Thomasina Miers' Churros y Chocolate

This recipe has been on my to-do-list ever since I first got my grubby mitts on a copy of Thomasina Miers' Mexican Cooking Made Easy (my second favourite book after Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet) and I knew that if I didn't make it today, I probably never would.

Just a light breakfast

It's the kind of thing that you a) have to share with other people and b) couldn't cook in my house because the husband would freak out about the thought of all that hot oil catching fire.  So I decided to make it whilst visiting the Mothership as I knew she'd just about trust me to cook it by myself (see last night's brandy episode) and that my stepdad would do the honours and eat every last scrap.

The recipe supposedly makes 16 3-4" churros and I did consider only making half of the batter but figured that four each would be about right.  In the end, I must have had about 24 3-4" ones (and they all went).  It also makes far more chocolate sauce than it's humanly possible to eat at that time of the morning - but of course that will keep for another time or can be chilled and turned into truffles.

Mount Churros

Aside from the faff of deep frying, the recipe is simplicity itself.  The batter is just flour, oil and water;  the sauce a simple ganache of dark and milk chocolate*, double cream and golden syrup; the "sprinkly bit" cinnamon and caster sugar.  There's no need for a deep fat fryer to cook them - I did mine in a wok filled one-third full with oil.  You just need to be a bit dextrous trying to snip the batter from the piping bag when it's hanging over a pan of hot oil.  I had a couple that stuck together as the previous one floated into the path of the new one I was squeezing out but other than that, everything went to plan.

The only other tip is to either keep the pre-cooked ones warm whilst cooking the others or to serve them to people shortly after draining.  I made all mine first and so the last few were a bit icky when cold but the chocolate sauce definitely made up for it.

I would definitely make these again if I ever had a crowd to feed.  Which will be never.  But definitely worth the effort if you fancy a treat.  If you don't own a copy of Mexican Food Made Easy (then go buy one!) you can find the recipe here.

*It did feel slightly wrong cooking with 250g Finest Peruvian chocolate at 8am.  But only slightly!

Abigail's Strawberry Shortcakes

When I was a child, I remember Hanna Barbera's "Wait til your Father gets home" being on the telly.  I'm sure it was entertaining but literally, all I can remember is the title.  The meaning was slightly lost on me at the time as I never had the fear (or joy) of my father coming home.  But now it resonates as I've become that parent coming home to face the needs of Miss A.

I can pretty much guarantee now that whenever she's been subjected to Daddy DayCare, at some point, he will have used the 'Wait until Mummy gets home and then you can...' line on her.  Having a child generally makes crap days at work (like the one I had today) worthwhile.  But boy, I could've done without coming home to 'but Daddy said we could make Strawberry Crown' when I finally got in after a twelve hour day.

The fragrant Katie of 'I Can Cook' fame is to blame for this one.  We're going through a princess phase at the moment.  Yesterday this was a bonus as I managed to get Miss A's hair brushed twice without tears because I've been telling her for months that princesses have their hair brushed 100 times.  She finally succumbed to this yesterday, but I paid the price tonight because princesses must eat Strawberry Crown for pudding when they've been good all day.

Not being in the mood for soothing another tantrum (that's all I've done all day today - and I've had a few of my own too!) I gave in way too easily and soon we were in a happy, sticky, floury mess of a kitchen.

Cooked by my favourite chef!

In essence, it's a shortbread biscuit, topped with jam and strawberries and baked in the oven.  I never realised you could bake strawberries and they'd still come out pretty whole.  So I've learned something today.  It also got Miss A to eat something green because the jam is sprinkled with basil.  Okay so it was a tiny bit of green stuff but it was a new taste sensation for her.  And if I can convince her that lettuce is a kind of basil tomorrow then I'm getting somewhere.

Because I couldn't be bothered to dig out the original recipe, I just made my own base up and used almonds to give the shortbread a better texture.  Of course, they don't do that on the telly because of nut allergies.  I think it works well, but you can always substitute them with extra flour.  And to top it off, it's sprinkled with Demerara sugar.  I can't believe that Miss A was able to work out that soft brown sugar was not Demerara sugar when we were getting the ingredients out of the cupboard.  She's two.  This is slightly scary. If I'd not used up all my glitter stars making Dan Lepard's sparkly plum jam the other day I think we'd have used those instead as the 'gold' melted on cooking so we had to sprinkle more for decoration before serving.

Even the husband liked this one.  It's a great one for kids to make pretty much by themselves with a little bit of guidance.  If my two year old can do it, anyone can.

Serves 4 (adapted from I Can Cook)

100g plain flour
50g unsalted butter, cubed
50g ground almonds
25g caster sugar
8 strawberries - hulled and halved
4 generous teaspoons of good quality strawberry jam (we used Bonne Maman)
6 basil leaves, torn
Demerara sugar or edible glitter

Preheat the oven to 220c/200c fan
Put the butter and flour into a bowl and rub together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Stir in the almonds and sugar and bring together to form a soft dough.  You may need a little extra flour if the mixture is a little soft.
Divide the mixture into four.  Shape into balls and then flatten to about 1.5cm thick.  Place on a baking tray.
Make a dip in the middle using your knuckles and spread a teaspoon of jam into the centre of each biscuit.
Sprinkle the basil over the jam then top with the strawberries.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until the biscuit is starting to go golden brown.
Leave to cool then sprinkle with Demerara sugar or edible glitter and serve with creme fraiche, yogurt or ice cream.

BBC Good Food Coffee Semi Freddo with Dan Lepard's Caramel Sauce

I'm known for bemoaning my husband's lack of interest in what I do.  Tonight was one of those nights when I wish he'd ignored what I was doing.  Because I had to end up sharing possibly one of my favourite dishes of this year.

With days to go and a whole heap of work and personal stuff going on, I've not had a minute to sit down and leaf through my cookery books and have to confess to increasingly resorting to t'internet to help me track down suitable recipes.  Instead of focussing on the end of this challenge, my mind has already raced ahead to future projects (writing for other blogs, Christmas hampers, my own new blog, getting back into running).  I'm probably in denial that I'm going to have a huge hole in my evenings between the child going to bed and my own bedtime and need to find something to fill it before the husband makes me do cleaning.

So this in turn led to lots of middle of the night 'window-shopping' on the BBC Good Food website where I happened across this recipe for semi-freddo.  I would love to visit Italy one day - it's something I doubt that will happen with my husband as he always gets to choose our holiday - but a girl can dream.  I want to stuff my face full of pasta although I'm less keen on gelato.  So the idea of making semi-freddo was a bit of a hit and miss chance.

Messy, but soooo tasty

For the uninitiated, semi-freddo is basically a frozen mousse so there's no faffy churning like you'd get with real ice cream.  It's texture is far lighter and it melts quite quickly so is more like an ice-cream that's been out of the freezer for a fair while.

The BBC recipe recommends using Toblerone but I could only get hold of a massive one and in my world, Toblerone is something you only ever buy in duty free and scoff on holiday (I did this once with one of the 2kg packs and it's pretty much put me off of Toblerone for life).  So I went with Green and Black's Burnt Toffee chocolate instead.

To complement the ice cream, and because I love caramel syrup with my lattes, I made Dan Lepard's Caramel Sauce from Short and Sweet and spiked it with a healthy dose of sea salt.  This stuff is lethally addictive.  I tested it several times to get the sugar/cream/salt ratio correct to ensure the slightly burnt flavour wasn't too intense but complimented the coffee and burnt toffee chocolate flavours.  Then I tested it several times more just to check for consistency as it cooled of course.  And a few more times for luck.  It's a good job I only made half the recipe or I'd be in a sugar-induced coma right now.

