Four-seed banana bread

As the chill takes hold and we’re all starting to go into hibernation mode, I thought this would be a good time to make something comfy and warm to snuggle up with on the sofa – lovely, lovely banana bread.

Four seed banana bread

There are many recipes floating around for banana bread, and I’ve tried a lot of permutations, but this is by far the best. Because bananas are naturally sweet, there are some recipes without sugar – they are ok but not amazing. I say, in for a penny, in for a pound; get some sugar in there and make it not just ok, but damn good! As well as enhancing the bananas’ sweetness, the brown sugar gives the freshly baked loaf a light, almost crunchy crust. Slice carefully through the warm loaf and you get the moist, sweet bread that’s ready to eat.

Yes, I do add seeds to a lot of my recipes, but I reckon if you can get away with it, do it. They add goodness and protein and give you licence to eat cake with impunity…

Recipe for four-seed banana bread

200g self raising flour
50g wholemeal self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
150g soft light brown sugar
100g butter
75g raisins
1 tbsp linseeds
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
4 bananas, mashed (fresh or frozen)

Get a large bowl and add the sifted flours, baking powder and salt, then mix in the butter and sugar, either rub it in with your fingertips, or – much easier – mix it all up in the food mixer. Whisk up the eggs, bananas and vanilla with a food mixer or by hand, and carefully fold into the flour mixture, finally adding the raisins and seeds.

Pour the mixture into a large silicone loaf tin, or a greased and lined metal tin, and cook at 175°C for  1 hour. Do the skewer test after and hour; it should be golden on top when it’s ready and a little moist inside, but if the skewer’s too sticky, turn the oven down to 170°C and give it five more minutes.

Tip: I usually make a large loaf and a little one too, in a small loaf tin. This is a really good gift for someone, or an alternative to the bog standard wine if you’re invited round for dinner etc.

© Katheryn Rice 2009

Mr Rice makes meatballs (Thai style)

Mr Rice likes to get his recipes from his head, but he spotted this one and thought he’d take the plunge. As he started to put his masterpiece together, he reminded me that he doesn’t like being ‘bossed about’. I was a little taken aback as I was keeping well out of the way in order to avoid any accusations like that. When I protested my innocence he explained that he was talking about the recipe itself – apparently he doesn’t like following instructions from anyone, not just me. The upshot is, this is his version of a recipe from the August edition of Delicious magazine.

 

Thai Pork Meatballs with coconut curry

 

Recipe for Thai Pork Meatballs with coconut curry

1kg pork mince
fresh ginger, grated
2 lemongrass stalks, chopped
Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
1 red chilli, chopped
Juice and zest of 1 lime
3cm fresh ginger, grated
5 spring onions, chopped
1 egg 

Coconut curry
4 tbsp Thai red curry paste
2 tins reduced fat coconut milk
5 spring onions
2 red peppers, thinly sliced 
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into batons
Handful of green beans
2 lemongrass stalks, chopped
Juice of 2 limes
200g ground almonds 

Egg noodles to serve

Mix all the meatball ingredients together in a large bowl – mixing with your hands gets everything properly combined, so prepare to get your hands dirty and sticky. Then form them into small golfball-sized meatballs, then put them in the fridge to firm up, for a minimum of 20 minutes.

Fry the meatballs in a large frying pan with a little splash of olive oil until they are brown all over, then remove them from the pan and add the red peppers, sweet potatoes and green beans and stir-fry them for 5 minutes until they are nice and soft. Put the noodles on in a separate pan, then stir in the curry paste and cook for a couple of minutes, followed by the coconut milk, chillies, spring onions, lemongrass and lime juice and cook for a few minutes. Finally, add the ground almonds and cook for 5 more minutes.

Add the meatballs into the mix and cook for five more minutes to make sure they’re lovely and hot.

Drain and serve the noodles, then spoon the curry on top, making sure everyone gets their fair share of meatballs.

© Katheryn Rice 2009

Banana and blueberry crumble

When I make crumble I tend to make extra topping and freeze it away for when Mr Rice and I fancy a quick pudding fix. One Sunday we were feeling particularly sweet-toothed and could think of nothing better than a lovely crumble. So I dug out the frozen crumble mix and had a look around at the fruit available. 

