Monthly Archives: June 2011

Cinnamon and Walnut Banana Cake

28 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by in Desserts

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Two bananas have slowly been turning blacker and blacker on the top of my fridge. Now my flatmates are always happy when they see this happen as they know exactly what it means, it’s banana cake time!

My friend Claudia is the person who originally gave me her banana cake recipe but it’s different every time I make it now. I’ve realised it doesn’t really matter how much of anything you put in it as long as you have walnuts, cinnamon and honey.

This is a really healthy cake and is perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack. I’m going to guess the weight of the ingredients I used, but please feel free to change them.

What you will need:

2 very ripe bananas (the blacker the better)
3 tbl of honey
50 grams of melted butter
150 grams of flour
½ tsp of baking soda
2-3 eggs
A big handful of walnuts
1 tbs of cinnamon powder
(you can also add raisins)

Pre-heat your oven to 180C. In a large bowl add the bananas and mush up with a fork and add in all the ingredients, there really is no order. You just need to make sure that you mix in the baking soda with the flour. Mix everything together with a spoon.

I usually use my bread tin but I couldn’t find it last night, instead I used a small ceramic oven dish and it rose more than it usually does, I’m definitely going to use that again.

Butter your dish and slightly powder it with flour, add you batter and leave in the oven for about 20 –  30 minutes depending how moist you want your cake.

PS: If your batter is too dry you can add a little milk

Have fun and let me know how yours goes.

Mel

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The sushi class

26 Sunday Jun 2011

Posted by in Seafood, Sushi, Vegetables

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Sushi

Since Alexis and I have been together he’s been getting more and more into cooking. As he loves sushi I thought that for his birthday we’d go to a sushi making class. It was fantastic, and I’d recommend anyone living in London who enjoys cooking to go to Suzu’s in Hammersmith for its 2 hour class. It was relaxed and inspiring and well I walked out knowing how to make maki sushi, nigiri sushi and californian rolls. We made a total of 24 pieces each so ate about half whilst there and had the rest for dinner.

I’m not going to go into how they were all made as I think I will try making them at home again as I want to try and be creative and fill them with yummy ingredients.

Apparently there’s a famous Japanes fishmonger called Atari-ya who has the freshest fish for sushi so I’ll go there to get some of my ingredients. In the coming weeks, if you’re interested in making sushi watch out for my next few blogs 🙂 I think the biggest challenge will be getting the rice right…

Mel

French Tomato Tart

15 Wednesday Jun 2011

Posted by in Tarts, Vegetables

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Tomato tart

I love making tomato tart because for me it means it’s the summer as I always make it when tomatoes are at their most delicious. This is one of my friend’s recipes from France. She lives in the countryside and grows the most scrumptious tomatoes. It’s easy to make and is fresh and healthy.

What you will need:

A tart tin
3 or 4 tomatoes
Herbs (your choice I used thyme)
Dijon mustard
Cheddar or emmental cheese

For the pastry:

200g flour
100g butter (it’s easier if it a bit soft)
50ml of water

Pre-heat your oven to 180C.
You can buy ready made short crust but it is very easy to make. Put your flour and butter in a bowl and with your fingers rub them together. Once the two ingredients have been completely combined add the water and mix until it forms a ball.

Sprinkle a bit of flour on a clean work surface and roll out the pastry with a rolling pin until it will fit your tin. Lay it in the tin and poke it with a fork.

Cover the pastry base with Dijon mustard and then lay your sliced tomatoes on top. Sprinkle with herbs, salt and pepper and then cover with grated cheese. I love cheese so I put quite a lot, you can put as much or as little as you want. Put the tart in the oven for 30 minutes.

It’s nice to have with a green salad and a nice glass of wine.

I’ve got some tomato plants growing on my windowsill, so let’s hope the sun comes out again and I can eat my own yummy home grown tomatoes.

Mel

Clafoutis or Migourin?

06 Monday Jun 2011

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I made a clafoutis the other evening with some of the cherries I brought back from France.  It’s a very simple dessert to make and is pretty healthy as there’s no sugar or butter.

What you will need:

Cherries (enough to cover the bottom of your oven dish)
1 cup of flour
1 cup of milk or red wine
2 eggs
1 tsp of baking powder 

Place the cherries at the bottom of a buttered baking dish. As there’s no sugar in this dessert the  more cherries the better in my opinion.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. In a large bowl whisk the flour, milk, eggs and baking powder. Pour the mixture over the cherries and place the dish in the oven for about 45mins or until golden.

For something a little different:

My French grandmother always replaces the milk with some red wine to make a migourin, a speciality from the Loire region in France.  

Now get cooking, it’s cherry season!

Mel

Cherry jam

05 Sunday Jun 2011

Posted by in Jams and chutneys

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Cherry jam

I went to my parent’s home in France for a long weekend with a few friends. We had a fantastic time enjoying the sun, swimming in the pool and best of all picking cherries in the garden. This year they came early and if we’d arrived any later they would have been too ripe. The tree was covered in cherries and in just 15 minutes we had a big basket full of them, yum! The only problem was that they were so ripe we couldn’t have eaten all of them before they started to rot, so we made jam.

It feels so satisfying to pick fruit and then make something from them.

What you will need:

1kg of cherries
1kg of sugar
Empty jars

Cooking time – 1 hour

You can either de-stone the cherries before making the jam or after (it will not change the flavour). I didn’t remove them before as they were so ripe and used that weight to measure the sugar.

Put the cherries in a big pan with the sugar and mix so that the sugar covers the cherries. Put on a medium heat and stir occasionally until the sugar has completely melted and then turn the heat to low, cover the pan and leave to simmer. Stir the jam from time to time for about an hour. A white foam will create on the top of the jam, remove as much as possible.

Just before the jam is ready, get some empty jars, boil water and pour into the jars, this will disinfect them. Once the jam is ready, empty the water and pour in the jam – using a ladle or a jug can make this easier. Immediately seal the jar with the lid. Leave to cool and then refrigerate.

To make jam the rule I always use is the same weight in sugar as fruit, or a little less sugar if the fruit is nice and ripe.

Jams and chutneys can make great presents, all you need is some nice material, some beads and a label for it to look that bit special.

Mel