Mini Banana Cupcakes

There was an over-ripe banana lurking in my fruit bowl that had ripened much quicker than the others. I hate over-ripe bananas, I like my bananas yellow, just on the cusp of ripening with no brown bits. I can't stand the mushyness! The only thing that sprang to mind for the banana was cake! I remembered Nigel Slater's Black Banana Cake, but as I didn't want to eat the whole thing myself, but take it into school for the book club to devour, I thought this might be a bit difficult to chop up. Plus it has nuts in it and I can't take nuts to school. So I thought mini cupcakes! One of the sixth formers who helps me run the club laughed and said "most people see an over-ripe banana and think bin, you see an over-ripe banana and think cake!"

I used a Good Food recipe, one for full sized cupcakes but adapted it to smaller ones. I had one small problem. I only have one 12 cup mini muffin tin so I was filling the cases, cooking, then taking the cakes out the tin to do another batch! It was a little bit fraught and time consuming! But they turned out well and I got lots of compliments from the girls and some went back for seconds and even thirds!

Mini Banana Cupcakes (adapted from Good Food March 2011)
(Makes about 40)

100g caster sugar
100g butter, softened
140g self-raising flour
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 very ripe banana
100g icing sugar
water

Preheat oven to 190C. Line mini muffin tins with cases.

Put the sugar, butter, flour, eggs, vanilla and banana in a big bowl together. Beat with an electric whisk until banana is mashed and everything mixed. Divide between the cases and bake for 10-12 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Leave to cool.

To decorate, mix the icing sugar with enough water to be spoonable, but not too runny or it will dribble off the cakes. Spread some over each cake and leave to dry.

Portobello Mushroom Burger with Spicy Wedges

Ok, so, technically this isn't a burger, but it feels like a burger and is a great alternative to a veggie burger which I often find can be a bit dry. It oozes all the lovely juices of the mushroom and also the melted cheese, just delicious. The spicy wedges were also a lovely compliment to the burger.

Portobello Mushroom Burger with Spicy Wedges
(Serves 1)

150g potatoes, cut in half and then into three
cooking spray
1 tsp Old Bay or cajun seasoning
1 large portbello mushroom, stalk removed
1 heaped tsp pesto
1/2 small ball mozzarella cheese, sliced
1 bread roll, sliced in half
1/2 roasted red pepper
lettuce

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and put the potatoes on the tray. Spray again with cooking spray and mix the potatoes around so they are covered in the spray, sprinkle over salt, pepper and the seasoning and bake in the oven for 30-40 mins until golden and crispy.

Meanwhile heat a little oil in a frying pan and cook the mushrooms for 3-4 mins each side until golden.

Place the mushroom, gills side up on a baking tray. Spread the pesto over the mushroom and then place the cheese on top. Bake in the oven for 10 mins until the cheese is melted.

Place the mushroom on the bottom half of the bread roll, top with the pepper, lettuce and the top half of the roll. Serve with the wedges and your favourite condiment.

Pesto Pasta Salad

This is another tasty store cupboard pasta salad recipe, easy to make and adaptable to anything you have hanging around. It's easy to throw together in just a few minutes as well, as I had to do when I found out that the lunch I thought was being provided wasn't, and that I was going to be rather a long way from any shops! I think I made it in about 10 mins flat!

The salami that I used is from Grasmere Farm and is called Grasmere Grunta. It is absolutely delicous. Grasmere Farm is a traditional pig farm in Cambridgeshire and they make and sell as wide range of pork products. They've been going since I was a child and make the best pork and apple burgers and sausages. Their salami is also one of my favourite snacks and I always stock up when I'm round that way.

Pesto Pasta Salad (from The Pioneer Woman Cooks)
(Serves 4)

240g dried pasta shapes
6 tbsp pesto
6 tbsp Parmesan, grated finely
6 tbsp low fat mayonnaise
6 tbsp low fat sour cream
2 tbsp milk, more for thinning
salt and pepper
1 head romaine lettuce, shredded
24 cherry or baby plum tomatoes, halved
24 green olives, halved
100g salami, chopped
110g cheese, cubed (could use cheddar or mozzarella whatever you have)
4 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
extra Parmesan for sprinkling

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the pasta in salted water according to package instructions. Drain and rinse under cold water. Allow pasta to dry slightly, then toss in a bowl with 4 tablespoons pesto. (Add more if you want the pasta to be more coated). Add the Parmesan and toss. Cover and refrigerate the pasta until it is cold.

Make the dressing by whisking together the mayonnaise, sour cream, and milk with the rest of the pesto. Add salt and pepper, then taste and adjust seasonings as needed. The dressing needs to be  pourable in order to coat the lettuce and pasta later. Set the dressing aside.

To assemble the salads, make a bed of lettuce in a bowl, then add a generous layer of pesto-coated pasta. Add tomatoes, olives, salami and chunks of cheese. Spoon a good amount of dressing all over the top; it should be thin enough to seep down into the salad, not so thick it will stay on top of everything.

