Banoffee

For Annabel, by special request!

Ingredients

• 6 – 8 McVities Digestive biscuits
• 6 – 8 ginger nut biscuits
• 75 g / 1/3 cup butter
• 1 tin (397 g/ 1 1/4 cups) Carnation Caramel (or your favourite dulce de leche)
• 2 – 3 ripe bananas
• 250 ml / 1 cup cream
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 50 g / 1/2 cup your favourite chocolate, grated

Method

1. Make biscuit crumbs. Either use a food processor or work off your stress by putting the biscuits into a plastic bag and bashing them to smithereens with a rolling pin. Chef’s choice!
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat.
3. Add the biscuit crumbs to the melted butter and mix.
4. Press the butter/biscuit crumb mix into the base of a spring-form tin or other tin with a removable base (the kind you would use to make a cheesecake in). The back of a big metal spoon is pretty good for this.
5. Put the biscuit base into the fridge to chill and set (about an hour-ish, longer if you have time)
6. When set, spread the caramel over the biscuit base.
7. Chop the banana and arrange on top of the caramel
8. Put the cream and sugar into a bowl and whip until it forms stiff-ish peaks (don’t over-whip or you’ll end up with butter (yum! but not on banoffee)… but you still need the whipped cream stiff enough to hold it’s shape)
9. Spread the whipped cream over the caramel and sliced bananas.
10. Grate a generous amount of your favourite chocolate over the whipped cream until it looks irresistible and fabulous!
11. Tuck in and enjoy 🙂
12. Notes and Variations:
    • Use slightly more biscuits if you like a thicker biscuit base and vice versa. You may want to use a bit more butter if you’re using more biscuits, and vice versa.
    • You can add a teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste to the cream if you’re feeling fancy.
    • If you’re feeling really fancy you can experiment with swapping the cream for a mix of mascarpone and greek yogurt (125 ml of each, making a total of 250 ml). Mix together with the tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract for a thicker, creamier topping with a bit of a tang.
    • I recommend the brands I mentioned in the ingredients but if you can’t find them, used the nearest equivalent.

Apple and Rocket Salad

A quick and easy salad that pairs well with risotto or on its own.

Ingredients

• 1 small pink lady apple, cored and sliced (pear also works well)
• Couple of handfuls of rocket (or other flavourful salad leaves)
• Parmesan shavings (a potato peeler is great for this)
• Couple of tablespoons of pine nuts, dry toasted (heat for a couple of minutes in a pan without oil)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
• Salt
• Freshly ground pepper

Method

1. Put the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper into a small jar with a lid. Old jam jars are great for this. Close the jar and shake vigorously to make your dressing.
2. Put the rocket and apple slices in a big bowl. Pour over the dressing and mix.
3. Top with Parmesan shavings and toasted pine nuts
4. Enjoy!

Date and Apple Porridge

A warming and filling breakfast that can easily be adapted to what you have available.

Ingredients

• 1 apple (or pear), diced (skin on is fine)
• 2 dried dates (or 1 medjool date), chopped
• 30 g porridge oats
• 0.25 teaspoon of mixed spice (or your preferred mix of cinnamon and nutmeg)
• 350 g of a milk of your choice (dairy, non-dairy or a mix: I use half soy milk, half full fat dairy)
• pinch of salt
• (optional topping) sunflower seeds and/or pumpkin seeds or flaked almonds, lightly dry toasted (heat them in a pot with no oil until they start to lightly colour or, in the case of pumpkin seeds, pop)

Method

1. Put the apple/pear, dates, oats, spice and milk into a pot and bring to a boil, stirring very frequently (you don’t want this to stick to the bottom!) As soon as it comes to the boil turn the heat down and continue to stir until it thickens (about 5 mins). While you could do this in the microwave, I get tastier results from cooking this in a pot. I think this is due to the caramelisation of sugars in the milk that doesn’t happen in the microwave.
2. Stir in the pinch of salt and pour into a big bowl. Top with your preferred topping. Note that this will continue to thicken as it cools, so stop cooking while it is still a little thinner than your preferred consistency.
3. Modifications:
   • I think the fruit (especially the dates) and natural sweetness of the milk adds enough sweetness, but if you have a sweeter tooth than me feel free to add sugar or maple syrup. I don’t recommend honey because it causes the porridge to ‘unthicken’, which I don’t like.
   • You can play around with different fruits: dried apricots, sultanas and dried cranberries are all good substitutes/additions.