Ok, so all we had were some frozen blueberries and some nicely ripe bananas. I think cooked banana is delicious and under-rated, so I thought I’d give it a go, combined with some low-GL antioxidant-rich blueberries for a little extra colour and flavour.

 

Banana and blueberry crumble

 

 

It worked fantastically well, the bananas took on that softer, creamier texture and a subtle, deep flavour, which means there’s no need for butter with the fruit. The blueberries added sweet little kick. The great thing about this pudding is that it’s so easy and tastes amazing…

Recipe for banana and blueberry crumble
300g blueberries (fresh or frozen)
3 bananas, ripe is best
100g golden caster sugar
Crumble
100g wholemeal plain flour
80g oats
50g golden caster sugar
50g demerera sugar
100g butter, chilled

Throw the blueberries into a 7-9 inch pie dish, then slice the bananas into the mix, add the sugar and combine well. Level out the mixture in preparation for the crumble.

To make the crumble, grind the oats until quite fine, but still with a bit of texture, then add them and the sieved flour into a large bowl. Then chop the butter into the mixture into inch-size pieces. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs and then add both sugars. Rub the sugar in until it is completely blended.

Pour the crumble onto the fruit mixture and then cook at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until the mixture is bubbling and the crumble is golden brown. Serve with fresh custard.

© Katheryn Rice 2008

Peach Melba Crumble

As we head into autumn, crumble is the perfect comfort food for a chilly day. The combination of peaches and raspberries is usually found in other deserts, but it works fantastically with the sweet and crunchy crumble too. Top with creamy custard or fluffy vanilla ice cream and tuck in!

Peach melba crumble

Recipe for Peach Melba Crumble
4 ripe peaches, diced, skin on
200g fresh raspberries
50g brown sugar
3 knobs of butter 

Crumble
100g wholemeal plain flour
80g oats
20g flaked almonds
50g golden caster sugar
50g demerera sugar
100g butter, chilled

Mix the diced peaches, raspberries and brown sugar together well, then transfer into a 7-9 inch pie dish. Add the knobs of butter just under the top level of fruit and make sure the top of the mixture is level for the crumble.

To make the crumble, grind the oats until quite fine, but still with a bit of texture, then add them and the sieved flour into a large bowl. Then chop the butter into the mixture into inch-size pieces. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs and then add both sugars. Rub the sugar in until it is completely blended. Finally, stir in the flaked almonds.

Pour the crumble onto the fruit mixture and then cook at 180 degrees for 30 – 40 minutes or until the crumble is golden brown – delicious!

Just Cupcakes

Check these babies out:

Cupcakes

So cupcakes are getting a bit trendy these days. So I thought I’d shamelessly jump on the bandwagon and make some of my own. When it comes to cupcakes it probably goes without saying that you have to forego any concerns about fat or sugar content and just get on with using the best ingredients to get the best results. 

As you can see from the photo, icing is really what makes the cupcake, so I thought I’d go to town, and it was a nice way to pass the time as Mr Rice nursed his monumental hangover.

Recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes
125g unsalted butter (room temperature)
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
25g plain flour
3 tbsps skimmed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Butter cream
150g unsalted butter (room temperature)
300g caster sugar 

Preheat the oven to 200ºC and put 16 bun cases into a muffin or bun tin. Then beat the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a food mixer until well combined, followed by the sifted flour and beat again until it’s all smooth. Then add the milk 1 tbsp at a time, with the mixer on, until the mixture is soft but not runny.

Get two teaspoons and get a heaped spoonful of the mixture on one, and carefully push it off the spoon and into the bun cases with the other until all the bun cases are equally filled. Make sure they are no more than half full or they will overflow when they cook.

Cook the cupcakes for 15-18 minutes until the tops are golden brown and then let them cool fully on a wire cooling tray before you ice them.

I used good old butter cream to ice my cupcakes. It has a lovely, luxurious, velvety texture and is solid enough to cover any uneven tops on your cupcakes. Flatter tops are also the reason I’ve used 25g plain flour, so they don’t rise up too high.

To make the butter cream, just beat together the butter and the icing sugar until nice and smooth. Then you can smooth it or pipe it onto the cupcakes however you like, and of course you can add a little colour and other accoutrements too to give them the perfect finish!