Sprinkle salads with pine nuts and a little extra Parmesan and serve.

Sardines Stuffed with Orange and Bay Leaves

I have a love hate affair with sardines. I love the taste of them but I hate picking out all the little bones, or the feeling of swallowing them, So I have tended to avoid them for most of my life or bought canned skinless and boneless sardines. However as I've been told to eat more oily fish, I am trying to find more interesting things than just mountains of salmon, so I thought I'd give them a go.

I still didn't like all the bones and it was such a pain to pull them out! But the flavour was fantastic, they were lovely and slightly charred by the grill and the orange worked really well too. I served them with a garlicky potato salad and a green salad.

Sardines Stuffed with Orange and Bay Leaves
(adapted from Olive Magazine June 2005)
(Serves 4)

4 large sardines or 8 small, scaled and gutted
2 oranges, 1 thinly sliced and slices halved, and 1 juiced
4 bay leaves or 8, depending on the number of fish
olive oil
4 tsp smoked paprika

Preheat the grill.

Stuff the sardines with 2 or 3 slices of orange, a bay leaf and season well. Rub with a little oil and dust with paprika.

Cook the sardines under the grill for a few minutes on each side (about 2 minutes for small ones and 4 for large ones). Squeeze over some orange juice and serve.

Herby Tomato Pasta Salad

This pasta salad is so simple to make and in the summer the flavours of the tomatoes are amazing. However, it being May and feeling like it's still winter, the tomatoes were not quite as tasty as they will be later on, but I love the simplicity of this dish and the bright colours of the tomatoes.

It can be served hot or cold, you could also add in a bit of red onion or some cucumber to the dish; both make fantastic additions. You could also add a bit of olive oil in if you fancy it, a really versatile, quick lunch or supper to have up your sleeve and a great way to use up the glut of tomatoes from the garden when summer finally gets here!

Herby Tomato Pasta Salad (adapted from WeightWatchers Fresh and Easy Everyday)
(Serves 1)

60g dried pasta shapes
1 small clove of garlic, crushed
150g yellow and red cherry tomatoes
50g roasted red peppers, chopped
1 tbsp basil, chopped
1 tbsp chives, chopped
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the pasta according to packet instructions, drain and then run under cold water.

Mix the pasta with the rest of the ingredients and pack into your lunchbox.

Daring Cooks May 2013: Mushroom Wellingtons

Our lovely Monkey Queen of Don’t Make Me Call My Flying Monkeys, was our May Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to dive into the world of en Croute! We were encouraged to make Beef Wellington, Stuffed Mushroom en Croute and to bring our kids into the challenge by encouraging them to create their own en Croute recipes!

I don't have any kids but I kind of made up my own recipe anyway, based on the mushroom one, but using what I had in the house. This was delicious, although I did have a bit of a disaster as I didn't have any eggs so I used milk to stick the pastry together. It didn't stick properly so most of my cheese leaked out as you can see at the bottom! However I just scraped it up and had it on the side and the dish was still delicious. I served it with roast squashed new potatoes and salad. I love things en croute so this was a fantastic challenge!

















I've also just realised that this is my 700th post! That's pretty good!!

Mushroom Wellingtons
(Serves 4)

4 large portobello mushrooms
4 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, chopped
200g spinach leaves
200g chard leaves
a dusting of flour
500g block all-butter puff pastry
140g Harrogate Blue cheese, sliced
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Remove the stalks from the mushrooms. Heat half the oil in a large frying pan and sizzle the mushrooms for 3-4 mins on each side until golden and cooked. Lift the mushrooms out onto kitchen paper to drain.

Place the same pan back on the heat with the rest of the oil. Fry the garlic for a moment, add the spinach and chard to the pan, then cook for 2-3 mins over a high heat until completely wilted. Season with salt and pepper, then tip the spinach and chard into a large sieve to drain thoroughly.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out to the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut the pastry into 4 rectangles and on half of the pastry place the spinach and chard mix and then top with a slice of cheese, then a mushroom top side up and then more cheese.

Brush the border  of the pastry with egg, then gently fold the other half of the pastry over the mushroom, trying not to trap any air, then press the edges together with a your fingers or a fork.

Trim the edges with a knife if you want, then brush each generously with egg. Bake for 30-40 mins until golden, then leave to cool for a few mins before serving.

Salmon Rarebit

This was the second meal I made with the pot of cottage cheese I had and it was much better than the first. Putting the cottage cheese on top of the chunky salmon made the curds seem less obvious somehow and the addition of cheddar pepped up the flavour. I would definitely eat cottage cheese in this way again. I think I might try using it in a lasagne or baked pasta dish and see how I like that.

Salmon Rarebit (from Good Food Magazine February 2006)
(Serves 1)

1 slice granary or wholemeal bread
½ can salmon, drained and flaked
1-2 spring onions, thinly sliced
pepper
2 tbsp cottage cheese
1 tsp grated horseradish
1 tbsp coarsely grated cheddar or red Leicester cheese

Preheat the grill.

