Banana Jam

My favorite fruits are bananas. I absolutely love them and could it them every day. I`ve even heard that they are good for your bones because they`re rich with calcium. Sometimes, when I give up sweets, I substitute them with bananas and I feel ok because they are really sweet and can make up for the lack of sugar from all those unhealthy sweets which I crave for every day. So, if you like bananas like me, you`ll go bananas for this banana jam. :))

Ingredients

1 kg unpeeled bananas (about 6 bananas)
2/3 cup water
juice of 1 lemon
1 cup brown sugar plus 1 cup white sugar (200g each)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Preparation

In a large pot mix all the ingredients except the bananas and bring to boil. Cook for 5 minutes. Add mashed bananas (you can mash them with potato masher) and stir well until combined. Bring to boil on high heat and then reduce to medium heat. Cook for 20 minutes frequently stirring.
Pour your hot jam in sterilized jars and immediately seal them.

I tried my jam with pancakes (I made them with 2 eggs, pinch of salt, soda bicarbonate, baking powder and milk and flour - the mixture has to be thick). I really really  really loved it! The combination was great - the pancakes were bland because I didn˙t add any extra sugar and the jam was nice and sweet but not too sweet. I think that chocolate sauce over the banana jam pancakes would be perfection. :)

I adapted the recipe from here. 

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Bokharat - Arabic Seven Spice

You may have noticed that my favorite chef is Jamie Oliver and he is the reason I`ve become so passionate about cooking. If you love Jamie the way that I do than you absolutely addore herbs and spices (chilli and lemon, as well). Many say that he exaggerates with the amounts but I am thankful that he introduced a whole other world of flavors to me. Plain food can become special and exciting with just the right combination of herbs and/or spices. My favorite herbs are:
1. rosemary (I most frequently useit with potatoes and in foccacia),
2. parsley (I could eat it with almost every food),
3. thyme (goes great with roasted carrots and cider vinegar),
4. basil (in every meal where there are tomatoes),
5. oregano (with potato soup and of course pizza)...
I recently came across Herbes de Provence which is a mixture of dried herbes like rosemary, sage, basil, thyme, oregano, fennel and others. I mainly use it in stews every time I`m in the mood for mediterranean cousine.
Recently, I started to use more spices than before because I wanted to make a change in my typical every day meals. I found some nice recipes that required 1 key ingredient which I couldn`t find in my town - cardamom. Andrea from Voće i povrće was kind enough to send me some cardamom seeds for which I`m ever so thankful. :) I had to make something with it but didn`t won`t to cook anything so I made Bokharat - Arabic Seven Spice.

The recipe is from recipezaar and I saw the link on Andrea`s blog. Obviously, this is the first time I made this mixture of spices so I used only half of the original measurments.

I used:
1 tbsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp paprica
1 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tbsp ground coriander seeds
1/2 tbsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinammon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom

You`ll need pestle and mortar and/or coffee grinder to get a fine powder from all of these spices. Once you have grounded all the ingredients, combine them in a coffee grinder and transfer into an airtight container. Can you imagine the aroma that was spreading all around my kitchen? :)

Now, I only have to come up with ideas for recipes to use this great mixture of spices.

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