I also discovered that these cupcakes were a good cure for Mr Rice’s hangover. 

PS
Special thanks to Mr Lawrence for telling me to get on with blogging – I’ll make you some cupcakes v soon!

© Katheryn Rice 2008

Strawberry shortcake cups

 

 

Strawberry Shortcake Cups

I always loved strawberry shortcake when I was younger, so this is an update, with a bit of a show-off presentation. It started off as a cheesecake with a shortbread base, but then I decided to make little shortbread cups instead. This is when the silicone muffin tin came in handy, but I’ll come back to that later.

 

Recipe for Strawberry shortcake cups
200g strawberries
200g shortbread biscuits
50g butter
½ tin of condensed milk
4 heaped tablespoons of fat free greek yoghurt
½ tub of cream cheese

Heat the butter gently in a small pan and while it’s heating, crush the shortbread biscuits into crumbs. You can do this by putting them in a strong food bag and smashing them with a rolling pin – this is the most cathartic method, good for releasing some tension, but be careful not to make any holes in the bag, or the crumbs will go flying. You can also crush the biscuits in a blender, which is more efficient but not as satisfying.

Add the biscuit crumbs to the pan and combine with the melted butter, then line the silicone muffin tin with the crumbs, about 1cm thick all the way round. Press the crumbs down quite firmly and smooth out. I used the end of a rolling pin to flatten down the base and then smooth up the sides, but you could use the back of a metal spoon too. When you’ve moulded all the cases, put them in the freezer to set. They’ll need to be rock solid before you take them out of the tin, so they don’t break. Give it at least an hour, preferably two.

Next, add the cream cheese and yoghurt to a bowl and then beat until smooth, then stir in the condensed milk. Add the vanilla and then finally the chopped strawberries. Chill in the fridge for as long as you leave the cups to set.

After an hour or two, remove the muffin tin from the freezer and very carefully remove the cases one by one. The best way is to actually peel the silicone away from the case. Carefully place each cup on a plate and then spoon in the filling and serve with a couple of fresh strawberries on the side.

If you’re not going to serve them straight away, freeze them until you’re ready, then get them out about 10 minutes before. 

© Katheryn Rice 2008

Fish and Pecorino lasagne

 

Fish and pecorino lasagne

 

It might sound odd, but it tastes absolutely delicious. If you like fish pie and you like lasagne, you will love fish lasagne. It was supposed to have cheddar and parmesan, but I picked up pecorino cheese by mistake. Not one to trudge back to the shops, I decided to give it a go, and it worked brilliantly. The cheese sauce gives the whole dish an extra kick, and the crunchy cheese topping is the icing on the cake, so to speak! Use whatever combinations of fish and cheese takes your fancy.

Recipe for Fish and Pecorino Lasagne

1 pint skimmed milk
2 bay leaves
1 garlic clove
40g butter
50g wholemeal plain flour
1 tsp English mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 fresh lasagne sheets
100g smoked haddock
150g cod fillet
200g prawns
50g sweetcorn
50g wholemeal breadcrumbs
300g cheddar cheese, grated
200g pecorino cheese, grated

Heat up the milk, bay leaves and garlic in a pan over a medium heat and warm to just before boiling point, then remove from the heat. Then slowly melt the butter in a separate pan and stir in the flour carefully, stirring all the time. Take the bay leaves and garlic out of the milk, then gradually add a little of the milk to the flour and butter mixture. Add the milk bit by bit, stirring all the time until you have a thick, smooth sauce. Once all the milk is added, bring the sauce to the boil, add the mustard, salt and pepper and then turn the heat off. Put enough of the cheese aside for a generous topping, then add the rest to the sauce and stir until it’s melted. Add all the fish and the sweetcorn to the sauce, then put a quarter of the mixture into the dish, followed by a sheet of lasagne and so on. Mix the breadcrumbs with the remaining grated cheese, and cover the top of the lasagne. Cook at 180°C for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden and the sauce is bubbling. Serve with garden peas and garlic bread.

