Pear & Walnut Loaf

I made some Poached Pears with orange and spices some 2 weeks back when we had guests over and there were about 5 pears i had completely forgotten about and while Ro was looking for something under a shelf, he came across the pears in a plastic cover. The green pears had become super ripe and i was shouted at saying i always buy so much of everything and then it gets spoilt and needs to be thrown out....which is not always true. C'mon cut me some slack..i buy them with great enthusiasm saying id make this and that, and i do too....but sometimes I forget or most of the time laziness gets the better of me and i ignore.

So these pears were transferred from the shelf to the refrigerator where it hatched for about 4 or 5 days and then again i got shouted at by Ro saying i don't have any intention of doing anything with it, might as well throw it out and save some space. I had just gotten back from the gym after a really "vigorous" work out and this happened just as i plopped on the sofa. I was so pissed off and decided to prove him wrong. Did some super fast research online and decided on a Pear Loaf by Smitten Kitchen. I halved her recipe because it was my first attempt at making a fruit based bread. I am glad i tried it out because it was super easy and one of the moistest, yummiest and exotic recipes i have ever tried. It is definitely gonna make its way back into my kitchen and then it would hopefully not be with pears waiting to be rescued:)

Ro ate quite a few slices with some left over cream cheese frosting dabbed on top..and oh i also made him say I'm so awesome and a whole lotta things like that :)

Plain flour- 1 1/2 cups

Baking soda- 1/2 tsp

Baking powder- 1/4 tsp

Salt- 1/2 tsp

Cinnamon powder- 1/2 tsp

Chopped walnuts- 1/2 cup

Oil- 1/2 cup

Eggs- 2

Sugar- 1 cup

Conference Pears or dessert pears- 4 or 5, cored, peeled and pureed. I got about 2 cups of puree.

Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Combine the first five ingredients together in a bowl.

Transfer a bit of this mix into another bowl, add the walnuts and toss it around so they are all evenly coated.

Beat the eggs using a whisk in a mixing bowl and add the oil, sugar, pureed pear, vanilla extract and the coated walnuts and stir to combine well.

Add this to the flour mix and stir till combined well and no flour is seen.

Transfer the batter into a 9 inch greased and lined bread tin or a square pan and bake in a pre heated oven (175C) for about 50 to 60 minutes or till a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Take it out of the oven and about 5 minutes later, place it on a wire rack till it is completely cooled.

Cut it into slices and store in an air tight container.

Notes/ Changes I made: I pureed the pear instead of grating it and that's why the colour is a deeper brown I guess.

I reduced the quantity of cinnamon down to a half tsp since we are both not too fond of the strong taste and in spite of that it still had a nice tang of cinnamon, not too strong but you knew it was there.

I chose to use oil instead of butter and also added walnuts.

Sending this to the Green Gourmet event hosted by Preeti of Relishing Recipes and to the Blog Bites event hosted by Nupur of One Hot Stove, where this months theme is Adaptation.

I would also like to thank Nitha of Amateur Perceptions and S S of Treat your Tongue for passing on the lovely awards. I have waaaay too many pics i like and over 1000's of pics to choose from. These two were on the recent albums and so here you go:

This was at about 4pm in the quaint town of Salisbury near Stonehenge. The sky was just brilliant. Ro and myself are doing a photography series on skies and this is one of my personal favourites.

This is again on the way to Stonehenge where we stopped to take in all of the English countryside and the road was covered in these colourful leaves....autumn at its best. I had to take a self pic and then i started this whole 'shoe series' of my own :)

Beef Stir Fry with Thai Noodles

This is my own version of a beef stir fry as the umpteen sites i browsed for a recipe had major complicated stuff and ingredients i didn't have, so here's my version. Since its my version, its obviously an easy lazy one:)

Lean beef- 400 gms, cleaned and diced lengthwise

Shallots- 4, sliced lengthwise

Green chillies- 2, slit lengthwise

Red/green/yellow/orange pepper (Capsicum)- 1, cut lengthwise

Spring onion- 1 big, cut in circles

Cornflour- 2 tbs

Soy sauce- 5 tsp

Fish sauce- 1/2 tsp

Ginger paste- 1 tsp heaped

Garlic paste- 1 tsp heaped

Chilli pwd- 1/2 tsp

Maggi seasoning sauce- 1 tsp

Oil- enough to deep fry the beef slices

Salt- to taste

Coriander leaves- 1 tbs, finely chopped (optional)

Marinate the beef slices with 3 tsp soy sauce, chilli pwd, ginger and garlic paste and refrigerate for half an hour. Meanwhile have all your veggies cut and ready.

Take some water in a bowl and mix the 2 tbs of cornflour to form a thick gravy. Pour this into the beef marinade and mix well. The cornflour should coat the beef. In a deep bottomed pan, heat the oil and when its boiling hot, put in the beef slices and deep fry in batches. Once crisp and brown, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a kitchen towel.

In a frying pan, heat about 2 tbs of oil (leftover from frying) and sautee the onions and peppers. Once it becomes soft, add the green chillies, fish sauce, the remaining 1 tsp of soy sauce and the Maggi seasoning sauce. Mix well. At this stage you check the salt and spiciness and add more if required. Next, add the fried beef slices and mix well. On low fire, sautee the beef till they become a darker brown, mixed with all the masala. Just before you take it off the fire, throw in the spring onions and garnish with some coriander leaves if you fancy it.

Serve with noodles or fried rice. I made noodles with the Thai green curry paste. Stir fry mix is available with an assortment of veggies like bok choy, bamboo shoots, bell peppers etc. In a steaming hot wok, sautee the veggies with green curry paste and a generous dash of soy sauce. We get ready-made noodles which just needs to be put in at the last minute (yes, when i meant lazy i really meant LAZY). So add the noodles to the veggies, give it a final stir and you have steaming hot Thai Noodles.

Notes: The oil for frying needs to be really hot and so does the wok for the noodles.

Don't over fry the beef slices, because they can then become chewy. Trust me, i have been there, done that.