Easy No-bake Chocolate Cheesecake

Make this a day ahead. An easy but dense and rich chocolate cheesecake. Pro tip: keep the topping ingredients as warm as possible to help with mixing.

Ingredients

• 8 Digestive biscuits
• 8 Ginger Nut biscuits
• 50g butter
• 250g dark chocolate (I use Lidl’s 74% cocoa dark chocolate)
• 250g tub mascarpone
• 250g plain Greek yogurt
• 250g double cream

Method

1. Make the base: Crush the biscuits. Melt the butter. Stir the crushed biscuits into the melted butter. Press the biscuit-butter mix into a springform cake tin to form the base. Put in the fridge or freezer to set while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. Make the topping: Melt the chocolate in a bowl (over a bain Marie or in the microwave). Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Mix the Greek yogurt with the mascarpone. Fold half the melted chocolate into the whipped cream until completely combined. Stir the other half of the melted chocolate into the yogurt/mascarpone until completely combined (note: to help mixing, make sure the chocolate is hot and the other ingredients are not too cold. If the chocolate is cool or the other ingredients are very cold, the melted chocolate may set into granules instead of mixing. If this happens, try stirring over a bain Marie.
3. Assembling the cheesecake: Pour the yogurt/mascarpone/chocolate mix over the set biscuit base and smooth with the back of a spoon or a palette knife. Pour the whipped cream/chocolate mix over the yogurt/mascarpone/chocolate mix and smooth with the back of a spoon or a palette knife. Put the cheesecake into the fridge to set for few hours or overnight. To serve, remove from the springform tin and decorate with chocolate shavings, raspberries or nothing, whatever is your preference.

Leek and Smoked Coley Risotto

This recipe is a very simple, low-effort oven-baked risotto. You can swap smoked coley for other smoked fleshy fish. This recipe is adapted from BBC Good Food’s Leek and Smoked Haddock risotto.

Ingredients

• knob of butter
• 1 large leek, thinly sliced and rinsed
• 300g risotto rice, like arborio
• 700ml vegetable stock
• 250ml milk
• 375g smoked coley, skinned and cut into big chunks
• 3 tbsp crème fraîche
• 100 g frozen petit pois
• Freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Heat the butter in a large ovenproof dish over a medium heat. Cook the leek for 4-5 mins, stirring, until tender. Add the rice and stir for a further 2 mins.
2. Add the stock and milk, bring to the boil and bubble for 5 mins before sitting the smoked coley on top. Cover with a lid or foil and bake in the oven for 18 mins until the rice is tender.
3. Fold in the crème fraiche and frozen petit pois. Season with plenty of black pepper, then cover the pan again and leave to rest out of the oven for 3 mins before serving.

Chocolate Granola

A variation on my easy granola recipe, this is infinitely adaptable to suit your tastes and mood.

Ingredients

50 g Coconut oil

45 ml / 3 tablespoons Maple Syrup

1.5 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

0.5 teaspoon Salt

1 tablespoon Cocoa powder

200 g Jumbo Oats

100 g Pecans or Walnuts (or other nuts of your choice, mix it up!)

75 g Pumpkin seeds

75 g Sunflower seeds

(Optional) 25 g seeds of your choice (chia, sesame, etc)

120 g Dried Cranberries, Sultanas or mix or other dried fruit

Method

Preheat the oven to 140 C

Melt the coconut oil in a large bowl in the microwave or in a large pot on the stove

When the coconut oil is all melted, add the maple syrup, vanilla extract, cocoa powder and salt and mix thoroughly

Add the jumbo oats, nuts and seeds to the coconut oil mix and stir to coat everything

Spread the mix out on a large tray and put in oven to toast for 45 mins, stirring every 15 mins

After 45 mins remove from the oven and stir in the dried cranberries, sultanas or dried fruit of your choice

Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container. I find this week keep at least a couple of weeks.

Great served over fruit and Greek yogurt.

