Banana Buttermilk Bread

I'm sure you have a banana bread recipe. I do too. I've been baking my recipe for years and it has never failed me. It hadn't occurred to me to change it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Until I had some leftover buttermilk. My brain started to tick buttermilk...banana...surely this is a recipe for success.

The buttermilk addition makes the banana bread even more pleasing that it already is. (if that's even possible) The buttermilk gives a softer, moister crumb and a lovely golden hue which is very pleasing to the eye. It becomes the colour I imagined banana bread would be.

This does not last very long in my house, between me, hubby and toddler it was tough to get a photograph of the slices before they disappeared.

Ingredients
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
a good pinch of salt
100g butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
2 large ripe bananas
1/2 cup buttermilk

Method
Preheat oven to 150°C. Grease a loaf pan.
In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate soda, and salt; set aside.
Whisk together butter and sugar until light, add the eggs one at a time and the buttermilk. Add the mashed bananas and beat well until smooth. If your mixture looks a little curdled, don't worry.

Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and whisk until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared load pan. Bake for 1hour and 10mins or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Let it cool for 30 mins before slicing and serving.

Crispy salmon with veggie broth

I had a request from a friend; 'fish, no carbs dish please'. It is the perfect time of year for this request, one is spoilt for choice with spring vegetables. Fresh board beans, fresh peas, green beans and fennel are in order for this dish. This is Jamie Oliver's 'Crispy salmon with spring vegetable broth'. The recipe suggests chicken or vegetable stock, I would go with the vegetable stock for a cleaner taste, I find the chicken stock takes away from the salmon.

Jamie also serves his crispy salmon with aïoli, a fragrant type of homemade mayonnaise. I prefer mine without, but the choice it yours. Below is the recipe for the aïoli if you'd like to add it. The crispy crunchy skin from the salmon perfectly complements the butter soft fresh spring vegetable. Enjoy!


Aïoli 
Ingredients
half a small clove of garlic, peeled
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg yolk, preferably free-range or organic
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
285ml extra virgin olive oil
285ml olive oil
lemon juice, to taste

Method
Smash up the garlic with 1 teaspoon of salt in a pestle and mortar (or use the end of a rolling pin in a metal bowl).

Place the egg yolk and mustard in a bowl and whisk together, then start to add your oils bit by bit. Once you’ve blended in a quarter of the oil, you can start to add the rest in larger amounts.

When it’s all gone in, add the garlic and lemon juice and any extra flavours (see above).
To finish off, season to taste with salt, pepper and a bit more lemon juice, if needed.

Crispy Salmon and Spring vegetable broth
Ingredients
425ml chicken or vegetable stock, lightly seasoned
4 baby bulbs of fennel, stalks removed and herby tops reserved
2 x 170–225g salmon steaks, scored
1 small handful of fresh mint, ripped
1 small handful of fresh basil, leaves picked
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
50g green beans, tops removed
50g podded broad beans
50g podded peas

Method
First, make the aïoli. If you are having it.
Then bring your stock to the boil in a large pan then add your fennel and allow this to boil for 4 minutes while you heat up a non-stick frying pan.
Take your salmon steaks and pat the salmon steaks with a little olive oil, season and place skin-side down in the frying pan. Leave them for 2 minutes to get really crispy then check how they're doing. They'll want around 4 minutes on the skin side and 1 minute on the other. You'll get an idea of how they're cooking as you'll see the salmon change colour.

When the fennel has had 4 minutes, add the green beans and broad beans. Give them a further 2 minutes. By this time you will probably want to turn over the salmon steaks for their last minute. Add the peas to the other veg and cook for a final 2 minutes.

Don't be tempted to overcook the salmon – remove it from the heat. Divide the vegetables between 4 bowls, rip over the mint and basil, ladle over some of your hot cooking stock and place the salmon on top. Serve with a dollop of aïoli, if you are using it.

Serves 4.

Cheese Souffle

Three generations of Royals, 1,000 boats and 1.25 million well wishers, the Diamond Jubilee Flotilla was a sight to behold. The flotilla was based on a famous Canaletto painting, entitled 'River Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral on Lord Mayor's Day, 1746.' The organisers studied this painting to draw a likeness for the day, which they recreated spectacularly well.

River Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral on Lord Mayor's Day, 1746

As one of the spectators on the banks of the Thames, there was red, blue and white as far as the eye could see. Everyone clambered for a spot to see the river, some even climbing on top of bus stops, bins, trees and lamp posts for a view of the Queen, which did not disappoint. She looked radiant in a silver and white dress, embroidered with gold, silver and ivory spots and embellished with Swarovski crystals. Her vessel, a barge! Which I have always likened to a caravan without wheels, but this was a barge with a royal makeover. 'The Spirit of Chartwell' was decorated in red, gold and purple velvet with fresh flowers which cut through the June gloom. The weather itself was truly British..rain. So returning home from the festivities cold, wet and hungry, cheese souffle was the answer for an early hot supper.

I have always been taught to treat souffles with kid gloves. But if you can make white sauce, you can make cheese souffle. Really. Monitor the time and temperature carefully and you'll be home and dry. It makes a lovely light easy supper. Serve with blanched green beans or a salad.

Ingredients

45g butter
45g flour
225ml flour
125g mature cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp french mustard
4 eggs (separated)
Salt
Pepper


Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Grease a large souffle dish or 4 individual dishes.

Melt the butter, stir in the flour until smooth and cook over meduim heat for 1 minute. Add the milk and stir well until blended, then bring to the boil, stirring constantly until thickened and smooth. Remove from the heat stir in the mustard, salt, pepper and cheese.

Add the egg yolks one by one whisking well after each addition.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into the cheese mixture.
Pour the mixture into the souffle dish and bake for 30 mins. Munch immediately.

Serve 4.

Jubilee Cupcakes

When I think of great British food, roast beef, summer pudding and cream teas come to mind. I'm talking about cream teas with proper clotted cream. The real yellow stuff which is thick almost butter like with a crust on top. Add lashings of strawberry jam on a fresh scone and you can see why this is one of the nation's favourite tea time treats. In the Jubilee fever I am making a cupcake inspired by my favourite quintessential British tradition; The Cream Tea. Which leads me to my creation...an Earl Grey infused cupcake with a strawberry jam filling and clotted cream icing.

I'll be noshing on one of these as I watch the Thames Diamond Jubilee Flotilla go by, probably under my brollie if weather prediction is correct and cink, cinking to Her Majesty for her epic 60 years!

Ingredients

Earl Grey Cupcakes
200g flour
150g caster sugar
125g butter
125 ml milk
10 ml baking powder
2 eggs
2 Earl grey tea bags
1 jar of strawberry jam

Clotted Cream Icing
40g clotted cream
50g butter
250g sifted icing sugar
5 ml vanilla essence
a touch of milk (if needed)

Method
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
Put the milk into a pan, bring almost to the boil, remove from the heat and steep the 2 Earl Grey tea bags in the milk for 30 minutes.

Set out 24 paper cups liners in a muffin pan.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one.

Then add all the other ingredients and beat until very smooth and creamy. This is about 5 minutes with an electric mixer.

Divide the batter between the muffin pans, filling to 2/3 full.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and firm. Use a toothpick to check.

Allow to cool. Then carefully cut a out small section of the top of each cupcake and fill with strawberry jam. Then ice cupcake with clotted cream icing.

Koffie Koekies

Coffee Creams or 'Koffie Koekies', as they are called in Afrikaans, are coffee flavoured biscuits sandwiched with a fudge filling. They are traditional South African biscuits that every good 'boere vrou' (farmers wife) knows how to make. My mother used to make these every year over Christmas in an industrial sized batch to see her through the season's gatherings. I tried to find the origin of these biscuits but didn't have much luck. Only one of my friends from the Free State had heard of them, she said they called them 'crocodile biscuits'. A very descriptive name as the biscuits resemble a crocodiles back remarkably closely. This is due to the way the biscuits are made. The soft dough is put through an old fashioned meat grinder with a cookie attachment which gives the biscuits the lovely ridges and texture like the crocodiles back. One person turns the meat grinder by hand, while the other person catches the dough. A laborious two person job.

I don't have an old fashioned meat grinder or an extra pair of hands, so I roll the dough out, cut them in little rectangles about 5cm long and give them a stroke with a fork to give them texture. If you find making the fudge filling too fiddly, you can sandwich the biscuits together with apricot jam.

When you open a tin of these biscuits the most delicious coffee/caramel smell comes wafting out. They beat any store bought biscuit hands down. They remain one of my very favourite biscuits. Ever.

Ingredients
Biscuits
1 kg cake flour
5 ml salt
330 ml demerara sugar
400 g butter
250 ml golden syrup
15 ml bicarbonate of soda
125 ml very strong black coffee (you can use instant coffee such as Nescafe, but use at least 6 teaspoons)
5 ml vanilla essence

Fudge filling
375 ml white sugar
50 g butter or margarine
125ml double thick cream
30ml milk
5 ml vanilla

Method
Sift the cake flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and cool. Add vanilla to cooled mixture.

Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in a little coffee. Add this mixture and the rest of the coffee, to the cooled butter and syrup mixture. Add to flour and knead well to form soft dough. Cover and leave for several hours or overnight.
Divide the dough into two balls, place the one in the fridge while you work with the other. Roll out thinly and cut the cookies into 5 cm rectangles. Take a fork and scrap the top of the dough, to give it texture. Place on greased cookie sheets and bake at 200 ºC for 10 - 12 minutes until golden brown and baked through. Cool the biscuits on wire racks.

To make the filling, put all the filling ingredients, except the vanilla, into a pan and slowly bring to a boil. Make certain the sugar has dissolved before the mixture boils. Boil for 8 minutes, uncovered. Stir continuously so it doesn't burn. Remove from the stove, and beat with a wooden spoon until thick and cooled.

Sandwich the biscuits together with the fudge filling or apricot jam.

Hummingbird Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies

I have a friend who is 27 weeks pregnant, lets call her Hayley. She is as glamorous as she was on her wedding day and still bang on trend in her spring coloured jeans. Her perfect pins (she carries all in the front, of course!) would even make a Crayola crayon jealous. Sickening really, how does she do it? When I was 27 weeks pregnant I was already starting to resemble a certain ocean mammal and taking full advantage of the 'eating for two' scenario. What they don't tell you in the pregnancy small print (among many other things) is that once you have finished eating for two, you then have to lose the weight for two. Oh well, I might as well have another cookie...and rub some chocolate in my hair.

This recipe is from Hummingbird bakery, delicious as always. The dough expands a lot, give the cookies ample room to expand like a pregnant lady. If I am feeling naughty I leave out the raisins and add 100g chocolate chips and 100g dried sour cherries.

Ingredients

270g unsalted butter, at room temperature

160g caster sugar

160g soft dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

380g plain flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

110g rolled oats

220g raisins

Method

Preheat the oven to 170C. Put the butter and sugars in a bowl and cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition. Turn the mixer down to slow speed and beat in the vanilla extract.

Sift together the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon in a separate bowl, add the oats and mix well. Add to the butter mixture and beat until well mixed. Stir in the raisins with a wooden spoon until evenly dispersed.

Arrange equal amounts of cookie dough on the prepared baking trays. Make sure that the cookies are spaced apart to allow for spreading while cooking.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes, or until golden brown and firm.Check them regularly to make sure they are not burning.

When you are happy that they are cooked through, remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Makes 20 cookies.

I did have a chuckle when I read this quote: Being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant - it tends to get worse. Molly Ivins

Chicken and Chips Pie

This recipe is especially for my friend Olga, who can make me laugh no matter how dire the situation or weather.

Oh the weather of Britain, what a talking point at the moment! April certainly lived up to its folklore forecast, it was one of the wettest months on record, May bank holiday weekend was a washout and the month of May is set to be the coldest May for 100 years. Today is no exception, it is a cold, wet, rainy day in London. I'm recovering from a 24hr stomach bug while looking after my active toddler and expecting 6 people for dinner. Groan. This calls for cheats Chicken and Chips pie. The beauty of this recipe is to add whatever you have/fancy; green peppers, celery or a cup of cooked rice to make it go further, great for big families. Perfect comfort food in the coldest May in a 100 years.

You can make filling in advance, but don't add the potato chips until it's time to bake or they'll go soggy. You may need to bake a little longer as the filling will be cold. It's best to stick to salt and vinegar pototo chips, other pototo chip flavours don't do this recipe justice.


Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
300ml of chicken stock
150g button mushrooms
a bunch of spring onions
2 tablespoons of cornflour
2 tablespoons English mustard
1 cup of crushed salt and vinegar potato chips (I used Pringles)
100ml double cream
1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
a knob of butter
Black pepper
Salt

Method
Cut the chicken breasts into 1cm strips. Put a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter into a large wide saucepan. Add the chicken and cook for about 3 mins until chicken is white and sealed.

In the meantime, slice up the button mushrooms and spring onions and add to the saucepan with the two tablespoons of cornflour and stir in well, cook for 2 minutes.
Add the 2 tablespoons of mustard, the double cream and 300ml chicken stock. Stir well.
Pick the thyme leaves and stir into the pan with the nutmeg, a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Tip the filling into an ovenproof baking dish. Top with the crushed salt and vinegar potato chips and bake for 20mins at 180 degrees or until filling is bubbly and chips are golden.

Serves 6.