Drag Queen Cooking

First Time Banana Bread from your favorite baker with a banana allergy

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Since I started baking, I’ve been powering through a lot of popular recipes: pumpkin pie, German chocolate cake, gingerbread men, carrot cake, chocolate chip cookies, and cheesecake. But I’ve missed a lot of great classics too, like yellow layer cake, cupcakes, and banana bread.

So I hadn’t made a classic banana bread yet, but my good excuse is that — well, I’m allergic to bananas. I also found out the hard way in Guatemala that I’m also allergic to plantains (which are bananas,) but that’s a story for another day.

My partner moved in with me recently, and he loves to mix apples and bananas into his yogurt, so there is a ready supply of bananas at all times in our pantry. Thus the reminder of banana bread was in my head at all times. I used to love bananas, before I became allergic later in life, so seeing the memes and stuff definitely didn’t help.

So a few weeks ago, I decided to bite the bullet and see just how allergic to bananas I really am. Onto making banana bread!

There are quite a few different ways of making banana bread, from Chrissy Teigen’s famous Uncle Mike & Twitter’s Banana Bread, which I haven’t tried yet because I don’t have a Bundt Pan yet, to the Great Baking Show’s banana bread recipe, and also Rose Levy Berenbaum’s banana bread recipe as well.

This one in particular comes from Katheryne Taylor from Love Real Food. I love her recipes because her bakes are so easy and fun, as well as healthy. Sometimes I get frustrated with complicated baking, but hers always have the outcome worth the journey.

For Kate’s recipe, it only requires 2 bananas, or 1 1/2 cups – much less than Chrissy’s whopping 6 banana recipe. Her recipe also includes walnuts or pecans, coconut oil, honey, and two eggs. Once it’s all mixed together, it looks like this.

Kate prefers using wheat flour – either white whole wheat or regular whole wheat flour, which is healthier albeit not always versatile. However, for this recipe, it tasted great! Her recipe also includes cinnamon, which she recommended swirling on top.

Like my zig zag pattern?

The bread bakes for one hour, but when it comes out, it’s surprisingly moist. I think I did overbake it by about 5 minutes, which browned deeply on the sides, but did not burn.

Ta dahh! Finished banana bread.

I was apprehensive, but it was absolutely delicious biting into this delicious, lightly sweet banana bread. And my stomach didn’t flare up either! It looks like the other ingredient to banana ratio isn’t bad enough for it to affect me. I enjoyed plenty of slices for the rest of the week.

Look at that little tongue go. I can’t even be mad at her.

And my cat Pina couldn’t resist lick-leemking the banana bread as well. Hmph!

Next time, it’ll be Chrissy Teigen’s recipe. And I’ll be using chocolate. Thanks all for reading!

Note, this blog post contains an affiliate link. I do get a small commission if items are purchased through the link at no cost to the buyer or viewer.

13th, #BlackLivesMatter, and Recommended Reading

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The past two weeks, I took a step back from drag, blogging, and baking to take in the gravity of the political movement that was building in my neighborhood of Oakland, the United States, and all of the world. There’s a lot I could say, but I’ll start with something that I learned first.

Two days ago, I watched 13th, Ava DuVernay’s documentary on policing and prisons. I had heard of the documentary since its release but put off watching it. I was thankful to have learned a lot about racial inequalities in policing and the prison industrial complex having derived from slavery in college, but it was pretty heavy material to review again.

I learned a lot of new content in DuVernay’s documentary. I had no idea about the role that CPAC played in funding prisons. I knew that Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton all played a hand in our prison industrial complex and war on drugs, but I had no idea how they had stacked together in placing more than 2 million people in prisons today.

The montage of police brutality was the hardest part for me to watch. I don’t have the stomach for real life violence, so I never made myself watch the full videos of Eric Garner and George Floyd dying on camera. When the documentary cut to the scene of Philando Castile — his red blood staining the white of his shirt — while his girlfriend begged for help in the car with his toddler, I could not look away. I think anyone who lives their life freely, without worrying that they will meet the same tragic fate as Castile’s, should consider their privilege and stand up against these brutal murders.

I highly recommend everyone watch this film, and I’d also like to follow it up with a strong recommendation for the documentary Whose Streets, on the Ferguson protests.

For those interested in additional #Black Lives Matter links to participate and get involved, I’d like to redirect you to this carrd link with petitions and charities.

For suggested readings, viewings, and articles, here is a short list compiled from my own research and also upon recommendation of other black community leaders and activists.

