I finally did it, I made a loaf of banana bread that I am proud of! Its been a long time in the making, I have tried countless recipes including the ones that recommend oil rather than butter, the ones that suggest brown sugar over white, the ones that include nuts, the ones that don't and I have never been able to make a loaf that satisfies my craving for a moist, dense yet not heavy banana bread.

I can't take all the credit though, in fact I can't take any credit at all, apart from mixing ingredients I didn't do anything to deserve the magnificence that is this loaf. For that I have the very clever and famous food blogger and photographer Smitten to thank. She did all the hard work including substitutions and the very clever addition of a magic ingredient, a tablespoon of bourbon. Being a true blue aussie household we had an open bottle of Jack Daniels to hand, this recipe was meant to be.

I strongly recommend checking out Deb's recipe, this is a winner and if we can manage to save a few pieces for tomorrow, its going to taste even better lightly toasted with lashings of butter.

Vietnamese lemon chicken with rice

(quantities feed 2 adults for dinner and 1 portion for taking to lunch the next day)

500g chicken, diced
2 lemons, rind finely grated and juiced
4 spring onions, finely chopped
a sprinkling of dried chilli
a handful of finely chopped peanuts
a selection of stirfry veg (I use frozen so sue me!)
1 tablespoon brown sugar, mixed with,
1 tablespoon fish sauce, mixed with
1 tablespoon oyster sauce in a cup.

Marinate the chicken in the lemon juice, rind, spring onions and chilli for a few hours. This makes it easy to prepare ahead of time.
Heat the wok up extra hot and fry the mixture in a little cooking oil in batches until golden and cooked through. Add the stirfry veg, cook and then add the mixed sauces, cook until heated through.
Serve over jasmine rice with the peanuts scattered on top.
Eat with chopsticks, oohing and aahing about how delicious it is!

(I have something up my sleeve along the lines of a weekly menu plan, I stick it on my fridge so I might as well post it on my blog!)