I did the same with the semi-freddo - making it in my 500g loaf tin.  The tin is long and shallow so the slices aren't as elegant as on the BBC website but it's all about the taste for this post.  Plus I thought I would be eating it all (over a few days of course) and semi-freddo apparently doesn't keep well with the egg whites forming little frozen blobs after a few days.

I won't be able to test this theory.  Especially now.  Because for the first time since last November when I made Mary Berry's chocolate roulade, the husband seemed hell bent on stalking my every move all evening.  He normally slumps in front of the telly until midnight but everywhere I went he was a couple of paces behind.  Consequently, he asked to try a bit of my pudding.  He ate half of one slice and said he liked it but then insisted that I make him his own bowlful.

I left him watching the X-Files to come and eat mine in peace and type this post but knowing him as I do, he will have licked the bowl completely clean.  And I when I say licked, I mean licked.

This is definitely on the make again list.  You can find the semi-freddo recipe here.  For the caramel sauce, you can use this recipe here although the one from Short and Sweet doesn't use butter or golden syrup and is flavoured with vanilla bean paste and a touch of salt (or a big pinch for the salted caramel I used)

Dan Lepard's Spiced Baklava

With just two weeks to go, I had to get my act together and try making baklava.  It's something I've wanted to do for years and it was on my list for the Olympic Food Challenge but because it could have been a recipe from about three of my countries on the list, I kept putting it off until I had no suitable countries left.  I'd gotten as far as buying the filo, but that was it.

So today, having promised my work colleagues at the other office that I'd bring them cake, I figured it was time to get my pastry thang on and put another tick on the list.  And who better to guide me through the minefield of recipes than Dan Lepard?

Partially syruped baklava

The recipe is simplicity in itself.  The only problem I had was with the power of my food processor with it taking nearly ten minutes to process the nuts to a dust.  And a bit of stupidity on my part where I didn't quite pay attention to the instructions for the dark sugar syrup and put all the water into the pan at the start - thus having to try and ladle it all out again without removing the sugar.

Using shop-bought filo is one of those acceptable kitchen shortcuts that even the most capable of bakers will do.  I'd love to see them have a filo-from-scratch challenge on the Great British Bake Off - it would probably make great entertainment.  Most people shy away from making their own filo but the lovely Lauren from the Eighty Bakes blog made her own in an epic version of baklava.  I am in awe of her patience.

The recipe calls for 500ml of syrup which seems massively excessive.  I was in two minds about whether or not to use it all, but knowing Dan's recipes always work pretty well (see the chocolate cake disaster) I ended up using it all.  Having just popped out to check on it as it cools, it seems pretty soggy so I'm hoping it will set once its cold.  This will be one of those posts where I'll have to update with feedback tomorrow.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

You can find the recipe here

Updated 12th September @ 12:10

I should have gone with my gut instinct.  500ml of syrup was way too much.  It wasn't so much a soggy bottom as a drowned bottom.  The whole lot ended up in the bin at about 5am this morning.  Saddened is an understatement - especially as the nuts and filo were so expensive.

I'd recommend anyone trying this recipe to add the syrup in stages and review after each addition has had time to soak in.

Olympic Food Challenge: Chrov Plav - Kazakhstan

Out of all of my Olympic countries, I think Kazakhstan did best at the London 2012 Summer Olympics, gathering a haul of seven golds, one silver and five bronze medals.  Looking at the disciplines they got them in, I wouldn't ever want to mess with a Kazakhstani - they seem to excel at Weightlifting, Boxing and Wrestling (with a gold in Cycling and another in Athletics for a little diversity).

They've fielded seven competitors in three different disciplines at the 2012 Paralympics - some have already sadly not advanced, but they still have some hope left in certain categories.

Moving on to the food angle, their cuisine revolves heavily around horse meat and mutton.  Of course, eating horses is (thankfully) frowned on in the UK so I didn't have to go down that route.  According to the Beeb, the Kazakhstani team even tried to bring their own horse meat sausages with them as they believe that their protein rich diet is key to being amazing in the Powerlifting arena.  I couldn't find out whether or not the UK Borders Agency permitted to bring them in but based on their prowess from the stats above, either they did or maybe they'd have medalled (I hate myself for using that term!) even more than they did.

One of their most well-known dishes is Manti - or lamb dumplings.  Having already done the dumpling thin "in Nepal" a few weeks back and being tight on time, I went for a different, pudding based dish.  Chrov Plav.  I can't for the life of me remember how I happened across this particular recipe as most of my research turned up recipes in how to preserve mutton and lamb - very important to the Kazakhstanis  due to their historical nomadic lifestyles.  The ingredients for Chrov Plav reflect this with a heavy reliance on dried fruits and rice - all of which would transport pretty easily without spoiling.

Sadly, I'm not a fan of Chrov Plav.  I think it's because I probably wanted it to be like an English rice pudding - creamy and comforting.  The lack of full fat milk and/or cream and lashings of sugar probably makes this really good for you.  It is sweet, but the sweetness comes from the dried fruit and honey - I don't really like honey.  If for some bizarre reason I did try making this again, I'd probably throw some cardamom pods in to give it an additional flavour dimension.  I'd also think about swapping the honey for maple syrup and while I was at it, substitute the water for milk.  At which point it would be nothing like the Kazakhstan dish - and I'd probably just be better off making the Stovetop Coconut Rice Pudding I was so enamoured with earlier this year (ie a totally different dish).

If you want to make it, here's the original recipe.

Serves 4

• 1 cup Rice uncooked (it didn't say which kind of rice so I used basmati)
• 1/4 cup Chopped almonds
• 2 tbsp Currants
• 2 tbsp Raisins
• 6 each Prunes dried, pitted, & coarsely chopped
• 3 tbsp Dates chopped
• 4 tbsp Butter
• 1/4 cup Apricots, dried, pitted & cut into strips ¼"x1"
• 1 tbsp Honey
• 2 cup Cold water

1. Soak, dates, currants, & prunes in a bowl of warm water for 15 minutes. Then remove them, pat dry, and mix with the other dried fruits. 
2. Melt the butter in a large, heavy skillet over high heat. 
3. Add the fruit mixture and the almonds. 
4. Reduce the heat to low and stir for 4 minutes, stir in the honey, rice, and water. 
5. Raise heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 25 minutes. 
6. Serve hot.

Olympic Food Challenge: Mousse de Limão - Portugal

Yet another amazing day for Team GB.  Finally, Vicky Pendleton got the opportunity to shine and take gold.  More glory for the men's team sprint.  And sadly, I missed the lot as it's the Mothership's birthday and Olympics appears to be a dirty word in her house.  So much so that my step father keeps sneakily looking at the results on Teletext (or whatever the red button text service is now known as) with the same kind of furtiveness as an alcoholic taking sneaky sips from their stash of gin (he's a bit henpecked).

Summer on a plate

Still, Portugal were represented at tonight's birthday barbecue through a lovely lemon mousse from the fabulous Kerstin's Kitchen.  I met Kerstin through Twitter a while back.  She runs her own business, catering for dinner parties and selling amazing sounding home made products.  I so wish I lived closer to her so I could sample some of her wares.  Earlier in the week, we were tweeting about the OFC and she kindly sent me a couple of recipes to help me out.  The first being the aforementioned lemon mousse which was the perfect alternative to the calorie-laden, super-rich chocolate and coconut layer cake that I managed to rustle up as the star attraction.  I will write about the choc-coconut on my new blog which will be going live in October.

