way that my blender could process them easily. I put it into the blender and added the water and baking soda.
The blender did the difficult part.
Then I poured the mixture into a bowl...
...Added salt and sifted the flour...
...And mixed well with a silicone pastry spoon.
Finally, I removed the excess of salt from the olives and capers and let the mushrooms drain well. I added it all along with the olive oil and mixed well.
I poured the chunky batter into a well greased pyrex.
This went into the pre-heated electric oven for 40 minutes at 300 °F.
After an hour it was good to cut some pieces to serve at the table.
It was soft and moist. The fleshy mushrooms and olives made it really pleasant to chew.
This bread is good for breakfast or dinner. You can keep it in the fridge for a week or more.
Let me tell you a little about our snack table.
Our favorite plant based snack for a movie night at home is popcorn. I added a tablespoon of corn oil in a frying pan and let the corn kernels heat up a bit. Then I increase the heat to maximum, put the lid on the pan and wait for the kernels to pop. Simple. The secret to make them all pop fast without burning is to cover all the beans in a little oil.
I also prepared some babaganoush from scratch. I made tahini sauce by grinding roasted sesame seeds in the blender with olive oil, lemon juice and salt.
I made enough to prepare hummus later.
...I kept it in the fridge until then.
I added roasted eggplants, and crushed garlic. I roasted the eggplants directly on the stove. I like them charred; I removed the burnt peel and took the flesh to mix it with the tahini sauce.
I added the garlic and some ground cumin. I also add an extra ingredient: a little apple cider vinegar. I love that touch.
It turned out really creamy.
I served it like I was taught to by a Libanese friend: I drizzled some olive oil and ground cumin.
And finally, guacamole.
I've always prepared guacamole the same way. I just chop 1 part cilantro, 1 part red onion, 2 parts tomatoes, and a lot of mashed avocado plus a little lemon juice and salt.
I served half of the guacamole to accompany our plantain and mushroom bread, popcorn, babaganoush, and some nuts.
Enough snacks for the three last chapters of Fincher's Mind Hunter (2017), Season 2, and sadly the last one so far, and McKay's The Big Short (2015).
I hope you have found these ideas useful for a plant based snack table 😁