Around the World in 12 Dishes: Thailand-- Banana Cake

Enter the Little Pim Giveaway!!

This month Around the World in 12 Dishes is stopping in Thailand!! We have had some fun with Thailand. A few weeks ago we shared a wonderful version of Cinderella from Thailand. Today we will share more stories, resources and food!! For a brief introduction to the country of Thailand, visit our Cinderella post.

Around the World in 12 Dishes is brought to you by the following blogs. Each month each of us picks a recipe from the selected country to make with your child(ren) and share it on our blogs. You can see the line-up here.
Adventures In Mommydom, Afterschool for Smarty Pants, All Done Monkey, Babes in Deutschland, Crafty Moms Share, Maroc Mama, Creative World of Varya, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Kid World Citizen, Mermaids' Makings, The Educators' Spin On It and The Mommy Talks.

Hazel and I found many books with recipes from Thailand at the library as well as some multicultural books about food and schools. We looked through them and decided on a recipe for banana cake or kanom gluay. We found this recipe in The Cooking of Thailand by Matthew Locricchio. I adapted it to be gluten free. I also made a Thai dinner, but Hazel did not help with that food since she was tired from school, so we will only be sharing the recipe for the cake.

Banana Cake or Kanom Gluay Recipe adapted from The Cooking of Thailand by Matthew Locricchio. Now the fact that it had rice in it intrigued me and I found some jasmine rice from Thailand to use!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
1 1/4 cups cold water
5 ripe bananas
1/4 cup cold cooked white jasmine or basmati rice
3/4 cup canned unsweetened coconut cream (take thick top layer off when open can without shaking or stirring)
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup all purpose gluten free flour
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
 1/2 cup canned coconut milk
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

The first step is to soak the shredded coconut in the cold water for 10 minutes. Then drain in it in a strainer and push the back of a spoon to get more water out. Then set aside 1/4 cup of it to use on the top of the cake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Peel and slice the bananas and then add them to a large bowl with the coconut, rice and coconut cream. Using a potato masher, mash these together until well mixed. Set aside.

Break eggs and add sugar to the eggs. Beat with an electric mixer for two minutes.

In separate bowl mix flour and xanthan gum.

Add about 1/3 of the egg mixture to the banana mixture along with 1/3 of the flour mixture. Use electric mixer to mix together. Then add another 1/3 of each and mix. Then put final 1/3 of each in and mix.

Turn mixer off and add coconut milk. Use a rubber spatula to blend it into the batter.

The recipe called for a 10-inch cake pan to be lightly greased and floured. I found it filled 2 9-inch round pans. I used a baking spray instead of butter and flour. Once pan is prepared pour batter into it. Put in oven and bake for 60 to 65 minutes. The cake should be lightly brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool the cakes on a wire rack for 15 minutes and then turn out onto the racks. Sprinkle with the coconut you set aside and the confectioners' sugar. Let cool to room temperature before eating!!

All three of us liked the banana cake! Hazel and I tried it warm and found it was too hot and one of them fell apart coming out of the pan too early. I added time to the cooling here to help with this problem. It tasted much better after it was cool.

After making the cake, I made some chicken satay with a peanut sauce and stir fired vegetables (recipe from Sue Townsend's Thailand book). The satay recipe I combined several different ones that I found in the books above. Steve really liked the chicken, Hazel did not like it and I thought it was all right. Being the only one to have tasted satay before, I didn't like it in comparison to what I have had at a Thai restaurant. However we all liked the stir fried vegetables even though it did not really have a sauce on it. The lemon grass and ginger in it was  delicious. Now I went to four grocery stores to find lemon grass, but finally did. We also had sticky rice from Thai with our meal. I also found Thai fortune cookies, which we all liked as well.

We also explored some great books. One of our favorites was Peek!: a Thai Hide-and-Seek by Minfong Ho. It is a simple story of a father looking for his daughter who is playing hide-and-seek and he keeps finding the various animals of Thailand instead. The Life of Rice and The Story of Silk by Richard Sobol are two amazing books. Richard Sobol is a photographer. He traveled in Thailand for work and discovered the importance of rice to the people there. He went and told the rice farmers story. When he was back during non-rice farming season, he asked what the people in the village were doing and discovered the silk making. These books are about the life of average people in Thailand's small villages and country.