James Baldwin on the Black Experience in America, short video

Fruitvale Station, film

“Stranger in the Village,” short essay by James Baldwin

“Notes of a Native Son,” short essay by James Baldwin

Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys by Victor Rios

“Am I Blue?” short essay by Alice Walker

White Fragility, book by Robin D’Angelo*

How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum

* Note: For transparency’s sake, Robin D’Angelo’s book is no longer recommended by many activists, to redirect attention back to black authors, activists, and educators.

Additionally, none of these links contain affiliate links. I do recommend searching up some of these books through independent publishers like The Collective Oakland, for example.

As another queer person of color, James Baldwin’s writing have personally touched me. I’d like to thank you to Dr. David Holmes for his incredible teachings of Baldwin and Alice Walker. Thank you to Professor David Morrison for his teachings on police brutality and criminalization which lead me to Victor Rio’s book. Thank you to the incredible Dr. Joi Carr for her incredible Black Film syllabus which opened my eyes to the rich catalogue of black & African American film. Thank you to Freddie aka Melanin Monroe for the James Baldwin on the Black Experience in America short video.

And multiple black activists and community leaders for recommending White Fragility, How to be an Anti-Racist, and Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Thank you for continuing to speak and using your voices.

The past few days, I’ve been baking albeit less. I was hoping to blog about some of the recipes that I’ve made so far, but it’s been hard finding my voice. In the meantime, I will do my best to amplify voices in this movement. I am grateful to everyone else directing their energy to protect, protest, and donate for black lives as well.

How to Make Delicious Vegan Beef Quesadillas!

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I didn’t grow up eating vegan quesadillas (or any quesadillas) as a kid, growing up in a Chinese household, but they were also a nice treat on occasion. Today, I’ve mostly decided to cut cheese out of my diet, but I just discovered how great vegan cheeses are, and they are perfect to make this! This vegan beef quesadillas recipe isn’t made from scratch so you’ll have to head to your local healthy grocery store.

Here’s how to find these vegan options.

It’s as good as it looks. I got the canned green salsa from my local Hispanic supermarket, but you can probably find it in the Hispanic foods section of most grocery stories.

Vegan Beef Grounds

These can be found at most grocery stores like Safeway or Ralphs. Look for vegetarian section in the frozen food aisle. I’ve sometimes seen them labeled under weird locations like “vegetables” or “bread.” The Gardein Ultimate Beefless Ground & Morning Star Grillers Crumbles are my favorite.

Vegan Cheese Shreds

Depending on your area, it might be a little harder to find. I buy my vegan cheeses at some higher-end or more health-focused markets, like Farmer Joe’s in Oakland, or Target. They can also be found online. Daiya & Follow Your Heart are both great options for vegan cheese shreds!

Here’s a vegan mac and cheese recipe that uses cheese shreds too!

Tortilla with beef crumbles, cheese, and cilantro

Vegan Beef Grounds Quesadilla

Hennessy Williams
Here's a delicious afterschool or midday snack with vegan cheese and crumbles!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Course Snack
Cuisine American, Mexican

Equipment

  • skillet

Ingredients
  

  • 2 flour tortillas
  • 1/2 cup vegan beef crumbles (ie: Gardein, Morning Star)
  • vegan mozzarella shreds (ie: Daiya or Follow Your Heart)
  • vegan cheddar shreds
  • 1/4 cup cilantro

optional

  • fresh or canned green salsa

Instructions
 

  • Heat your skillet on medium heat until warm and spray with cooking spray or a little bit of oil. Cook one tortilla until it’s nice and warm on one side. Set off to the side. Cook the other tortilla on one side, then flip.
  • Add mozzarella & cheddar onto the tortilla. Cook for 2 minutes.
  • Sprinkle on your beef crumbles, and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Then sprinkle over cilantro.
  • Add the original heated tortilla over the toppings, heated side down, and then carefully flip both the tortillas with the toppings over. Cook for an additional minute before cutting into quarters and serving. Top it off with salsa and enjoy!

Notes

Tortillas aren’t low in carbs, so if you want a healthier option, consider flipping the tortilla in half instead of using two, or check out your grocery store for lower carb tortillas.
Keyword quesadilla, vegan

Just one serving of these vegan beef quesadillas is enough to fill me up in the morning, or after my afternoon calls for a little pick-me-up!

By the way, you can also make your own flour tortillas and it’s easy! I’ll make a separate post on how to make your own tortillas, and link it here when it’s up.

Pretty Pairings?

Yummy!

But what’s a brunch without libations? Check out my original Watermelon Cooler recipe! This recipe is super easy, and you only need three ingredients. Here’s my recipe for a Watermelon Tequila Cooler. Plus, it’s now a Tangi video!