I was a little nervous about making a baked mousse - Kerstin likened it to a souffle, which is something I've managed to avoid making this year - but in all honesty, it was a complete doddle.  Whip up some eggs, flavour with lemon, pop in ramekins, bake et voila.  Fresh, light pudding.  I did have one small problem in that I appeared to lose my egg-separating capabilities and ended up wasting three (omelette anyone) by dropping a yolk into the whites and subsequently bursting it when I tried to carefully fish it back out.  But other than that, they rose beautifully and got rave reviews from my Uncle Jeffrey.

Because I'm still trying to be good, I forewent the cakeage too and was really pleased to have this light alternative.  After a rather meat-heavy meal, it was nice to have something sweet to cleanse the palate without feeling like my jeans were fit to burst with after a massive slice of cake.

Decorated with summer berries, this is really the perfect summer dinner party dessert and I will definitely be making this again when I want to impress.  The plus side is that you can also serve it hot or cold so you can make it ahead or eat it straight from the oven.  I would love to try lining the bottom of the ramekins with some homemade lemon curd, just to give it a little something else - but that will be a later experiment when I'm not trying to impress anyone other than myself.

Thank you so much Kerstin for the recipe and do please pop over to her website to take a look or if your on Twitter, give her a follow (@KerstinsKitchen).  She's a lovely lady to chat to.

As for Portugal, they've sent 77 athletes to London 2012 and are completing in 13 disciplines.  Rather sensibly, they too have avoided fielding anyone to compete in the track cycling.  Last time they were in London, they took a silver in Sailing and a Bronze in Equestrian. So far, they've failed to win any medals this time round, but who knows how they'll fare in week two?

If I was awarding a medal for the recipe, it would get a gold for showoffiness, ease of making and taste, however I'd award the gold to Kerstin rather than Portugal :o)

Pimms Jelly

One of the most common questions I get asked about this 'odyssey' that I'm on is 'What do you do when you just want a pizza for tea?'  Well the simple answer is that I don't actually like pizza so it's not a problem.  I'll admit that I enjoyed making Dan Lepard's pizzas a while back, but still, I never crave pizza because historically I've not liked it so I can live without it.

It was actually set at this point...

Of course, pizza is just one of many things that could be substituted into that question.  I'm just being a bit pedantic.  If pizza was replaced by toast/poached eggs/spaghetti bolognaise/sausages and mash etc etc then the more accurate answer as regular readers will know is that I make cake.  Or a dessert.  Which I guess is a bit cheaty in the grand scheme of things.  But I made the rules so I can bend them to suit.  I've still tried - and blogged about - a new recipe every single day for the last 300 days.

Sometimes I've tried two new recipes in one day.  Sometimes I've written about them both.  More often than not, I've actually only written about the more worthy recipe.  I've not documented some of the failures I've had - like the time I tried to make Lorraine Pascale's Totally Naughty Mini Toad in the Holes for Miss A's tea.  They ended up looking nothing like in the book - God knows how she got the sausages to stand to attention (*snigger*) - and Miss A refused point blank to eat them - despite being on an exclusively sausage-and-fruit diet at the time.  The picture was just so rubbish that I ended up writing about the lovely Chilli Chocolate Cookies I'd also made courtesy of a recipe from Jaim's Kitchen.

Thursday is normally the day I crack.  If I was dealing with a more adventurous family, I'd probably be more inclined to make an effort.  But Thursdays and I have never seen eye-to-eye.  Once upon a time it was free paper delivery day - not fun if you're a 15st 15-year-old lugging 200-odd free papers plus assorted leaflets from door to door.  Then Thursdays became working-late-night-opening-at-Debenhams night.  A brief respite appeared in my mid-twenties when it was go-to-the-nearest-bar-after-work-and-get-hammered-on-one-glass-of-wine.  And now, in my mid-thirties it's the day of the week when the fridge is bare and my patience is low.  Couple that with a husband who rolls his eyes at anything I ever suggest for tea unless it's takeaway and you start to understand why I struggle with recipes on Thursday nights.  

Even Instagram couldn't save these

I've been thinking about trying a Pimm's jelly recipe since the weather was last bright and sunny.  Having waited endless weeks to do it, I was motivated into action after buying some cute jelly moulds for Miss A the other day.  I was determined that rather than just buying packet jelly, I'd make my own from scratch so I know exactly what's going into it.  So used the Pimms jelly recipe as an excuse for a bit of pre-production testing before the weekend when I plan to make fresh fruit jellies from scratch.  Plus it meant I could have a 'dirty' tea of scrambled eggs with tomato sauce and didn't have to worry about making something exotic like Thomasina Miers' Huevos a la Mexicana.  Good old runny 'eggy-scrambles' with a big splodge of Heinz 57 on a toasted English muffin.  Bliss.


I had a can of pre-mixed Pimms that has been lurking in the fridge for the last six weeks (I rarely drink) so it seemed like a simple task.  Melt gelatine, mix with Pimms, bung in fruit, chill, eat.  I was rather relieved that it set, although a little disappointed that the fruit floated to the top.  I removed it from the fridge for it's pic.  Left it on the side whilst we ate tea.  Went to eat it an hour later and discovered that I now had a glass of flat Pimms with very soggy fruit in it.  Major disappointment.  I'm guessing it has to be eaten pretty much straight from the fridge.


Plus, the fizz had gone from the lemonade so I'm not quite sure why all the recipes advocate using lemonade.  I would've expected it to have a mildly carbonated fizz to the jelly but not a hint.  All in all a waste of a damned good glass of Pimms and somes strawberries.  Even though I don't drink often, I still felt saddened at this lost opportunity.  I'm really glad I didn't crack open the bottle of Prosecco that Ocado kindly gave me for being such a loyal customer and waste that on Jamie O's jelly recipe.  It's definitely going in a glass for drinking and nothing more.


Pimms and cake, however, works really well together.  My Pimms cupcakes got great reviews from my work colleagues a while back and I'm thinking of making a Pimms bundt for the Afternoon Tea Tent at Bridestock which is now only two and a bit weeks away!  But because Bridestock falls in the middle of the Olympic Food Challenge, I'm going to have another few days of double-recipe trying.  Oh well, at least it means I can eat a lot of toast for tea!


The recipe I used for the Pimms jelly can be found here.  Don't take my word for it that it doesn't work.

Lil Ms Squirrel's Rhubarb Fool

There was a recent episode of The Apprentice where some of the supposed finest young minds of modern Britain spent ages coming up with a new product to market, only for one of them to announce "Actually, we've just created the bin."  I felt a bit like this tonight as I set about trying to make a healthier version of James Martin's rhubarb fool and finally realising that I've just about made low fat rhubarb and custard.

Healthier than it looks

Admittedly I've never eaten rhubarb and custard before so it's new to me.  But I missed the obvious whilst going to so much effort.

James' recipe combines ready made custard with whipped cream.  Because I was looking for something lower in fat, I decided to combine my homemade custard (made using skimmed milk) with Greek yogurt.  Having done a little research on the best way to poach rhubarb, I settled on a method from Dan Lepard where you roast the rhubarb with a little sugar.  He rightly points out that poaching it in a pan can leave it watery.  I love his method because you get a thick, tasty syrup in the bottom of the dish.  Trouble is, it's so tempting just to lick the bowl clean.

Because my rhubarb was quite mature, rather than the thin pink rhubarb you get earlier in the year, I left it in whole chunks and layered it with the custard mixture and crushed amaretti biscuits.