That is what we have explored in Thailand. Now it is your turn. Have you tried cooking a Thai recipe and want to share it here. I hope you will!! And in case you missed it, here are the pages for Thailand passport and placemat!

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Korea Chap ch'ae

Have you entered my current giveaway? It ends Tuesday!!

Around the World in 12 Dishes is traveling to Korea this month. On Sunday we shared a Korean Cinderella tale called Kongi and Potgi. Today we are going to share our experience trying some Korean recipes and music and stories. We also did a few easy Korean crafts.

Coloring Page from RainbowKids

The dish we spent the most time making together was Chap ch'ae or Mixed Vegetables with Cellophane Noodles.  We found the recipe in Cooking the Korean Way by Okwha Chung and Judy Monroe. We compared recipes in a few books. We all loved this meal.

Chap ch'ae (adapted from Cooking the Korean Way)
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
4 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
1 boneless chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces
1 package of cellophane noodles
6 tablespoons oil (unless you have the pan I have)
1 large onion, chopped
4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 cup baby spinach, washed
5 teaspoons sesame oil
(Note: we took out the black mushrooms and water for them and the bean sprouts)

1. In  a large ziploc bag combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, garlic, 2 teaspoons sesame seeds. Add chicken and seal and distribute the mixture among the chicken. (Note: if you do not have toasted sesame seeds, toast them first by putting them in a frying pan with no oil and on medium heat. Stir and cook until they are brown and smelly nutty.)
2. Cook and drain noodles according to package. Place in a large bowl and set aside.
3. In a large frying pan or wok, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over high heat for 1 minute. Add the chicken and fry, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes or until chicken is white and tender. Remove from heat and add chicken to noodles. (We have a new pan that does not require oil to cook, so we did not use any oil for the cooking. I love this new pan!)
4. Wipe out pan. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and cook vegetables. (The recipe says to do this separately, but we did it together as a stir-fry.) Then add vegetables to chicken and noodles. 
5. Combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, sesame oil and remaining sesame seeds. Pour over mixture.
6. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 While this was cooking and we were eating we made Oi naeng guk or cold cucumber soup (the recipe also came from Cooking the Korean Way). We however did not really like it, so we are not going to share it with you. A different night I made Pulgogi (Barbecued beef) which we loved, but Hazel did not help make it and I didn't take any pictures (it was eaten before I got my camera out). The recipe also came from Cooking the Korean Way.

We have been enjoying some Korean stories as well. Here are the variety of picture books we have found at our library. One goes through the alphabet and describes things in Korea. Another counts to ten in English and Korean and relates each number to something in Korea. Then there are traditional stories as well as modern stories.

 We also made some crafts. One that we did was a simple version of the Korean game, Yut-nori.  There are simple instructions on TLC. We used dot markers instead of stickers and I let Hazel do it. We used glass gems as our playing pieces.

We also made a traditionally dressed paper doll. We got it from Education.com. Hazel loved this craft and wants me to make more clothes for her.

We also made a Tradtional Korean Sam Taeguk Fan from a template found at 4 Crazy Kings. I let Hazel choose the colors and had not shown her theirs, but she picked the same colors.

Our final exploration of Korea has been listening to some music we got from the library. The first two CD's we listened to came from the adult section and they were all right, but we did not listen to them too long. We have not listened to the children's music yet, but I'm planning on bringing it in my car tomorrow on our way to school.

So that is our exploration of Korea. Have you cooked any Korean food that you would like to share in our trip around the world? This blog hop is brought to you by the following amazing blogs! Please be sure to visit them to see what they cooked this month.

Adventures In Mommydom - Afterschooling for Smarty Pants - All Done Monkey - Crafty Moms Share - Creative World of Varya - Glittering Muffins - Here Come The Girls - Kid World Citizen -  Mermaids’ Makings - The Educators’ Spin On It - Maroc Mama

Also check out Around the World in 12 Dishes on Pinterest. Be sure to follow so you will not miss a thing! The Korean Placemat is available here and the Korean Passport Pages are available here. Now it is your turn to share or to be inspired to try some of the recipes shared at this blog hop!