Try it with the vegan quesadillas and let me know what you think. Salud!

Oh em gee, Blueberry Buckle!

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Today, I tried another recipe from Rose Levy Berenbaum’s The Baking Bible.

Remember when I said in my previous blog that the cake I made was one of the first recipes to appear in the book, so it must have been easier? Well this recipe I made today is the first, and unlike the last cake I made, it was actually easy!

The journey started out with a trip to Farmer Joe’s for some fresh blueberries. Blueberries are really expensive in the area I live, so I used a mix of fresh and frozen blueberries. That’s why you see the different ones in this pan here.

The first part of the recipe is to make the blueberry filling. In the pie plate itself, you actually stir together lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch, sea salt, and blueberries.

Next, you make the batter topping. (A Rose Levy Berenbaum recipe with only two parts to it? No meringue on top? No crumb topping? No chocolate glaze? I don’t believe it!) I love her recipes, but they’re more extra than a pageant queen, oof.

The amount of eggs it took to successfully get two egg yolks: Four. I had scrambled eggs after this.

The batter topping included two large egg yolks at room temperature, sour cream, vanilla extract, cake or all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and of course, butter.

By the way, am I crazy, or are egg yolks easier to separate when they’re cold? I had two eggs at room temperature, but upon a messy break, they slid through my fingers and mixed together.

You pretty much just drop the batter on top, and Rose said to leave a one inch border between the batter and the sides of the plate and a 2-inch space in the middle. I decided to follow her instruction, but I thought they were for aesthetics only.

In the end, I’m really glad I did that, or the batter would have gone over. Rose’s book isn’t really the most user-friendly in that she doesn’t hold your hand or tell you why you should or shouldn’t do things. That’s one of my peeves about the book, as an impatient baker. Once baked, the cake looked beautiful!

Uwahhh just right!

Digging into it, you get the most delicious fluffy cake, with the sweet blueberries underneath. I looked up other blueberry buckle recipes, and surprisingly, Rose’s recipe is more simpler in that it seems to go on top and not mesh with the batter as much. Or perhaps it had meant to permeate and fill in the gaps more but that didn’t happen. Either way, it looked delicious and me and my partner consumed it with much gusto.

Decadent.

Next stop, Blueberry Crumb Party Coffee Cake!

Note, this blog post contains an affiliate link. I do get a small commission if items are purchased through the link at no cost to the buyer or viewer.

Making Bhindi Masala and Taiwanese Milk Tea

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You know those days where you made plans to get productive, but then things fell through so you just end up stress cooking? Today was one of these days.

So I decided to look on the bright side, and made my own milk tea (sans boba) to fulfill my sweet tooth. It’s actually really easy to do. I specifically looked for a recipe that used non-dairy creamer rather than milk. Like many other East Asians, I’m somewhat lactose intolerant. Non-dairy creamer still isn’t the best thing for my tummy but at least it won’t break me out and send me running to the bathroom.

Some of the ingredients, which you probably have already.

I took my recipe from the Couple Eats Food blog, but my version of this recipe would be a little less sweet.

Taiwanese-Style Milk Tea (70% Sweet)

  • 2 bags black tea (I used English Breakfast, which worked just fine.)
  • 1 1/2 cup water
  • 1 tbsp granulated white sugar
  • 5 tbsp Coffee Mate powdered non-dairy creamer

I decided to make my tea hot, but you could easily make it iced with a cup of ice and a cocktail shaker. I had a cheap one back in college, but I might invest in a grown-up one now. Maybe for parties once Covid-19 is over.

Yuuuum, refreshing.

I also bought okra today, which is something I’ve always wanted to try making, since I found it in Southern / Soul Food dishes I would eat (my guilty pleasure.)

Well, this may be my first and last time buying this, because I found out cutting okra actually triggers my trypophobia! *cue screaming* I had to flip them over while cutting the okra to avoid shuddering the whole time.

Anyway, I took this recipe from Vegan Richa, the Indian cookbook that I’ve been basically pouring through since I bought it from Amazon. This Bhindi Masala, or Okra in Sesame Coconut Sauce recipe is officially the 9th recipe I’ve made of hers, in this 264-page book.

This recipe was not as flavorful as some of her other recipes, and it is more of a side dish for me. I think it’s a good way to use up some leftover okra, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to make this again. My other hypothesis is perhaps it due to the coconut flakes I use being very packaged and processed as opposed to fresh, like the kind you can get in Indian stores. Unfortunately due to Covid, it might be awhile until I can make a trek out of my way to go find some better coconut.

