Angelina Hue

Fret not, you’re not seeing double. I’ll explain in a bit.

On Easter Sunday, after waking just before noon, AB and I decided to prepare a full English breakfast for brunch.

Whenever I think of an English breakfast, I’m always reminded of the feast that we once had at Bistrotheque (23–27 Wadeson St.) in East London. My poached egg and bread served with everything fried (blood sausage, bacon, sausage, tomato and mushroom) was greasy but so delicious. I could handle a decadent calorie-bomb like this for breakfast/brunch once a year 😉

Housed in a former warehouse, Bistrotheque’s stark white interiors are impressive with high ceilings, bare pipes overhead, as well as the exposed filament bulbs that have been popping up in many trendy (or wannabe) restaurants and bars in London, Paris and Brussels. We were there on a bright Sunday afternoon and I love how bright the space looked.

I digress.

After a quick jaunt to the supermarket before it closed at noon (welcome to Brussels!), we laid out the ingredients and the tools in my kitchenette, and got down to business.

AB took the cast-iron skillet out to the deck to (re)season it before returning to drop blobs of Martha Stewart pancake mix onto the hot surface. While the golden discs of fluffy pancakes stayed warm in the oven, he cooked the bacon on the terrace lest my apartment smells of burnt pork for the days to follow.

I had the easy tasks of frying the mushrooms and tomatoes, putting things on plates, and setting the table outside.

The result: A sumptuous breakfast with a view!

I love this view from my teeny weeny deck which has just about enough space for two chairs and a table. Being on a higher floor, I look over my neighbours’ quiet back gardens – one of the perks about staying on the ground floor in a small building in Brussels is that many of these come with a private garden in the back.

Over pancakes and baked beans, AB and I talked about what features our ideal home would have. For example: Winter garden (preferably with stained glass), garden in the back with an atelier, at least two floors so that there’s more privacy. A separate kitchen with a door, a window and a ventilator that works properly is also important.

Now, what has our sumptuous Easter Sunday brunch got to do with a one-banana banana bread?

In order to make the pancakes fluffy, we had to use baking powder. My neighbourhood supermarket sells it in a box of five 20g sachets. Martha Stewart’s recipe called for less than half a packet of baking powder.

According to AB, baking powder loses its effectiveness soon after it has been exposed to air and humidity. But from what I just read, I think he’s mistaken??

Anyhow, when I didn’t know better earlier on, I looked for a recipe that would use the remaining 10+g of baking powder. I also had a dying banana that had broken out in spots over the weekend and there was no resurrection for this yellow fellow.

It didn’t take long to find a good banana bread recipe that calls for exactly one banana and some baking powder.

I followed The Faux Martha’s banana bread recipe to a T. Her one-banana banana cake bread was easy to make – most of the time was spent measuring, mixing the ingredients in a bowl by hand and stirring until well combined before it went into the oven.

Was the baking powder supposed to make the banana bread rise?

Mine turned out to be rather ‘short’, giving the cake bread a dense, moist texture. When I looked at the webpage again, it appears that The Faux Martha’s banana bread is a low-rising loaf. So I guess my one-banana banana bread turned out as it was supposed to.

I’m bringing this sweet baby to the office for a birthday breakfast surprise tomorrow!

If I were to make this again, I would make it with 25% less sugar and butter as it’s a little too rich for me. For now, I’m sticking with my adaptation of John Barrowman’s three-bananas banana bread recipe.