Around the World in 12 Dishes--New Zealand Kiwi Cake

This month we are "traveling" to New Zealand with Around the World in 12 Dishes. Now one of Hazel's favorite fruits is a kiwi. I don't always buy them due to the cost at certain times of the year, but she can literally eat a couple in a sitting if I let her. At the end of August she asked why we couldn't grow our own kiwis. I decided to see if there were any books on growing your own at the library and found two: Eat the Fruit, Plant the Seed by Millicent Selsam and Jerome Wexler and Grow It Again by Elizabeth MacLeod. We checked them out and gave it a try. Currently we have a bag of soil with kiwi seeds in our refrigerator. You have to chill them for five to six weeks so they think they are planted through a winter. We will be planting them in a pot in October.

Coloring Page available at DLTK Kids

Since Hazel loves kiwi it only seemed fitting to try a kiwi recipe. We decided to try a recipe for kiwi cake. We adapted the recipe from The Search for NZ's Favourite Recipe for kiwifruit and ginger cake. The first thing we had to do was figure out how to make it gluten free since the whole family has gone reduced gluten now or really no gluten when we can control it. Plus we had to figure out the measurements and oven temperature.

Ingredients
Butter (about 9 Tablespoons or 1 stick and a tablespoon more)
1 cups Sugar
2 Eggs
5 Medium Kiwis, peeled and mashed (Hazel loved mashing them)
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Boiling Milk (I put it in the microwave for 45 seconds and that was a bit too long, so try 30)
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 cups Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
Chocolate Frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8-inch or 9-inch cake pan.

Hazel showing off the green batter

Cream the butter and sugar with your mixer. Hazel loves controlling the mixer plus adding things to the bowl.

Add the eggs. Hazel always beats them slightly for me.

Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling milk. Then add this mixture and the mashed kiwi to the sugar mixture.

Combine the flour, baking powder, xanthan gum and ginger and then add it to the rest of the ingredients.

Put in the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and then frost with chocolate frosting.

Cooling right out of oven

We could not wait for the frosting to try it, so we cut into it before it was completely cool.

We loved it. In fact we each had two pieces before we frosted it. Hazel loved to point out the black dots and tell me they were the seeds of the kiwi.

We bought a can of pre-made frosting which I hardly ever do, but Hazel had a cold and was home sick from school when we made the cake. We both frosted the remainder of the cake. Then had a piece for dessert at dinner. Steve did not like it, but that does not surprise me since he does not like kiwis or anything new for that matter.

We of course read stories and looked at many non-fiction books to learn more about New Zealand. We discovered Margaret Mahy, a New Zealand author who has many books here in the States. We really loved her book, Making Friends. We read many Maori stories and legends. The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand.

We also looked at reference books.

And we looked at some of the wildlife unique to New Zealand--in particular birds.

Hazel really loved The Moa book by Tamara Green. She read it to Ducky the next morning and loved looking at the pictures of the extinct or almost extinct bird. We learned a new word, ratite which the moa and the kiwi are members of. Ratite is a species of flightless birds which include the ostrich, emu and others.

As always we also listened to some music from New Zealand. Here are some of the CD covers we found the music to listen.

So that has been our exploration of New Zealand. Hazel still wants to make a kiwi tart, so we may be doing some more with this wonderful country. However now it is your turn to share and to visit. Please visit these other wonderful host blogs.

Adventures In Mommydom - Afterschooling for Smarty Pants - All Done Monkey - Crafty Moms Share - Creative World of Varya - Glittering Muffins - Here Come The Girls - Kid World Citizen - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Mermaids’ Makings - The Educators’ Spin On It - Maroc Mama
 

Also check out Around the World in 12 Dishes on Pinterest. Be sure to follow so you will not miss a thing! Here are the passport pages for New Zealand. Here is the placemat for New Zealand.

