Ceviche Cups

The next time you are having guests over for dinner serve this refreshing appetizer. Ceviche Cups are simple to assemble. Basically you need a  pan of ceviche and a bag of your favourite scoop style tortilla chips. Not only is this a stress-free appetizer to make but your guests will licking the serving bowl and asking for more. The combination of the zesty citrus juices, spicy pepper and fresh cilantro allow the tender flesh of the tilapia fish to cure to perfection for a few hours before serving. You can make more of the ceviche according to the amount of people you are serving and it is also diet friendly for those guests watching their calorie intake.




Ceviche

1 tilapia fillet, cubed
1 lemon
2 limes
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
cayenne pepper (as much as you can handle)
salt (generous amount)
1/2 red onion, diced

Makes serving for 4

1. Squeeze the lemon and lime into a Pyrex dish. Mix in the minced garlic, cayenne pepper and salt.

2. Stir in the tilapia and submerge into the citrus juices.

3. Cover the tilapia with the red onion and cilantro. Mix gently and refrigerate for 4 to 5 hours.

4. At to hours into the curing process, stir the tilapia once more making sure all the pieces get submerged into the juices.

5. At this point I like to taste the salt content. You may need to add more.

6. To serve scoop the ceviche into the tortilla cups. Place about half of the ceviche into the scoops and the other half set aside for guests who are watching their carb intake.

Banana Nutella Loaf

I have always been a life long learner.  I decided to become a teacher because I wanted to be in an environment that would encourage professional development. Now that my career seems to be taking a different turn, I'm still finding ways to develop my cooking skills. As you may already know from my previous posts, I am not much of a baker however with the new year upon us in full swing I decided to making baking one of my new resolutions. Today I present to you my Banana Nutella Loaf. The original recipe comes from a follow blogger, Brown Eyed Baker. I modified the recipe slightly to accommodate for our dietary needs but I followed the baking instructions exactly and the result was perfect. My husband thought I had bought the cake. Imagine his surprise when I told him I had made it myself. He nearly fainted.

Try this easy and delicious Banana Nutella Loaf for Family Day.




1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 ripe bananas
squirt of lemon juice
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp light rum
6 dark chocolate truffles
1 tbsp nutella
1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup partly skimmed milk

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Spread a loaf pan with some cooking oil and then sprinkle in some flour. Dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess.

2. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt.

3. In a small bowl mash the bananas with the lemon zest and juice. Then stir in the rum.

4. Melt the chocolate truffles with the nutella and 2 tbsp of the butter in a double boiler until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

5. I used a hand mixer for the next part but if you have a stand mixer that will be fine. Beat the 1 stick of butter with the sugar and maple syrup until smooth. Add one egg at a time until combined well into the butter mixture. Finally add the flour mixture a little bit of a time.

6. Pour less than half of the batter into the melted chocolate and stir well. Set aside.

7. Mix the banana mixtures into the remaining batter until combined well.

8. To create the marble effect for this loaf pour the chocolate and banana batters at alternative intervals, then swirl the batters together with a knife.

9. Bake the loaf for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a knife inserted deep into the centre comes out clean.

10. Transfer the loaf to a cooling rack for 15 minutes before turning it over to remove from the load pan.