Cheese-monkey: a classic in the Brazilian family.

 

(Em Português)

I want to know how many of you have never eaten bread with banana. You know what? I think there is actually plenty of people who never eaten it. Oh my.

Look, you should try. There are millions of possible versions. The sandwich in the picture I have prepared with a soft store bought cornmeal bread, a thin layer of banana chimia (banana sauce? Banana spread? How do I call this thing in English? Anyway, the recipe will be after the jump. It's one I have prepared without sugar, pretty nice), unsalted white cheese, and the banana itself.

Since I don't own a toaster, I make my toasts using a large skillet.

I place it empty over high heat for a little while, then turn the temperature down when I put the bread slices inside. I toasted two bread slices, both sides, until they turn slightly brown and just a little bit crunchy.

After that, I spread a thin layer of banana chimia on one toast (it's redundant, I know. Mas it is SO damn good. I seasoned this last batch with natural vanilla - that's why you see tiny black seeds in the picture - and loved it. It could be cream cheese, or butter, or even some fruit jam. Or peanut butter. Or... you get the idea, right?)

So I cut a ripe banana in thin lengthwise slices and orgazined them on top of the toast. Then I added one slice unsalted white cheese, topped with the other toast, and let it roast a bit more on both sides. There! I had a breakfast that made my day better.

Now, how I made the chimia. I can tell you in advance that I have prepared this recipe once with bananas and another time with apples. Worked great for both and tasted awe-so-me. 

10 ripe bananas OR 6 large apples

Juice of 1 lime + water to enough to reach 1/4 cup

3 tablespoons coconut oil or butter (or 1 tablespoon canola oil)

1/2 teaspoon salt

The optional seasonings are: a little grated nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger... In the case of this banana chimia, I used only vanilla, straight from the bean.

(Cup measure: 240ml)

I put all of the ingredients in a heatproof recipient and stirred well, then cut open the vanilla bean lengthwise and scraped the seeds out with a knife.

I added them to the recipient and stirred again (do you remember the picture at the beginning of the post? The one with banana pieces and tiny black dots? So, the dots are the vanilla seeds) then covered the whole thing with parchment paper, baking it for about 50 minutes in medium-low heat.

The idea is to make the fruit release it's natural sweetness and become tender.

After turning off the heat, I let the banana mixture cool down a bit before processing it wall in the blender to become a cream.

I transferred the chimia to a glass jar and kept it in the fridge.

My banana chimia was kept for a month, and was good all along.

Maybe it would even last longer, but I can't tell for sure.

In any case, it is always good to look at your food with attention, and to smell it, if you keep something for too long.

Yields 400ml chimia.