CURRY AND SPICE: APPLE BANANA STOVETOP CAKE

I ADMIT OATS & FRUITS ARE A GOOD COMBINATION!

I mean when the cake batter was ready, it felt why cannot I have it as a 'pholar' now? Did not we grow up having a mix of fruits like banana, mango, jackfruit, milk or yogurt & grains as part of breakfast meals; specially during summers? Okay, we did not know much about the grain oats until recently. Families like mine are still very happy with "chirey-muri-khoi"and can go without oats for the rest of their lives! Then, I keep in stock oats believing those who say oats has lowers calories than beaten rice!I do not eat oats religiously to shed off the extra kilos! Life is short and I have so much to eat, explore in the food world!I cannot think of living on oats day & night!I use it wisely but, in this way like in a cake or in a cookie!

FRUITS ARE EXCESS AFTER A SPECIAL PRAYER!

This happens each time there is a special prayer at home.Specially, the bananas are required to be put into good use. It is a fruit I never had packed in their lunch boxes, they would not eat! They however would eat a cake, bread, fry or a pie made of banana; with love!Our father used to eat 3-4 bananas a day does not mean it can get to be a regular habit with others!I remember a clip from the childhood; the maternal grandfather used to take us for Durga Pooja shopping; a big chunk of the family and buy us sweets, ice-cream and banana whenever hungry! With him, shopping was from Sealdah Chaya Stores & Priyo Goyal Bishoyi of Burrabazaar! The father too fed us sweets, ice-cream, kulfi but the shopping experience qualified to the Guys N Dolls, Rehmania & others in New Market, Treasure Island & Bidhan Market. I saw the making of Treasure Island and now how our section of the society does not even visit those. Yes, we witnessed globalisation in Kolkata, our way and oh! I have materials to write a big, fat book; if only I knew where to start from, how to end, how to arrange my emotions in order & put them into words! What I can do is cook a good cake with oats, banana, apple, pistachio, dates and add to the madness surrounding the two words; vegan & gluten-free! But yes, the son did have gluten-allergy and I know how difficult it is to handle it, to curate a menu for them. I knew little about it then, now I can feed a good gluten-free platter to anyone; even my meat-o-phobic brother would enjoy! I told him several times he needs to look beyond pizza, biryani, porota-mangsho!

WHAT IS THIS APPLE BANANA STOVETOP CAKE?

These days, I am doing a lot of cakes on the stovetop and got very comfortable & confident with the medium. My bake mode got spoilt is one reason, I am cool about it because we do not need perfecto store kinds to beautify our plate! What we need are freshly made cakes & breads to keep up with our needs. My parents, brother liked me made fresh, basic bakes; the men too like. From me, they expect basic cakes because we all fear I would mess with the creams & fondants. Those pastry stuffs I get for them from the stores!I enjoy experimenting with different fruits, seeds & grains combination for my homemade cakes. This APPLE BANANA STOVETOP CAKE is one such that uses few ingredients; is vegan, gluten-free, diary free!To make it vegan, I skipped using thickened milk or yogurt! I do not use eggs in sweets, desserts or cakes, generally! It was difficult but apples & bananas are great moisteners; the apple cider vinegar+water mixture helped a lot and here you are with a supremely moist, indulgent easy made cake, thats not fluffy! I am having with tea one slice; loved, more may be because I love dates?

Today, while arranging the pictures, I discover I forgot to add oil to the batter! Well, it was not in the plan, but this oil-free version did not affect the taste of the cake at all!