It was an okay pudding for someone looking for a healthy, diet friendly pudding to combat a bout of hormonal sugar craving.  And I have the rest of the lovely roasted rhubarb to eat with my breakfast yogurt tomorrow.

Unfortunately for my diet, it's now reminded me that this lovely recipe from Sadia from the Baking Elements blog is still on my to-do-list.  I think my work colleagues are in for a lucky week next week.

Here's what I did.  It's a bit faffy, so you could substitute the homemade custard for a small pot of low fat, ready made custard for speed.

Recipe - Serves 2

For the custard mixture

• 1 medium egg yolk
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 2 tsp sugar
• 200ml skimmed milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp low fat Greek yogurt

For the rhubarb

• 400g rhubarb, cut into two inch chunks
• 75g caster sugar
• juice of 1/2 lemon

To assemble

• 4 amaretti biscuits, crushed
• 2 small glass tumblers

1. Preheat the oven to 170c/150c (fan).  Place the rhubarb in a shallow glass dish, sprinkle over the sugar and lemon juice.  Roast for an hour.  Leave to cool.
2. Mix the egg yolk and cornflour together in a bowl.  Heat the milk to boiling point then pour over the egg mixture, whisking quickly.  Pour back into the pan and heat until thickened.  Beat in the sugar and leave to cool.
3. To assemble put a few pieces of rhubarb into the bottom of each glass.  Add a tablespoon of custard and sprinkle with some of the biscuits.  Repeat the layering, finishing with a layer of biscuits.

Cooking for Kids: Fruit Skewers

When we get back from holiday, the husband is starting a new healthy eating regime, coupled with a stupidly intense exercise regime.  I've been handed the manual and informed that I am responsible for making sure that he has a six pack like Ben Shepherd's (if you've not seen him recently, check out these pics of him in Men's Health - shame he's a bit little)

Some of your five a day

I'm sure, if he puts his mind to it, he could get most of the way there.  When I first knew him, he used to lift weights every day and had really big arm muscles for someone who was pretty slim.  Since we moved to the countryside, he's become more sedentary and the dumbells are coated in a serious layer of dust in the garage.  But the biggest challenge will be the food.

It involves very little carbs, lots of protein and lots of fresh fruit and veg.  The only veg the husband eats is bell peppers when we have fajitas (chopped toms, onions and garlic made into sauce doesn't count in my book).  He keeps saying 'it's only eight weeks'.  I'm afraid we won't get past day two.  Every so often, he'll inform me I don't feed him enough vegetables.  I stock up on broccoli, asparagus, peas etc and by the end of the week, I'm making soup for me with it and he's back to no veg at all.

Miss A is just like him in that respect; but when it comes to fruit, she's like a little fruit bat.  I've never seen a child willingly eat so much fruit as she does - all varieties (except Dragon Fruit).  The husband, on the other hand, only eats bananas.  And apple turnovers.  Only if they're accompanied by ice cream.

So I figured that this would be a good, simple, sharing family recipe for holiday.  Chop up loads of fresh fruit.  Stick it on skewers.  Drizzle with maple syrup and melted chocolate.  Eat.  Job done.  Why did I not think of this before?

Dan Lepard's Apple Turnovers

After yesterday's pastry-fest ready for the sausage rolls, I ended up with a fair bit left over.  Some I froze, but I decided to keep a small portion back to make something else for the picnic.  We're on a long journey today - eight hours of solid driving, provided there are no traffic jams and excluding stops - and so I needed to be prepared.

Having a bagful of apples that also needed either eating or adding to the picnic, I saw an opportunity to make Dan's Apple Turnovers - a recipe that he recommends alongside his All Butter Puff recipe.

No cardboard in sight!

Earlier this week, the husband went out to buy wine and I asked him to bring me back something nice.  He came back with Tesco's Apple Turnovers.  They were stale and had no taste.  What a waste of calories!  So this seemed like a good time to show the husband how an apple turnover should taste.

The apple filling tastes amazing.  I used three apples-worth to make two turnovers (I like them packed with fruit, not air) and had a bit to spare.  The butter, sugar, lemon, vanilla and cinnamon combination is fantastic with Pink Lady apples.  And they keep their shape well without turning into mush like if you use cooking apple.

I have to blog really quickly as the husband is downstairs, huffing and puffing about how to fit everything into the car and if he knew I was writing this, I wouldn't be very popular!

And if he ever asks me to buy shop-bought apple turnovers again, I will hand in my notice as his wife.  Seriously, if you have the time to try the puff recipe, you need to make these.  They really are a treat (I've always hated the apple-pie-filling-stuffed-sugar-topped-cardboard that you get from the supermarket) and it's worth the effort.  Also a great way to use up leftover pastry - make mini ones from pastry scraps.

Right, got to fly before the husband purposely leaves behind my baking tins!

Recipe is here.

BBC Good Food Pineapple and Pink Grapefruit with Mint Sugar

The final recipe in this week's mint quadrilogy.  I was feeling really virtuous when I came home from work and tucked into a plate of soft, sweet pineapple and cheek tingling red grapefruit (I didn't pay attention to which colour grapefruit I picked up at the shops so don't shoot me) and summery mint sugar.  And then the husband persuaded me to have a chippy tea so now I'm feeling fat and bloated and a bit greasy.  For every yin, there is a yang and all that.

Not much to say tonight, mostly because I have to do a whole load of washing, ironing, packing, recipe printing and more cooking related packing.  And work.  Hence the really quick and easy recipe and lack of soul searching post.

Never would've thought about doing anything with these fruit other than eating them by themselves.  I added a squeeze of lime to the mix for a really tropical taste.  Will definitely be eating this a lot post holiday!

Recipe is here.

Good Food Channel Real Banana Custard

With only seven more sleeps until holiday time, I've started the annual ritual of house cleaning.  I'm rubbish at cleaning and will do just about anything I can to avoid it.  But I hate coming back to a messy house so today heralded the start of a flurry of dust bunny clearance.

The husband is a little frustrated because the nice Ocado man didn't visit this week.  Seeing as how we're on a wind down - and the freezer is crammed to bursting - I've not done a big shop this week and will just buy essentials as we need them.  Most of this weeks recipes will be using up stuff lurking in the back of the fridge to save it being binned.

I was supposed to be making black pudding potato cakes today but after boiling and mashing the potatoes, I got peckish when Miss A had her lunch and ended up with a peanut butter sandwich instead.  Then in a fit of domestic goddess-ness, I decided that her pudding should be home-made banana custard.

I only ever eat custard at my mother's house.  It's always Birds and unless we're having banana custard, I have to have my custard and pudding served in two separate bowls.  I call it a foible.  Everyone else says I'm fussy.  But my grandmother used to indulge this habit and now my mum continues pandering to me because she wants to prove she's just a good a mother as my grandmother was a surrogate.  Although I know she secretly gets frustrated that I make her wash up an extra bowl each time.

Miss A loves custard.  I had a tub in my cupboard which I had in reserve for topping my rhubarb and custard cupcakes and would've used to make Miss A custard, but she decided one day that it made a good floor covering and I've never replaced the tin.

A quick Google came up with the recipe for real custard - or creme anglaise as I prefer to call it.  What surprised me is how simple it is.  I know that Birds custard is a faff of heating the milk, whisking it into the powder and then reheating the mixture until it's thick.  The only difference with real custard is that you have to put a spoon of sugar, a couple of egg yolks and a spoon of cornflour in a bowl, whisk them and then proceed as above.

