When this book was announced as the Cook the Books selection for December/January, I wasn't sure that I would be able to join in as both the paper book and the e-books were pretty expensive. I tried a few different places and then realised that the book was available as an audiobook and I had credits available!
Bite By Bite is a collection of short food essays from essayist and poet Aimee Nexhukumatathil. It is a really interesting mix of nostalgia, the author's personal memories, culture and food history.
The audiobook is narrated by the author herself. Some times that can work and other times not so much, but I do think it worked here, mainly because it is her memories, her heritage, her favourite foods etc. It also worked as an audiobook for me because it isn't a straight line narrative, by which I mean because all the essays are short and about particular subjects so if you don't listen for a week it doesn't matter. You can just pick up the next story and go from there. Some of the essays are 3 or 4 minutes long and others are about 15 minutes long.
The author is of both Indian and Phillipino heritage which brings an interesting mix of ingredients, and a little bit of competition to the mix such as when her parents disagree about whether the best mangoes grow in India or The Phillipines. There are also a number a traditional Phillipino dishes that are included such as Lumpia and Kaong. There is also an influence from her travels, such as the essays about Shave Ice and associated social history in Hawaii and Gyro from Greece.
I did learn quite a lot from many of these essays, and it did get me thinking. For example, there are numerous chapters about different types of bananas. In our supermarkets, you might be lucky to find two varieties of bananas. Who decided that those are the only two varieties that we should have? I was particularly intrigued by a variety called Saba Banana that is less sweet but is used as part of a bananacue in the Philippines. Barbecued banana with a caramel sauce sounds amazing! There were also other fruits that also have some different banana asssociated names, such as Pawpaw which can be known as names like Poor Mans Bananas or Hoosier Bananas. Here in Australia, we tend to call them Papaya.
I was surprised to see the suggestion that you can make your own homemade vanilla extract by using vanilla beans and vodka. I have never even thought that such a thing could be possible! And this chapter was also interesting due to the history of the cultivation of vanilla.
Some of the essays are more a collection of sentences, for example in the chapter about onion, but others are personal stories which flow a lot better.
I am so glad that I was able to participate this time. I don't read a lot of non fiction, so I am not sure I would have come across this book if not for Cook the Books.
I decided pretty early on what I was going to make, although I did have a few other ideas, but in the end I decided to make something that is kind of inspired by the essay on pineapple.
I really had two reasons for making Hummingbird cakes. The first was because in the essay, it talks about the fact that hummingbirds are banned in Hawaii as they pollinate pineapples and change the internal structure of the pineapple making them less marketable. So yes, I have made hummingbird cake because hummingbirds are banned in Hawaii
The second reason is because my auntie had given me this recipe ages ago. Every now and again I come across the piece of paper and so today I am putting it on the blog so that I can find it again when I want to find it, not just when I happen to find it. Oh, and and a bonus reason....I have been thinking about finding something to make with cream cheese frosting for weeks!
I have made Hummingbird Cake before, but that time it was a large cake, and it also had the addition of coconut in it.
When I was making the cakes I just used normal oil as we only had extra virgin olive oil in the pantry, and I made 1.5x the frosting because that just didn't feel like enough with the measurements. It actually could have done with double the frosting. I started trying to pipe the icing but quickly ran short so ended up just using a knife to spread it on the top, which is why they look a bit messy! Although to be fair, my baking always looks messy. It does taste good though! I served these up as dessert when my sister and her family came for dinner and they got a big thumbs up.
The Cook the Books selection for February and March is Annabel Abbs' book Miss Eliza's English Kitchen, which is also published under the name The Language of Food. This will be a reread for me so it will be interesting to see if it works for me the second time round. Here is my original review.
Hummingbird Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
3/4 cup self raising flour
2 tspns ground cinnamon
1/2 tspn bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
440g can crushed pineapple in juice, well drained
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup mashed banana
2/3 cup light olive oil
Frosting
75g cream cheese, at room temperature
25g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups icing sugar mixture
Line a 12-hole muffin pan (1/3 cup capacity) with paper cases
Sift flours, cinnamon and soda into a large bowl. Stir in sugar.
Combine pineapple, eggs, banana and oil in a large jug. Whisk well. Stir into flour mixture until just combined. Divide mixture evenly among paper cases.
Cook in a moderate oven (180C) for 20 minutes, or until cooked when tested. Stand in pan for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make frosting, beat cream cheese and butter in a small bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar. Beat until combined.
Spread frosting over top of cold cakes.
Saturday - Steak, baked potato, salad
Sunday - Crispy lemon and garlic roast chicken (new)
Monday - Beef and broccoli noodles
Tuesday - Chicken and onion wraps
Wednesday - Honey pepper chicken and rice
Thursday - Pork chops, mash, beans and mushroom sauce
Friday - Takeout
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