Idly Shaped Banana Steamed Goodness

While everyone else was napping this afternoon, I went through Tuyet's recently uploaded pictures and then made a special treat with Maddie. I'd been wanting to use a mini idly plate given to me by someone special in India. The first use was last week when we made Banana Muffins for Charlotte's 3rd birthday. This was a breakfast treat - 6 muffins, 4 tart muffins, and the leftover batter in the idly plate. They all turned out quite well. Today I made up a recipe based on pancakes adding banana and cinnamon. I wanted to reduce the sugar and fat from the muffin recipe. It wasn't quite as flavorful as I would have liked. Here's the recipe I used with planned adjustments for next time.

1 egg
1.5 c flour (1 c white, 1/2 c whole wheat)
2.5 t baking powder (next time just 2 t)
1/2 t salt
2 T sugar (next time 3 T sugar)
1 c soymilk (next time 1/2-3/4 c soy milk, or real milk)
1 banana (next time 2 bananas)
lots of cinnamon

Mix the ingredients, spoon into a buttered plate and steam until done. This doesn't take very long - depending on the depth of your batter. The good thing is because you're steaming you can't really over do it, as you can in an oven.

On Charlotte's birthday we also made a special trip into Chinatown. This time I noticed just how much Vietnamese influence there was, as opposed to Chinese. We even had a lunch at a Vietnamese place, where the waiter spoke to me in Chinese. I ordered something similar to what I had for breakfast several times in Ho Chi Minh City - a noodle dish with pork and spring rolls. This version was dry, but still tasty.

Before lunch, we made a trip to Tang Freres for some groceries. On our way back from lunch to the parking lot, we spotted this fork lift being used to transport LOADS of bai-tsai into the back of someone's car. I'd like to think that it was a real chinese family loading up on their weekly supply of asian vegetables - however, it's probably more likely that they owned a restaurant.