Birds custard has been around since 1837 and was created because Mrs Bird was allergic to eggs (it says so on Wikipedia so it must be true).  That's one advantage.  The other being that you don't end up with two left over egg whites or a toddler throwing a tantrum because you won't let her crack the eggs.  She's fantastic at getting them open, but I'm not quite sure she's ready for separating them just yet.

In all it took longer to get the ingredients out of the cupboard than to make.  I loved that the recipe also had a twist with chocolate and nuts on the top.  Miss A stirred her chocolate in and ended up with tasty brown sludge.  I then realised that we could also make Tubby Tustard (you'll know what this is if you've ever watched the Teletubbies) with the same recipe and a bit of strawberry puree.

Next time I make meringues, I'll definitely use my egg yolks up to make real custard.  It's a really special treat and with vanilla bean paste mixed in and chocolate on top, I can see this becoming a favoured dessert in our household.

You can find the recipe here.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Pavlova

I've just been reprimanded by my mother for licking my plate.  She actually slapped me.  I'm thirty-five years old and taller than her.  And she still slapped me and called me a savage.  She then threatened to post about it on Facebook so I am trying to beat her to the jump and admit to it on here instead.

Plate-lickingly good

A few weeks back, I asked her if she would allow me to bring a Jubilee Bundt and if I could make a pavlova for Sunday lunch.  Unfortunately, my grandfather scuppered that plan by not paying attention to the meal timings, and turning up six hours early.

I'd originally intended to make it a bit of a tropical affair but then foraging in mother's garden yesterday, I happened across some rhubarb.  With some inspiration from Olive Magazine on the BBC Good Food Website, the plan was amended to individual strawberry and rhubarb pavlovas.

To make it even more English, we abandoned the Dutch Esalanta strawberries and went to a local Pick Your Own with Miss A to get some 'gawbies'.

I was really pleased with the combination of flavours - I'm not normally a fan of meringues as I find them too sweet and only picked the recipe as a technical challenge but the sharpness of the rhubarb and the mellow vanilla cream really balanced the sweetness out.  Will definitely be making this again - probably as a full size pavlova next time.  And I'll most definitely be licking the plate again.

Freshly foraged

Recipe - Serves 6 (adapted from Olive Magazine)

• 4 extra large eggs (mother buys these from a local eggery)
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp cornflour

• 400g young rhubarb, cut into 2 inch chunks
• 100g caster sugar
• 200g small strawberries, halved.
• 3 tbsp grenadine

• 568ml pot double cream
• 1 tsp icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

Picking gawbies

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/350F.
2. Draw circles with a diameter of around 15cm onto two sheets of baking parchment, sized to fit baking trays.
3. Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff and will not fall out of the bowl when it is inverted.  Whisk the sugar in one tablespoonful at a time until the meringue is thick and glossy.  Then whisk in the vinegar and cornflour.
4. Use a tiny bit of meringue to secure the corners of the baking paper to the baking tray to stop it slipping around.
5. Place the paper upside down on the meringue blobs (so the pencil markings are face down on the tray).  Spoon a layer of meringue onto each circle and shape to fill the diameter of the circle.  Divide the rest of the meringue between the six circles.  Make an indentation into the middle of each circle then use a palette knife to build up the sides of the pavlovas.
6. Turn the oven down to 120c/100c fan/250F and bake the meringues for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from the oven and leave to go cold.
7. Meanwhile place the rhubarb and sugar into saucepan with a tablespoon of water and simmer until the rhubarb is softened and the sugar is syrupy.  Leave to cool.
8. Heat the grenadine in a small saucepan until reduced by half.  Take off the heat, stir in the strawberries and leave to go cold.
9. Put the cream, icing sugar and vanilla into a large bowl. Whip until slightly thicker than clotted cream then refrigerate until ready to assemble.
10. When ready to plate up, fill the centre of the pavlovas with generous spoonfuls of the cream. Top each with some rhubarb compote and strawberries then pour over the remaining grenadine syrup.  Serve immediately.

Balsamic and Black Pepper Nectarines with Lime Marscapone

The heat has gotten to me.  All I want to do is eat salad and not very much of it.  At this rate, I should be the size of Kate Moss in about a decade or so.  But of course, this is good old Blighty and the rain will come soon enough and I'll still be overweight.

I'd planned to do a Thomasina Miers Chicken Salad recipe for tea tonight but when push came to shove, I didn't have the energy to get the recipe book out.  Yep, I'm that lazy.  So as I was busy assembling a chopped green salad, a baked chicken breast, my favourite lime and balsamic dressing and reheating some of last week's lovely olive and sun-dried tomato foccacia I realised that I'd still didn't have a new recipe to try today.

I quickly Googled nectarines and marscapone because I've had a tub of marscapone sat in the fridge for ages and it's nearing its sell by date; and of course nectarines left over from last night's dinner.  Didn't get much back that was quick and easy and would serve just two people (plenty of gorgeous looking fruit tarts though).  Then I clocked the bottle of balsamic sitting on the worktop and wondered if it would work with nectarines.

Nectarines hiding under strawberries and marscapone!

From past research, I knew that strawberries and balsamic vinegar is a popular flavour combination.  My mum once made strawberry and balsamic ice cream.  I normally hate strawberry ice cream as it's a bit wishy-washy but it was honestly the best strawberry ice cream ever.  In fact, I'd pick it over chocolate or caramel if I had a choice.  A quick change of search and yes - the two flavour combos go together.

I found a really simple recipe on the Food Network website for peaches with balsamic and black pepper.  This was quickly adapted to include strawberries - only really because my I had white nectarines and they just look a bit insipid on their own.

Using the recommended quantities, I switched off my phone and set about making up my own version of the recipe, topped with some lime marscapone.  It's a great, last minute summery pud and I loved the balsamic syrup so much that I will definitely use this taste combo again.  The picture isn't brilliant as I put the nectarines in the bottom of the glass.  I'd also recommend halving the strawberries as I think they'd probably pick up the flavour a little more on the cut side - I left mine whole.

Recipe - Inspired by Mario Batali for Food Network

• 3 ripe nectarines or peaches, each cut into eight wedges
• 8-12 strawberries halved or quartered (depending on size)
• 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp Demerara sugar

For the marscapone topping

• 4 tbsp full fat marscapone
• 8 tbsp low fat greek yogurt
• zest and juice of one lime
• 1 tbsp Demerara sugar plus extra for sprinkling

1. Place the fruit in a small mixing bowl.  Combine the vinegar, pepper and sugar and then mix gently with the fruit.  Refrigerate for twenty minutes.
2. Meanwhile, beat the marscapone and yogurt together until smooth.  Stir in the juice and zest of the lime and the sugar.
3. Divide the fruit between serving glasses and drizzle with any spare vinegar mixture from the bottom of the mixing bowl.
4. Top with a generous spoonful of the marscapone and sprinkle with demerara.  Serve immediately.

Mary Berry's Orange Drop Scones

So many people have said to me this week 'I don't know how you do it' that today, it nearly became a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I didn't know how I'd do it.  Last Wednesday, sat at my desk, I scribbled down a week's worth of recipes to make sure that the Ocado man bought the majority of the things I'd need when he arrived on Thursday evening.  Okay, so I jiggled things around a bit to make sure I had time to do the curd and the fancy meringue for the cake club cake, but I thought I was safe in the knowledge that there was a plan for today's recipe.