© Katheryn Rice 2008

Blackberry and apple muffins

Muffins have been on my list of things to cook for a while, particularly as I have muffins in mind as a quick and tasty alternative to toast for breakfast in the morning. Many a time I have pictured myself grabbing a frozen muffin or two from the freezer as I run out of the door to work. I finally had a spare afternoon and managed to dig out the muffin recipe I had been saving for this very day. To top it all, I had also invested in some silicon muffin cases, mini and normal sized, so I really was all set to go…

Blackberry and apple is one of my favourite combinations, which harks back to my childhood and many memorable sunday teatimes eating blackberry and apple crumble. So I thought I would transfer this combination to muffins. And to make myself feel better that I was planning to eat these for my breakfasts, I thought I should inject some healthiness in the form of brown flour and oats, to up the protein and lower the glycaemic load. Luckily the combination works very well and they are delicious!

Recipe for blackberry and apple muffins
Dry ingredients
140g soft brown sugar
150g brown self-raising flour
100g rolled oats, blended until powdery
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Wet ingredients
85g butter, melted and just cooled
2 large eggs
200ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Filling
150g blackberries
1 eating apple, finely chopped

If you have silicon muffin cases, lay them out in muffin tins (this helps to keep their shape), or just place them close together on a baking tray. I used 12 mini muffin cases and 12 normal sized cases, and also needed to use a silicon muffin tray too. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, then mix all the wet ingredients in a jug, making sure they are well combined. Then pour the wet into the dry and carefully fold in. When it’s about half combined, add the fruit chunks and continue to fold carefully until just combined. You have to be careful not to over-mix or this will make your muffins tough and flat – not so much fun than light and fluffy ones!

Spoon the mixture into all your muffin cases and tins and cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes. They are ready when golden brown and springy to the touch. Let cool for a bit and then remove from the cases. If you want to freeze them, let them cool completely, then wrap individually in cling film and put in the freezer in a sealed freezer bag.

Tip: If you want to make them more fluffy and less health-conscious, substitute the brown flour and oats for all white flour. 

© Katheryn Rice 2008 

Honey and ginger pork with parsnips

Like many red-blooded males, Mr Rice likes to eat his fair share of red meat, so I decided to treat him to some tasty pork chops for sunday lunch.

Honey and ginger pork with parsnips
2 large pork chops
3 parsnips
1 onion
1 orange, zest and juice
8 tbsps clear honey
¼ tsp ground ginger

Heat the oven to 180ºC, line a baking tray with foil and add a knob of butter, then melt for a few minutes in the oven. Meanwhile quarter the parsnips and slice the onions thickly. Then add them to the baking tray and coat with the butter. Mix the honey and ginger with the orange juice and zest and pour half of it over the contents of the tray, then cook for 45 minutes, turning a couple of times.

Meanwhile, quickly brown the pork chops on each side and set aside. After 45 minutes, add the chops on top of the vegetables and pour on the rest of the sauce. Turn the oven up to 220ºC and cook for 15 minutes, turning once halfway through.

The parsnips and onions will have caramelised and soaked up the juices, which will have reduced, and the pork chops will be nicely browned.

Serve with vegetable mash and celeriac dauphinoise. 

Mr Rice often insists on having his roast dinner served in a giant Yorkshire pudding, and this was no exception…

 

© Katheryn Rice 2008

Banana bread

Wholesome comfort food.

Recipe for Banana Bread

4 bananas*
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200ml vegetable oil
180g wholemeal plain flour
100g plain flour
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
85g dark brown sugar
2 tbsp clear honey
100g pumpkin & sunflower seeds

Mash the bananas add them to the bowl of a food mixer with the eggs, vanilla extract, honey and oil and beat until smooth. In another bowl, add the sifted flours, salt, baking powder and brown sugar and stir gently to combine. Then add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and fold carefully together. When it is almost combined, add the pumpkin and sunflower seeds and finish mixing.

Transfer to a lightly oiled 750g loaf tin and cook for 55-60 minutes at 160ºC. The cake is ready when a skewer comes out clean. Let rest for ten minutes, then run a knife around the edges and carefully turn out. Slice and eat warm or keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

It was a lucky coincidence that Mr Rice had just bought a tub of Nutella, so after we had feasted on a delicious, warm slice of the bread, we devoured another one, slathered with the rich, hazelnut chocolate spread – sunday afternoon perfection!

*You can use defrosted frozen bananas in this recipe.

© Katheryn Rice 2008