Eastern Aroma: Banana Squares - Noddying on a Saturday morning ..

Banana Squares - Noddying on a Saturday morning ..

"By the fire I sit and dream
And in the flames I see
Pictures of the lovely things
That never come to me ... "
Enid Blyton

Is it too early to read out a copy of Little Noddy to my little one? Will she take to it like her mom?

l grew up reading these pricless beauties.Initially they used to be read out to me by my mom . Later perhaps at the age of 4-5, I started reading them myself. Of course Noddy is not the only one, my choices ranged from batul the great, nonte phonte , champak, nandan and Noddy. Maybe after a year or two I took to Tintin and then there were years of Nancy Drew, Famous Five and Secret Seven (for some reason - never took to Hardy Boys!!) . My Childhood book collection was so dependent on my baba's visits to Kolkata book fair and also the annual extravaganza of the Lucknow Mahotsavv. I guess, I would have had been deprived of the Noddy world had it not been for these International book fairs.

Noddy of course deserves a special mention out of this entire lot. It took me to an unfamiliar territory. Some sight and smells which I was not aware of and too little and unexposed to imagine. The only thing I could imagine longingly was the food Noddy and his friends would eat, e.g.

"Tubby is a little sad but he asks Noddy to make up a song about him whilst he eats his fourth slice of ginger-cake and Noddy is more than happy to oblige before the bear trots off home. "

Noddy learns what a bath is when he sees one in the grand house that belongs to Mr. Tubby and his wife and then it's eating time and there's a cosy little picture of them all having tea and cake.

Simple litle eats all sounded exotic to me at that time ...reading it made me crave and hanker after mom, and then she would yield and bake me a cake.

The Noddy world is still unknown to my little one, but bake a cake- I will. And try to add some Noddy fun.

Recipe adapted from Nags cookbook

Basic banana bread (blender recipe)

Blender Banana Bread is so simple it's really a sin not to try if you have little ones at home, some bananas and an over.

1 1/2 cups maida/all-purpose flour

1 packed brown cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 ripe bananas

2 eggs ( To make these banana squares egg free all you need to do is just add 150 ml of milk for every egg; it works just the same and you can't even taste the difference.)

Other vegan alternatives are

1 egg = 1 heaped tablespoon soya powder or 1/4 cup tofu.
1 egg = 2 heaped tbsp potato starch or arrowroot powder.

Preheat oven to 170 C. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar and baking soda.

Put oil, bananas and eggs and sugar into another bowl (or the blender!) and mix/blend to a smooth gooey paste..

Pour the banana mixture into the flour mix and stir until combined.Do not blend it hard as you will miss out on air pockets.

Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for about 40 mins or till a stick comes out clean.

For the Banana Squares

This is a dense bread. After the bread cools. Cut it into squares. fry the pieces in canola oil and dust with powdered sugar. This adds a party spirit to plan ol banana bread. try it!

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This is all wet stuff getting into the blender!