Please share any dishes you have tried from New Zealand or crafts, activities, etc. to teach your child(ren) about New Zealand.

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Exploring Egypt Part 2

Last week we shared our first Egyptian cooking, which was Date Cake. Today we are going to share our Egyptian Dinner recipes. Our dinner recipes came from Foods of Egypt by Barbara Sheen.

Around the World in 12 Dishes--Egypt Part 1 Date Cake

Today we are starting our exploration of Egypt. Since there are so many wonderful resources out there, we will be sharing our adventures over several posts. The first recipe we tried was for a date cake. The recipe came from A World of Recipes Series book called  Egypt by Sue Townsend and Caroline Young.

Dates are plentiful in Egypt, so they are used often in Egyptian cooking.

Source: Phillip Martin

Date Cake
11 oz fresh dates
5 oz blanched almonds
4 oz soft brown sugar
1 orange
4 eggs, separated
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 1/2 oz butter
3 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp confectioners' sugar to dust

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Grease a 9-in cake pan with butter or margarine and line it with wax paper.

Cut dates in half and remove pits.

Put almonds and brown sugar into a food processor and chop/blend them until coarsely chopped. (The recipe called for a blender, but I found my blender didn't do the job and I needed the food processor.)

Add the dates and chop until finely chopped, but not ground. Put aside.

Using the fine side of a grater, grate the rind from the orange and set the rind aside. Then cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice from half of it.

Whisk the egg whites until they make soft peaks and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the yolks, granulated sugar and cardamom. Stir in the date mixture, butter, orange rind and 1 tablespoon of orange juice, and cornstarch.

Carefully fold in the egg whites. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 35-45 minutes until the cake springs back when pressed.

Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes and then place it on a wire rack. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

Here are some of the resources we have been exploring. The first are a set of books that were definitely stories from modern times. Some are meant to take place in ancient times and/or explore ancient times. Hands Around the Library Protecting Egypt's Treasured Books by Karen Leggett Abouraya is a wonderful modern book about the student led protests they had a few years ago. It is really one of the only children's books I found about more recent events in Egypt. Mummy Math and Count Your Way through Egypt I shared as our math exploration on Sunday with activities to go along with them. The other two are modern twists on seeing the sights and understanding Ancient Egypt.

Here are our non-fiction reference books. These books give a good look at Egypt both present day and ancient and also offer quite a few great crafts to go along with them. One of my favorites is What Did the Ancient Egyptians Do for Me? by Patrick Catel. It really explains how some of the things we use in every day life came from Ancient Egypt.

So far we have played with pyramids. We made one out of Legos and made some out of paper nets we found at Activity Village. We are hoping to make the sand clay ones from The Crafts and Culture of the Ancient Egyptians by Joann Jovinelly and Jason Netelkos, but have not had time yet. Hopefully we will have them to share next week.

I hope you will join us next Tuesday for our second adventure in exploring Egypt. We will share more food, ancient tales and music. Here is a great Egypt placemat to color for the younger children. Here is the four page passport for Egypt. Now you can check out these great Egyptian posts or add your own.

Around the World in 12 Dishes--Kenya

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

This month we are "traveling" to Kenya with Around the World In 12 Dishes. Now we have explored Kenya a bit before. Last week we found our Flat Stanley was in Kenya dressed as a Massai warrior. Then we had the pleasure of exploring Christmas in Kenya for the Christmas Around the World Series last year. And thanks to Andrea over at Ziezo, we were able to extend it with a book she sent us from Kenya last February. Finally last summer we exchanged postcards with Andrea's children and we shared a bit here.

Source

Now Kenya is known for it animals and the savannah. How many people dream of going on a safari and let's face it, Kenya is where you do this. It is home to the lions, giraffes, elephants, leopards, buffalo, rhinoceros and many more. It is also home to the Massai, which is the group of indigenious people most recognized throughout the world due to their distinct clothes and jewelry. You can learn more about the Massai in our Flat Stanley post.