On returning home, absolutely shattered and desperate for a quick win on the recipe front, I discovered that I'd written down 'something with vegetables'.  I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that, but I only turned up one pepper which has gone mouldy and a couple of sad looking spring onions in my crisper.  Along with four new potatoes and a bag of onions, it was hardly inspiring.  I was worried that this might be the end of both the challenge and my sanity in my currently sleep-deprived state.

Mmmm....pancakes!

Thankfully, Miss A saved the day by demanding to cook.  A quick flick through Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes turned up this recipe for Drop Scones.  Now in my book, they're not really a cake or a bake.  But hey, I'm not going to argue with Dame Mary.

Miss A used to have Scotch pancakes for her breakfast every Saturday and Sunday when she first started weaning.  Three small homemade pancakes, each with a slice of banana cooked into the middle for sweetness and then a pile of banana and strawberries on the side.  Then the fussy phase hit and the pancakes were cast over the side of the highchair, dog-wards.  I decided it wasn't worth the effort any more.  Cheerios are now the breakfast of choice.

So today gave me the ideal opportunity to re-introduce pancakes by letting us make them together now that she's big enough to stand on a chair and help out.  Of course, she cracked the egg, but she also had a go at squeezing oranges and using my citrus reamer.  All very messy and great fun.  When it came to the cooking bit, she peered into the pan and announced 'No eat pancakes, Mummy!'  Thankfully telling her that we'd feed them to the dogs soon changed her mind and she polished off three.

The recipe is fairly standard.  Flour, egg, sugar, milk and baking powder for the lift.  You then add orange juice and zest to the batter for flavour.  I will admit that I think it was probably lacking something to truly bring the flavour out - maybe a tiny pinch of salt or perhaps a splash of Orange Blossom Water.  But all in all, a pleasant twist on a standard recipe.  I'm sure they'd lend themselves to other citrus flavours too or to being served with a citrus butter or syrup.  Or citrus curd.  Now I'm typing I've realised they probably would've been good with the leftover raspberry curd from the cake of great epic-ness.

I can feel the weekend pancake ritual being re-instated very shortly.

Recipe - Makes 12 (adapted from 100 Cakes and Bakes)

• 1 orange, plus a little zest for sprinkling (optional)
• a little milk
• 80g self-raising flour
• 1/2 level tsp baking powder
• 20g caster sugar
• 1 large egg 
• spray oil

1. Grate the zest from the oranges and set aside, and then squeeze the juiceinto a measuring jug and make it up to 100ml with milk.
2. Measure the flour, baking powder, sugar and orange zest into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the egg and half the orange juice and milk mixture. Beat well to make a smooth, thick batter and then beat in enough of the remaining orange juice and milk to give a batter the consistency of thick cream.
3. Spray a frying pan with spray oil and then heat over a medium flame.  Drop desertspoonfuls of mixture into the hot pan.  When the top starts to bubble, use a palette knife to flip them over and cook for a further thirty seconds.  Transfer to a plate and cover with a clean tea towel to keep warm and soft while you cook the remaining pancakes.
4. Serve with butter, golden syrup, maple syrup or a fruit curd.

Banana Toffee Pudding

Today's recipe is another from CBeebies 'I Can Cook'.  I know certain people will be horrified by my choice of this recipe as it is rather heavy on the sugar content.  But, because I am a sensible mummy and feed my child a healthy, balanced diet (when I can!) and as a reward for her choosing to eat the remainder of yesterday's Flash Loaf (another Dan Lepard recipe), I let Miss A loose in the kitchen to make Banana Toffee Pudding.

Not the most photogenic pudding ever

It's basically a take on a traditional sponge topped pudding - the kind of thing I used to get as a child for pudding on a Sunday.  It makes me a little sad that life has changed and we don't have a traditional family dinner around the table at Sunday lunchtime.  That said, I don't really like roast dinners enough to eat them every week and it's a lot of effort to do for just two - especially with all the washing up.  We probably have about two roasts a year in this house - one of them being Christmas dinner.

So as a little family bonding exercise, I decided to allow this treat.  Because it's a kids recipe it makes four small portions and with the high sugar content I don't think even an adult could eat that much (well there are times when I probably could eat the whole thing myself!).  To balance all the naughtiness out, I served it with low fat Greek yogurt (good source of calcium for my milk-hating child) and fresh strawberries - one of the five a day and the slight acidity worked well against the sickly sweet pudding.

Had my sous chef not eaten one of the bananas during prep, I'd've also served some fresh chopped banana with it.  But I could hardly complain, could I?

Pass me a spoon, someone!

The base of the pudding is toffee sauce.  My latest and greatest food find is Bonne Maman Confiture de Caramel.  Basically Dulche de Leche or Toffee Sauce but in a screw top jar rather than all those annoying tins of caramel that the shops seem so keen to peddle.  They're fine if you need the whole lot for a recipe, but if you only need a spoon or two, as in this case, you have that old half-opened-tin-of-something-stuffed-in-the-back-of-the-fridge-and-then-it-eventually-gets-knocked-over dilemma.  Or is that just me because I'm a bit of a slummy mummy?  Anyway, caramel in a glass jar is a winner.  I just have to resist taking the jar and spoon to a secret corner when I'm having a bad day.

My sous-chef's new skill of the day is banana chopping.  I love watching her develop her fine motor skills.  To start with, the poor bananas were just bludgeoned to a pulp but a bit of input from mummy and we ended up with arty chunks.  In they went on top of the toffee.  The sponge is a simple, even mix of flour to butter to sugar to egg (70g of each).  I adapted the recipe slightly to fill my pie dish so used 100g of each, an egg and 30ml of milk to slacken the batter off.  Then it's just into the oven at 180c for 35 minutes (in my case as I used a deep dish).  And out came a light, fluffy sponge with a banana flavoured toffee base.  Perfect.

This is a lovely little recipe to make with little ones as a special treat.  There are loads of different skills involved and the result is a definite crowd pleaser.  Well for most of the crowd.  Someone actually only managed three toddler spoonfuls of pudding because she actually preferred the strawberries.  Big respect to my child and her good food choices :o)

One small point of note.  If cooking several things at the same time, make sure the pudding is on the lower shelf with a tray underneath as the toffee in mine tried to make an escape.  Miss A had toffee flavoured Pussy Pieces (home made fish fingers) for her tea...

Recipe - adapted from CBeebies I Can Cook

Serves 4

• 100g butter, softened
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g flour
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 30ml milk
• 2 bananas
• 3 tbsp toffee sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/Gas 4.
2. Oil the sides and base of an oven proof dish.  Place on a baking tray and add the toffee.  Lay the banana slices on top.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the beaten egg and mix well.  Mix in the flour, mixed spice and the milk until well combined.  Scoop the sponge mixture into the dish on top of the bananas and smooth out with a spatula.
4. Place the dish in the oven for 25-35 minutes (depending on the depth of your dish) until the sponge is well risen and springs back when touched.  I turned the heat up for the last five minutes of cooking to get a nice crispy top on mine.
5. Serve with fresh fruit and yogurt.

Lil Ms Squirrel's New Petits Pots au Chocolat

Over the years, the husband how to read the signs that I will give in and let him have a takeaway for tea.  Frazzled is usually the best sign and as this occurs on nearly a daily basis, he probably gets away with it far more often than he should.

Today was one such day.  After a full on day at work and a childcare crisis that the husband had to deal with as I was forty miles away presenting a project close-out to the board, the idea of not having to cook two separate meals - or even one - really appealed.  Of course, once I gave in, this left me without a recipe to try.  And with only thirty minutes to research one that I had the ingredients for whilst we waited for the takeaway to arrive, my options were limited.