Brown Bread

Ingredients

• 250g Wholemeal flour
• 100g Plain flour
• 100g Porridge oats
• 100g Pinhead oats
• 30g Brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons bread soda (sodium bicarbonate)
• 1 teaspoon salt (rounded!)
• 500ml Buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons Treacle (or molasses or malt extract or honey)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 C
2. Line a loaf tin with baking paper (don’t skip this step!!)
3. Blend the wet ingredients: buttermilk, egg and treacle (I use a stick blender in a large jug)
4. In a large bowl use a spoon to mix the dry ingredients (ingredients 1 – 7 inclusive)
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir only as much as needed to ensure they are mixed. Don’t overwork. It should form a stiff, lumpy batter. 
6. Pour the batter into the lined loaf tin and put into the pre-heated oven straight away
7. Bake for 1 hour
8. Remove from the oven, take the loaf out of the tin, remove the baking paper and return the loaf to the oven for 10 minutes more
9. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack. 
10. Once cooled, store in an airtight container

Slow Cooker Oaty Apple Crumble

Ingredients

For the apple filling:

• 60g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground mixed spice
• 750g cooking apples e.g. Bramley peeled, cored and chopped into little cubes
• 75 g sultanas
• Juice of one lemon

For the crumble:

• 125g plain flour
• 120g butter, cut into pieces
• 100g rolled oats
• 100g golden demerara sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch salt

 

Method

1. For the apples, mix together the sugar, cornflour and mixed spice. Place the apples and sultanas in a slow cooker, stir in the cornflour mixture; toss with the lemon juice.
2. For the crumble topping, mix the flour, oats and butter together. Add the sugar, mixed spice, salt and vanilla extract and mix.  It should look like lumpy breadcrumbs.
3. Sprinkle the crumble topping on top of the apples.
4. Cover and cook on medium for 3 – 4 hours (or high for c. 2 hours or low for c. 4 hours), until the apples are tender.
5. Partially uncover the slow cooker to allow the topping to harden for the final 1 hour of cooking (I do this by rotating the slow cooker lid by 90 degrees)
6. Enjoy! This is very nice with custard, cream or good qualify ice cream.

Smoky Lentil Soup

Ingredients

75 ml Olive Oil

2 small onions, finely chopped

4 carrots, diced

2 stalks of celery, finely sliced

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or minced

1.5 teaspoons of dried oregano

1.5 teaspoons of dried basil

2 Bay leaves

1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g)

2 litres of vegetable stock (I use Marigold Swiss Boulion Powder)

300g dry green or brown lentils

150g kale, stalks removed and finely sliced (or spinach)

1.5 teaspoons of liquid smoke

2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar (or your favourite vinegar)

Pinch of salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the carrots, onions and celery and cook on a medium heat, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. You want the vegetables to soften and sweeten and the onions to go transparent but you don’t want them to stick to the pot and burn.
2. Add the garlic, dried oregano, dried basil and bay leaves and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes, the stock and the lentils and stir. Bring it to a boil then turn down to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes
4. After 45 minutes add the kale, liquid smoke, vinegar, salt and pepper and add for 15 minutes until the kale is softened (spinach will cook in less than 15 minutes). Taste and adjust seasoning if required.
5. You’re good to go! If you prefer a thick soup you can take a couple of ladles of the soup and blend it, then add it back to the pot of soup and stir.  Serve hot with a thick slice of sourdough bread and butter.

 

Easy Granola

Very quick, very easy to make, very adaptable and very tasty.

Ingredients

200 g Jumbo Oats

110 g Sultanas

100 g Pecans, roughly chopped

90 g Mixed Seeds (I use a premade mix of pumpkin, sunflower and sesame)

50 g Coconut Oil

45 ml (3 tablespoons) Maple Syrup

5 ml (1 teaspoon) Vanilla Extract

2.5 ml (0.5 teaspoon) Salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 150 C.

Put the coconut oil in a large bowl and microwave for 40 seconds to melt it.

When it is completely melted stir in the maple syrup, vanilla and salt and mix well.

Stir in the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly

Spread mix thinly on a large baking tray

Bake for 8 minutes then stir and bake for a further 4 minutes (12 minutes total baking time)

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Delicious served with natural yogurt (or any yogurt of your choice) and blueberry sauce.