This month we did our normal exploring with some cooking, stories and music. We did not get a chance to do a craft yet, but we did for our Christmas post. The stories we read are from the three books pictured above. We of course also read the Christmas stories at Christmas time or when we got them. The best part of the Creation book is that there is also a story from Egypt in it and Egypt is our country to explore next month so we have a headstart already.

Music was a little harder to find, but we found some Kenyan songs on these CD's. We got all of our out of the library. Then we used the following books as references to learn more about Kenya and get ideas for what to make. Since we have already made kaimati and mandazi, I thought we would try something that was not a treat. In the book, A Kenyan Christmas by Auntie Kiko, I discovered how popular kale is in Kenya and thought it would be interesting to try a Kenyan kale dish. Now I like kale, but my family does not usually. Steve will eat it when it is cooked with other flavors. Hazel will barely try it (and she tries just about everything).

While looking for a kale recipe, I came across a recipe for irio. I decided to check and see what was available on line for irio and found this recipe from Serious Eats. There are slight difference between the various recipes I found, but I had all the ingredients in this one and knew my family would like it so I went with it. They loved it and asked me to make it again. Or course being made with peas, corn and potatoes--three of Hazel's and Steve's favorite vegetables basically guaranteed they would like it.

Then a few days later I made a recipe for sukuma wiki. Now sukuma wiki means stretch the week. Apparently most Kenyans grow kale or some sort of greens to use in this recipe. Again there was a huge variation in the recipes I found. Some used kale, some used collard greens or just called for any greens; some used fresh tomatoes and some used tomato paste; etc. I decided to go with this one on the Kitchn. For us it involved a trip to the farmer's market. We were able to get the kale and tomatoes there. I did not use cumin (only because I forgot to buy some and I am out of it). I liked the recipe and Steve said it was ok. Hazel did not like it though.

I am joining these amazing blogs to bring you Around the World in 12 Dishes and to include a blog hop where you can share your own recipes and activities! 

Adventures In Mommydom, All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Creative Family Fun, Creative World of Varya, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Juggling with Kids, Kid World Citizen, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Mermaids' Makings, The Educators' Spin On It and The Hands-On Homeschooler

 

For the wonderful Kenya Passport that Glittering Muffins puts out click here and the wonderful Kenya Placemat is here.

Now it is your turn to share a recipe, craft, activity with a Kenyan theme. Or if you do not have one, you can check out the other great ones on this blog hop!

Exploring Spain 2 with Food, Crafts, Music and Dance

Last week I shared our first post about exploring Spain with food, craft and stories. Today we decided to explore it a bit more with some music, gazpacho and flamenco dancing and a flamenco dancer craft. 

We started by making some gazpacho. We combined the three recipes found in the same three cookbooks we used last time. Hazel enjoyed peeling and chopping the cucumber. We also pulled out the garlic press and the food processor, so she enjoyed it. She said the soup itself was all right, but really did not eat much. (The true test to whether she likes something is how much she eats. She always says things are good.) I on the other hand had two bowls of it for lunch.

Gazpacho Recipe:
2 medium cucumbers, peeled and chopped
5 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
4 cups cubed bread with crusts removed first
4 cups cold water
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon oregano
juice of a lime

Put all ingredients in food processor and puree. Chill for a few hours and serve cold.


After making the soup, we read a bit more about Spain in the Fiesta Series Spain book. I wanted to read more so we could try the flamenco dance. Hazel loved doing this. We pulled out the fan we made last week as well as the one we bought in Epcot and her to castanets. Then we danced around the house to a CD of Flamenco Music from Spain that we got out of the library.

Hazel really wanted to do a craft today as well, so we made a flamenco dancer clothespin doll. I found the instructions at Making Friends. Hazel really enjoyed wrapping the string for the dress. While making this craft, we continued to listen to the Flamenco CD. Then t we listened to a playlist of songs from Spain from these CD's.

Overall we had fun learning a bit about Spain! Next month we will be "traveling" to Kenya. I hope you will join us! Plus next week I'll have a fun craft I found to keep track of all of these adventures.

Also for your own passport check out this link from Glittering Muffins and for a fun placemat, this link.

You also can check out these amazing posts or add your own Spanish adventure here.