So, I decided to try re-inventing one of my own staple recipes.  Many years ago, I adapted a recipe for petits pots au chocolat because I found the chocolate flavour too intense (this was back in the day when chocolate choice was limited to Dairy Milk or Bournville - yes, I'm that old!).  The recipe called for melted dark chocolate to be mixed with egg yolks and then whipped egg whites to give a light and fluffy mousse.  In my wisdom, rather than using milk chocolate, I decided to lighten the flavour by adding copious amounts of whipped double cream.  And very nice it is too.  Although you can feel your arteries hardening as you eat it.

From 100g of chocolate, three egg yolks, four egg whites and 300ml of double cream you can make two lard-arse portions or with other ingredients, turn it into a really nice dessert to feed four.  My usual dessert recipe contains the mousse layered with brownies and cherry compote.

But for a while, I've been thinking about getting the recipe back more to its original state but retaining some of the richness of the added cream.  So tonight, with a fridge full of half used pots of Greek yogurt, I figured I'd see if I could make something slightly healthier.  I also wanted an excuse to use the little espresso cups the hubby bought me for Christmas back in 2005 and that I'd forgotten about.  They're perfect for presenting mini desserts in.  Expect to see them appear on the blog again before the year is over.

I began with 40g of 70% dark chocolate, which I melted in the microwave on a low temperature until it was just melted but not too hot.  On our 700 watt microwave, this was 40% power for 4m 30s.  And in doing this, it meant I didn't have to wait for it to cool before I beat in the yolk of one egg.

Whilst the chocolate had been melting, I whipped two egg whites until they formed soft peaks.  I then added a tablespoon of the whipped egg whites into the chocolate mixture to slacken it off, before pouring the chocolate mixture into the bowl of egg whites and folding with a metal spoon until just fully combined.  Finally, I added two rounded tablespoons of low fat Greek yogurt and mixed.  I probably could have added more to make the dessert go further, but I wanted to get the richness of the dairy, without that tang you get from yogurt.  At this level, the tang didn't come through.  I'm sure a bit of experimentation on the ratios will find the tipping point in the taste - it's a tough job, but I'll force myself to taste test it one day in the future.

An hour of setting time in the fridge, and voila, a perfectly light, creamy chocolate dessert - enough to satisfy a craving without the heart-attack inducing effect of my original recipe.  Mostly because the mixture fills two espresso cups, which you can't fit many calories into anyway.  Of course, it's highly adaptable and lends itself to being flavoured either with spirits or by using a flavoured chocolate in the first place.  A mint fondant bar would work well, as would a spiced orange flavoured one.  I'd also like to try using chilli chocolate or the one you can get that's laced with sea salt.  The possibilites are endless and the prep time is minimal - probably only seven or eight minutes, plus chilling if you're well organised.

So after six months of blogging, this is the first recipe from me to you rather than me trying someone else's recipe, which is technically not what I started out to do - but then the Greek yogurt in my mousse makes it a new recipe to me.  Happy eating!

Makes 2 espresso cups-ful

• 40g 70% chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 large egg separated plus 1 large egg white
• 2 rounded tbsp low fat Greek yogurt

1. Whisk the egg whites to soft peak - this is the point when the bowl can be turned upside down without them sliding out.
2. Mix the egg yolk into the cooled chocolate until glossy.
3. Add a tablespoon of the whisked eggs to the chocolate and mix to slacken the mixture.  Pour the chocolate mixture into the remaining egg whites and fold gently together using a metal spoon until just combined and there are no traces of egg white.  Fold in the yogurt.
4. Pour into a piping bag (it makes filling tiny cups easier) and pipe into the espresso cups.
5. Chill for an hour before serving.

Eric Lanlard's Banana Fritters

My fridge is currently full of half opened jars and packets and little bowls of leftovers.  I really need to get better at using stuff up.  And saying that this challenge precludes me from doing so is a really lame excuse.  But sometimes, blue tinged buttercream isn't particularly useful.

With being thrifty and not wasting things in mind, I decided to tackle the issue of a ramekin full of chocolate ganache from last week's Hummingbird Bakery Cupcakes.  I probably should've turned it into truffles or just frozen it.  But it has been sat in the fridge and the cream it was made from goes out of date today so I have had to force myself to find a recipe to use it up.

Two of my five a day?

Said recipe is from an episode of Baking Mad with last week (although personally, I don't class this as baking).  Eric had me rapt the second he mentioned banana fritters.  This is something that my mum used to make for me as a child at Easter when she was making home-made fish and chips on Good Friday.  She always used a fresh yeast batter for this but thankfully Lanlard's recipe uses store cupboard ingredients.

Because I was only making this for myself, I had to reduce the recipe down (it serves six and I'm sure I could've managed the lot) and used just a sprinkle of the spices.  The flavours worked really well with the rum in the sauce.  I'm wondering what it would be like with malice instead of plain rum.  I feel more testing coming on!  

I did find I needed more milk in the batter, but this may just be because my flour was 'thirsty'  The test fritter was really stodgy.  Tasty, but stodgy.  So I added probably added another 2 tbsp of milk (I made half the quantity of batter).  

The dipping sauce used the same ratio of ingredients as I already used for my ganache so I just warmed what I had in the microwave until it was runny and then stirred in a teaspoon of rum.

Seriously, this is a really simple and decadent dessert and great for anyone who loves bananas.  And it's great for sharing.  The warm sauce was lovely with a couple of strawberries dipped in too - just for that healthy factor.

The recipe can be found over on the Channel 4 website, but I'll post it here because I know sometimes their recipes disappear after a show has ended.

Serves Six

• 200g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• 30g golden caster sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 egg
• 300ml milk
• 1 litre vegetable oil, for deep-frying
• 6 bananas
• Golden icing sugar, to dust

For the chocolate dip

• 125g dark chocolate
• 125ml double cream
• 25g unsalted butter
• 2 tsp dark rum

Method

1. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, spices, sugar and lemon zest. Make a well and add the egg and the milk a little at a time, mixing well until you get a smooth batter. Leave the batter to rest while you make the chocolate dip.
2. To make the chocolate dip, place the dark chocolate in a bowl and heat the double cream in a saucepan. Pour the hot cream over the dark chocolate and stir gently until the chocolate has melted. Add the butter and keep stirring until glossy, then add the rum and mix well.
3. Heat some vegetable oil for deep frying in a deep fat fryer or wok to 180°C. Cut the bananas in half lengthways and half again horizontally. Dip the banana pieces into the batter and coat well.
4. Gently place the battered banana pieces into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. Lift out and drain on kitchen paper, then dust with icing sugar and serve with the chocolate dip.

Stove Top Coconut Rice Pudding

Now this is one of those times when I wonder if this will become my own recipe as it was inspired by Nigella's recipe, but I adapted it.  So is it now Rebecca's Stove Top Rice Pudding?  Or will it forever be known as 'Adapted From Nigella's Stove Top Rice Pudding'?  Answers on a postcard...

I'm not sure what got me into making this recipe today.  I'm in a bit of a post half marathon funk really.  You'd think I'd be ravenous, but I'm right off my food at the moment.  I think it's something to do with running 13.1 miles in blazing sunshine bringing back the lovely sinusitis and chest infection that I'd been battling with for three weeks prior to the run.  It held off for the big day and then came back with a vengance.  That coupled with post race stiffness is making me feel a little lacklustre.