Toast the bread lightly in a toaster or under the grill.

Mix the salmon and spring onions together and season with pepper. Spread onto the bread. Mix together the cottage cheese, horseradish and cheese. Spoon on top of the salmon.

Grill for 3-4 mins or until the topping starts to brown.

Meal Planning Monday

This week is hopefully fairly relaxed. Nothing too taxing on the horizon, just a trip to the school archives for the Year 5s which they love and I love teaching. It's amazing how excited they get by the rolling shelves!! Other than that lots of zumba, dinner out tonight, a trip to the theatre and hopefully I'm off to see The Great Gatsby on Thursday evening. Then my Mum is coming down for the weekend, hence no plan and we are going to Hyde Hall for the day and to a family 70th birthday party on Sunday.

One of my weekend highlights was meeting my sister for tea yesterday afternoon at The Parlour in Fortnums. We had the delicious, if rather small, strudels to share and I had a Fortnum's Mint Refresher Float, which I can highly recommend. But even better than that were the gingerbread men she brought me. Last weekend she went to Berlin and bought cutters of the men on the traffic lights, which she then used to make gingerbread traffic light men.

There are two different sorts, walk and don't walk and they are so cool and very tasty to boot! They reminded me how much I love gingerbread, so I'm going to have a go at making some myself in the near future.

The food this week is really simple, lots of salads as we seem to have something approaching summer weather at the moment. The salmon hash I'm making on Thursday came from a recipe on the Meal Planning Monday linky but I can't find it again. So I apologise that when I post the recipe I can't attribute it to anyone. However, if it's your recipe please let me know. It's basically tinned salmon, sweetcorn and mash mixed together, then fried for a bit before being put in the oven.

Monday
Smoked Mackerel Super Salad
Out for dinner at Itsu with friends

Tuesday
Tartiflette and Salad
Lemon, Asparagus and Salami Orzo Salad

Wednesday
Southwestern Bean Salad with Doritos
Salmon Hash

Thursday
Hummus, Aubergine, Red Pepper and Halloumi Wrap wth Crisps
Chicken Taco Bowls

Friday
Merguez Couscous Salad
Out at the Cinema - probably Subway

As always I'm linking up with Mrs M check out her blog for more meal planning ideas.

Linguine with Sausages, Tomatoes, Fennel and Ricotta

This is another quick and easy pasta recipe with so much flavour. The original recipe doesn't have sausages in it but they needed eating so I added them in. I loved the addition of the balsamic vinegar, which added a sweetness to the dish.

Linguine with Sausages, Tomatoes, Fennel and Ricotta (adapted from Olive Magazine July 2009)
(Serves 4)

8 pork sausages
3 garlic cloves, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 small or 4 baby fennel bulbs, thinly sliced
6 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced a small bunch basil leaves, chopped
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
300g spaghetti
100g low fat ricotta

Preheat the grill.

Grill the sausages for 15-20 mins turning occasionally, until they are evenly browned and cooked through. When the sausages are done slice them into rounds.

Meanwhile, heat the garlic and olive oil in a wide shallow pan. Add the fennel, season well then cook for 10 minutes until soft and golden.

Put the tomatoes, basil and vinegar in a large bowl with some seasoning.

Cook the pasta following pack instructions. Drain, mix with the tomatoes and sausages, pour the fennel mixture over and mix again. Dollop small spoonfuls of the ricotta over each plate. Serve.

Zhong-Xi Breakfast

Apparently Zhong-Xi means Eat meets West and these eggs are certainly that. I don't make omlettes very often but they tend to be my standby when I've forgotten to take something out the freezer or I've just come back from somewhere as they are so quick and easy to make. Frying the tomatoes is genius, it made them lovely and sweet and with the Chinese ingredients it added that something a little bit different. I only had red tomatoes but the colour combination with yellow as well would be stunning. It was a delicious breakfast!

Zhong-Xi Breakfast (from Tasty Kitchen)
(Serves 1)

2 eggs
pinch salt
3 tbsp oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp brown sugar
3 red cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
4 whole yellow cherry tomatoes
1 tbsp parsley, chopped

In a bowl, lightly beat eggs with a pinch of salt.

In a frying pan, heat 1 tbsp of the oil. When hot, pour in the eggs. Let them cook for a minute or so, until the eggs start solidifying. Then with a wooden spoon, push the edge in so that the soggy, uncooked eggs can touch the pan. When the eggs are almost cooked but the center is still soft, fold your omelet in half and place it on a plate.

In the same pan (don’t wash it), add the remaining 2 tbsp of oil and heat till really hot. Throw in chopped garlic and ginger, stir for a minute or so. Then add the sugar and let it caramelize. Add in the tomatoes and cook till they start getting soft, about 1 minute.

Pour in soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil; stir all the ingredients together. Remove from heat and pour the tomatoes on top of your omelet.

Sprinkle the parsley on top.