Cheat of the week - Banoffee pie

I've been a bit obsessed with Jamie Oliver lately and his 15 and 30-minute meals. We saw an episode a while ago when he made a really simple banoffee pie. I've never had banoffee pie before so I wasn't really sure what to expect but it seemed so good so we just had to try it; banana caramel sauce and cream with coffee flavour...just great. Now, this is not exactly a healthy recipe but oh so yummy.

Ingredients

serves 6-8

1 pie crust (store bought or home made)

2 bananas

100 ml full fat milk

4 tbsp sugar

300 ml cream

1 tbsp camp coffee

2 bananas, extra

100 g dark chocolate

Put the first two bananas and the milk in a blender and mix until well combined. 

Melt the caster sugar in a pan over high heat. Don’t stir it, just gently shake the pan as it melts to a darker caramel colour. Add the banana milk mixture to the pan and stir until the toffee melts together and takes on a dark colour. If you have hard sugar crystals in the pan wait a little bit until they're all melted but be careful not to burn it. Pour into the pie case and let it cool down completely.

Whip the cream and then fold through the camp coffee essence so it leaves a marbled vision. Slice the bananas and arrange over the toffee filling, then spoon the cream over the top.

Place the chocolate bar on a bench top with smooth side up. Scrape a sharp knife across the chocolate towards you, making chocolate curls. Put on top of the cream.

Picture taken from Jamie Oliver's website

Spiced nuts

I tried this recipe for the first time during our first month in Australia, when we were living in the city. I was a bit bored with just eating normal roasted and salted nuts so I wanted to make something different and I remembered that my mum once made her own roasted nuts which were really nice. I found a delicious recipe on taste.com.au.

Ingredients

1½ tbsp honey

2 tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tbsp smoked paprika powder

1 tsp sea salt

500 g of mixed raw nuts

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Combine honey, olive oil, garlic, paprika powder, cayenne and salt in a small pot or frying pan on low heat. Stir until the honey has melted and the mixture is completely combined. 

Transfer the honey mixture to a large bowl. Add all the nuts and toss until they are evenly coated with the mixture. Spread the nuts on the baking tray. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, mixing around occasionally. Keep a close eye on them after 10 minutes so that they don't burn.

Banana bread no 2

Last time I made banana bread I wasn't actually that fond of the outcome so I found another recipe. I had some very ripe bananas that I needed to get rid of so I thought today was the day to try out the new recipe. I found the recipe on: http://www.crossfitvitality.com. I'm much happier with the outcome of this one, it's delicious!

Ingredients
makes 1 loaf
3 ripe bananas
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tbsp honey
60 ml coconut oil
480 ml almond flour
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
handful walnuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.
Mix bananas, eggs, vanilla, honey and coconut oil together in a food processor. Mix in flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Lastly add in the walnuts and mix around a little bit. Place the batter in a greased loaf pan and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Cardamom cupcakes

Next Tuesday (the 12th of Feb) it's what we call Fat Tuesday in Sweden. We eat these special buns on this day but I'm not a big fan of baking with yeast since it takes too long, so I decided to make a cupcake version  of the buns and the result is surprisingly good. I found a recipe but it's for big muffins while I only had cupcake tins so I think they could have been even better.

Ingredients
makes 12 big muffins or 20 small cupcakes
200 g butter
300 ml milk
300 ml sugar
3 eggs
600 ml plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Melt the butter, then beat the eggs together with the sugar until they're white and fluffy. Mix in the milk with the melted butter and beat it together with the egg mixture. Fold in the flour, baking powder and cardamom. Pour the mixture into the muffin/cupcake tins and bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. Let them cool down.
When serving them you should cut off the top of the bun, take out a bit of the middle and fill them with 150 g almond paste mixed with a bit of cream in order to soften it up a bit. Whip 300 ml of cream and put in the middle of the cupcake. Put the top on and dust some icing sugar over it.

Chicken cashew curry

We went to an Indian restaurant when we were in New Zealand and had Chicken Korma. We really liked that so we wanted to make it ourselves. We found a recipe on http://cookinginwestchester.com.

Ingredients
serves 3-4
2 cm piece of peeled fresh ginger
4 garlic cloves
2 red chilies
2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1½ tsp ground cumin seeds
80 ml water

120 ml cashew nuts
3 tbsp yoghurt

600 g skinless chicken thighs
4 tbsp butter or oil of choice
1 large red onion, finely chopped
4 green cardamoms
1 to 2 sticks cinnamon
3 bay leaves
4 cloves
1 tsp turmeric
1 can (400 g) whole canned tomatoes
1 capsicum, diced
100 g green beans, chopped
1 tsp salt
fresh coriander for decoration

Place the ginger, garlic, red chilies, coriander seeds and cumin seeds in a blender. Pour in the water and pulse a few times and mix to a smooth paste. Rub the paste onto to the chicken as let it rest while you prepare the rest of the dish.
Place the cashews and the yogurt in the blender and grind to a smooth paste.
Heat the butter on medium heat. Add in the onions and cook for 3-4 minutes until the onions begin to get golden. Add in the cardamom, bay leaves, cinnamon and the cloves and cook for a few seconds.
Add in the chicken together with the spice paste and the turmeric. Sauté for about 6-7 minutes.
Add in the tomatoes and bring the chicken to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
Stir in the cashew yoghurt mixture and simmer for another 3 minutes. Serve on a bed of boiled rice and with some fresh coriander.

In the making

Finished result