Nevertheless, I'm still healthier than a lot of people and the blog still needs keeping up (post 172, day 169 due to a few double blog days).  So I settled on the rice pudding which I've been meaning to make ever since I got my copy of Nigella Bites back in 2001.  Eleven years is a long wait.  And was it worth it?

Well I adapted the recipe slightly because I had some coconut cream left over in the fridge.  I may not be here tomorrow as it said on the carton to only keep for two days after opening it.  I opened it 12 days ago when I made a Thai prawn curry.  It looked okay.  I couldn't tell what it smelled like thanks to a bunged up nose.  But what the hell.  In it went.

It looks a tiny portion, but it's Nigella sized....

The recipe uses arborio rice rather than the traditional short grain and involves lots of ladling and stirring just as if you were making a savoury risotto.  I must admit I was lazier than Nigella and just poured bits in every now and again.  She ladles hers tablespoonful by tablespoonful.  But then again, I believe her fussy husband only eats weetabix or boiled eggs whereas I had to cook a slightly more complicated meal for my husband tonight whilst also tending to the rice pudding.

I did also Google the recipe because it was easier than having the recipe book in the kitchen with so much going on.  The one review I found of it over at 41 feasts mentioned that it took just over an hour to cook which worried me a little.  Nigella cites about 35 minutes.  I found that with mine bubbling away at just shy of a simmer, it took under 40 minutes.  That works for me.  Just enough therapy time of mindless stirring.  And an indulgent rice pud without the nasty skin from a baked pudding nor having to zap it in the microwave.  The coconut cream gave it a lovely subtle flavour which worked really well with mango and a little lime zest sprinkled over

So here is my adaptation of Nigella's recipe from Nigella Bites

Makes 2 generous portions (or one Nigella portion)

• 500ml milk -Nigella suggests full fat, I used skimmed, but you can use any kind of milk
• 100g arborio risotto rice
• 150g coconut cream
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp caster sugar

1. Heat the milk and coconut cream in a saucepan until the coconut cream has melted.  Pour into a measuring jug (or you can leave in the pan and use another pan to make the rice pudding in).
2. Melt the butter and 1 tbsp of sugar in a clean pan over a medium-low heat.  Add the rice and stir for two minutes until well coated in the butter and sugar.
3. Add a small amount of milk to the rice and cook until nearly absorbed. I probably did mine about 75ml at a time, Nigella does this tablespoon by tablespoon.  Repeat until the rice is tender.  Start tasting after about 25 minutes but be prepared to wait for 35-40 minutes for the perfect texture.
4. Add the other tbsp of sugar (or more depending on your taste).
5. Serve topped with fresh mango slices and lime zest or other fresh fruit.

Aldo Zilli's Pancake Tagliolini

Two years ago, I was stuck home on my second day of maternity leave.  I'd gotten it into my head that if I worked up until 38 weeks, I'd give birth a day or two later and all would be well with the world.  I was so rotund on my last day that my work colleagues were convinced that I would end up giving birth whilst stuck in the rush hour traffic on the A38 and naming the baby Filton.

Little did I know that it would actually take a further four weeks for her to put in an appearance.  Four very loooooong weeks.

I hate cleaning with a passion.  The husband spent most of my pregnancy not praying for the safe arrival of our unborn child, but that the nesting instinct would kick in.  The closest I got to nesting was watching back to back episodes of Location, Location, Location followed by A Place In The Sun and Come Dine With Me.  Interspersed with other foodie programmes.  I don't normally get to choose what's on the telly so this was my bit of self indulgence.

Amongst all this goggleboxing, I watched some programme or another where Aldo Zilli made Pancake Tagliolini.  I duly Googled the recipe and saved it to my favourites but I never got around to making it - until today.

In essence, it's just strips of pancake in orange sauce with some warm berry coulis and ice cream on the side.  It's very tasty.  But it's not really pancake day fayre - it's too poncey.  Pancake day is all about pancakes with lashings of lemon and sugar.  And nothing else.  Call me a 'Creature of Habit' or 'Old Skool' but pancake day is about proper pancakes.  And if I want something poncey, I'll go with Crepes au citron et sucre thank you very much.

Berry coulis

My favourite foodie destination (so far) is France because they cook perfect steaks, sell proper patisserie in service stations and make amazing pancakes.  As a child, I spent many summers in Brittany, home of the galette.  I haven't made them for a while, but we would regularly have galettes for dinner - stuffed with jambon, fromage, oeufs and champingnons.  Anywhere else in France, savoury pancakes are just regular pancakes with a savoury filling, but in Brittany, they are made from buckwheat flour which lends a beautiful, crisp, nutty flavour to the pancakes.  Sublime.

And if you're ever in London Town, and you love pancakes as much as I do, you should go to My Old Dutch  in Holborn - a favourite haunt of mine from my days working in the Big Smoke.  Here, you can get both sweet and savoury pancakes.  But not just any savoury pancakes.  How about Chicken Curry in your pancake?  Or Lamb Stew?  Or Marinated Artichokes, Sundried Tomatoes and Mozarella?  And their thirteen inch pudding pancakes served on beautiful Delft pottery plates are worth every calorie - and then some.

Multi-tasking

Anyhow, returning back to the pancake dish in hand, my only criticism of it was that the pancake batter was a little rubbery.  I guess this is so that it holds itself once cut into strips and then tossed about in the orange sauce.  It definitely wasn't a great pancake mix to eat as just pancakes.  I'm still on the search for the perfect pancake batter recipe.  Delia is not a contender and neither is Mr Zilli now.  Ah well, the research will be pretty tasty.

As I didn't have enough raspberries in, I made the coulis with a mix of strawberries and raspberries. It made for an interesting 'coulis' as it was more just warm, softened berries.  In my mind, a coulis is a sweetened, fruit puree but this one was warm and the seeds were left in.  And as I used strawberries, they didn't break up well enough, but it was really nice to have the contrasting texture with the raspberry sauce and the strawberry chunks against the soft pancake strips.

I served it all with a scoop of the strawberry meringue ice cream that I made with Miss A at the weekend.  Definitely a fun dinner party dish and great because you can prepare it all up front and just heat the sauces to serve.  Just on the right side of the 'I'll make it again' list.

Serves 4


For the pancakes:

• 1 egg, medium size
• 150 ml milk
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 65 g plain flour

For the coulis:

• 450 g fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed
• 4 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp butter
• 200 ml fresh orange juice

1. First make the pancakes. Break the egg into a jug and add the milk and half a tablespoon of oil and whisk together. 

2. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and gradually beat in the egg mixture to make a smooth batter. 

3. Heat a 17.5cm thick-based frying pan and wipe some of the oil all over the pan. Pour a quarter of the batter into the pan, swirling around to spread the batter. Cook for 1-2 minutes until the batter is set and golden on the base. 

4. Flip over and cook for a further 1-2 minutes. Place the pancake on a sheet of greaseproof paper. Repeat the process to make a further 3 pancakes. Thinly slice the pancakes in strips. 

5. For the coulis, place the raspberries in a saucepan with the brown sugar and simmer for 5 minutes until the raspberries break up to make a sauce. Set aside to cool. 

6. Meanwhile, place the caster sugar, butter and orange juice in a frying pan and heat gently until the sugar to dissolves then bring to the boil. Boil for 3-4 minutes until quite syrupy. 

7. Add the strips of pancake and stir into the sauce; cook for 1 minute. 

8. To serve, spoon the raspberry coulis onto 4 chilled serving plates and top with scoops of ice cream. Then spoon over the pancake tagliolini. Serve immediately.