Also, you can find some nutritional info for Bhindi Masala on Lifesum, the calorie tracking app I’ve been using. I’m surprised there are so many entries on there! There must be plenty of South Asian food fans on the app because I know I definitely have trouble finding my East Asian foods on there.

That’s all for now. Till next time!

Let me know if you try your hand at the recipe or have any variations based off your own family recipes. Can’t wait to try more Asian recipes soon!

Note, this blog post contains an affiliate link. I do get a small commission if items are purchased through the link at no cost to the buyer or viewer.

Cran-Raspberry Upside-Down Cake & Mother’s Day

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I bought Rose Levy Berenbaum’s book, The Baking Bible awhile back, a giant chonk of a book with elaborate recipes. I was wrong in thinking that this book would be good for a beginner. It was the first baking book I bought and the last one after months and months of practice that I would use. However, the first time that I did use the book to make a Blueberry Rhubarb cake, it was amazing. Cran-Raspberry Upside-Down Cake is one of the first recipes to appear in this 576 page mammoth and I decided to make it as a gift for my partner’s mother as a baking challenge.

So we woke up early on a Sunday morning to make it, and like many of Rose’s recipes, it’s harder than it looks.

Some of the ingredients I used in the recipe.

Rose’s recipes usually have several parts to them, even if it’s rather simple. For the Upside-Down Cake, there’s the batter part, then a cranberry topping, followed by a raspberry drizzle, finished by a raspberry Italian meringue. Even with two people, my partner Edgar helping me wash measuring cups and mix dry ingredients, time management was a hassle.

The most challenging part would have been the Italian Meringue. For those that aren’t familiar with making meringues, it involves beating an egg white with sugar until you form stiff peaks. When you’re finished, the mixture should be able to the stay up in the bowl by itself when you hold it upside down.

Mess up the meringue, and recipes like macarons and baked Alaskas, won’t work at all. Luckily, this meringue was a topping and technically optional. I had to make sugar syrup, to mix in with it but while multi-tasking, I had burned it so badly that it became solid and had to start again. And uh… I sorta burned my book by accident when it was too close to the stove.

Who needs a dust jacket, anyway?

We were so stressed out by the cake that I hardly remembered to take progress pictures. Here’s a shot of the defrosted cranberry topping, ready to be filled in with the batter.

Eventually, we got the batter well-baked and flipped the cake over. Even though the meringue deflated when I accidentally hand-mixed it over a hot stove, it turned out surprisingly okay in texture!

The cake had a beautiful color when we cut into it and best of all, Ma Ruiz loved it! It was light and fluffy, and not too sweet. The lemon taste in the cake was perfect, and making the meringue was definitely worth it.

Yuuum.

We had a lovely time over at the Ruizes’ house! She also fed us and shared her own Mexican eggs & salsa recipe with me. I’ll definitely try to make that in that near future.

Unfortunately, later that evening, my own biological mother sent a passive aggressive group text to me and my sister reminding us that it was Mother’s Day. We don’t talk regularly anymore, and for good reason. Favors and gifts are never without an expectation for something in return. For the record, my own newfound passion of cooking wasn’t inspired by her. Let’s just say cooking was never a strong suit of hers, (something that she is greatly in denial about,) despite the rest of the family being very much in consensus about it. My grandma, on the other hand, was a solidly good Chinese cook, but an even more problematic and unbearable person. But that’s a story for another time.

Even though the Cran-Raspberry Upside-Down Cake was a challenge and one of the “simpler” recipe in Rose’s Baking Bible, I’m excited to try more, like Blueberry Coffee Crumb Cake or Cream Cheese Buttercake. One more recipe down, and many here’s to many more in the future!

Note, this blog post contains an affiliate link. I do get a small commission if items are purchased through the link at no cost to the buyer or viewer.

The journey of a thousand snacks!

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If you’re on this page, I’d like to thank you for visiting my blog. I decided to make this blog because while I’ve been filming a lot of my favorite recipes, I don’t have the time to blog and talk about all of the other new recipes that I’ve been trying and making every week!

In this quarantine / shelter-at-home time in particular, I’ve had so much time just to get creative with cooking and baking. Here is where I’ll be trying new recipes, making new ones, and experimenting with my own, along with talking about all things drag-related.

If you aren’t following me already, you should definitely check out my YouTube where I put my Drag Queen Cooking videos up.

You can also find my Facebook Page & Instagram dedicated to all things drag.

Here are some recipes I hope to make for you all soon:

  • Blueberry Rhubarb Pie
  • Kheer
  • Fluffy Cheesecake
  • Vegan Coconut Layer Cake
  • Vegan Peanut Buttery Brownies
  • Migas
  • Poblano & Cheese Tamales

See you soon!