New to us flavor combinations....

The recipes I made for dinner tonight are a little out of the norm of what we would usually make. Over the years we have slowly been trying to branch out on different combinations of food and spices. Tonight's combination is why we try these things out, because if we didn't, we would have had no idea we've been missing out on some great food!

The first recipe, Banana Corn Fritters, brought a whole new level to bananas . The combination of everything sounded kind of odd, but in the end it worked out quite well. These savory little cakes are sweet, spicy, and a little smoky from using ground chipotle chiles. Coaresly mashed bananas are mixed with flour and crunchy cornmeal for a bit of texture. They are quickly pan fried and then tranferred into the oven to bake until puffy. The sweetness from the bananas brings down the heat from the chipotles just enough to balance it out.

The soup for tonight, Curried Peanut-Squash Soup, is what really drew some attention while I was prepping. I got several looks of "what in the world are you doing" when I was measuring out the peanut butter along side of rice, edamame, carrots and butternut squash. I did use pre-cut butternut from Trader Joes to cut down on prep time. The original recipe called for peas, but I used shelled edamame instead. The combination of a hot madras curry powder with sweet carrots and squash was quite an interesting experience. I loved the taste and texture that smooth peanut butter added to the soup. It took a few spoonfuls for us to warm up to it, but in the end we both liked it. The combination of sweet and spicy went over quite well. It was hard to get a semi decent picture as it does not have the best apperance.

This was our entry for the Virtual Recipe Club - Check for the round up here.

Recipes
Banana Corn Fritters
Curried Peanut-Squash Soup