A Peppery Pot of Pea, Pig, Parsnip and Parmesan Soup

P1040473, originally uploaded by foodforfraud.

New Years Eve rolls in and I’m feeling coldy, to be fair I don’t really enjoy New Years at the best of times, it often feels like I am being forced to have fun, actually that is not quite true, it’s more akin to having no option but to have fun, a celebration predicated upon our planet having revolved once more around the sun. It is the most turgid of evenings, even at the best of times.

Sadly this year was going to be a little different. Our friend Matt had just turned 30 on Christmas Eve. Now, Matt had decided to have a house party on New Years Eve at his place to celebrate, this is a good thing. It entails not meeting any randoms, which since I am not single, and am now too old and cynical to view the company of strangers as anything other than a annoying by product of living in the busiest city in Western Europe. It also involves being in a house with people I know and like. This is better than being in a bar, unless I am DJing on New Years, bar are often the worst places to be.

Sadly my cold is making me irritable, and anti social. I want to go out, but I equally do not want to spend the next 3 days bed ridden feeling worse than if I just took the bullet and stayed in. Staying in it is.

I need dinner. I peruse another one of the books from Santa – The Flavour Thesaurus. Again, if you don’t have this book, get it. It is essential. No matter how many books I read, none will ever compete with this for shear brilliance and lateral thinking genius. It basically provides you with a complete list of which flavours go, and it even gives you some of the science behind them. It has all the flavours you can think of and additionally has some that would never occur to you. It is essential reading for any aspiring cook.

Anyway, I have been aware for some time of the impending rot of some parsnips which have been in the fridge for ages, and then the book comes into it’s own. It recommends a recipe for pea and parsnip soup. I see that peas and parsnips are both noted for the way they compliment bacon. Ok, well ham is basically bacon, just cooked differently, so that should go. Both are noted to go with cheese. Hmmmm. I see a plan forming. I have some proper stock sitting in a bowl in the fridge. I set to work.

Ingredients:

2 onions
1 clove of garlic
3 parsnips
500g frozen peas
500ml chicken stock
200g cooked ham
olive oil
a pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
Salt, Pepper and Parmesan cheese to taste

Dice the onion, ham and parsnips. Crush the garlic and soften in the olive oil all at once. Once the onions are soft add the peas and stir in, increase the heat and add the stock. Boil everything for about 15-20 mins until tender and blitz in a food processor or with a hand blender. Add the cheese and season to taste and return to the pot to keep warm. Serve pipping hot with crusty buttered bread.

It is perfect, I would not have put Parsnips and Peas together in any other context than the traditional roast one. But they work so well together. The Soup has everything, meat form the ham and the stock, heat form the mustard and the cayenne, salt from the cheese and sweetness form the peas and the snips. All together, amazing. Try it, you won’t be disappointed.

A Proper Ragu come Meatanesca

P1040460, originally uploaded by foodforfraud.

So one of Santa’s gifts to me this year, for I have been a very good boy was a book entitled The Geometry of Pasta, which is an excellent book, basically it was designed to a Graphic Designer who has obviously become obsessed with the shapes of pasta, it is all in stark black and white, and is complemented by some superb recipes by one of said designers chef friends.

Kate had gone to visit her parents in between Christmas and New Years, rather than revert to complete teenager status and spend my days around the house wanking and crying I decided to take to bed with my books. I later learned that this was a mistake as my eyelids tired and I tried to sleep I was plagued with images of wild boar and rabbit ragu. I had to relieve my 3am hunger with a massive bowl of fruit and fibre. This really did not hit the spot.

The next day I decided to get up and go shopping for ragu ingredents. Having purchased some suitably adequate meat I returned home and begun my labours.

Ingredients:

½ rack of belly ribs trimmed of most of the excess fat.
500g stewing beef such as flank
250g lambs neck fillets
Or any combination of meat that takes a lot of cooking, if on the bone the better.
2 onions finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 carrots finely grated
2 stalks of celery finely chopped
2 bay leaves
1 whole bottle of red wine
4 cans of tinned tomatoes
1 finely chopped chilli
salt, pepper and olive oil

First season and brown all of the meat in a bit of oil, a bit at a time in a heavy based casserole. Once each piece is browned and sealed place in a dish beside your casserole. It is quite important that you have the pan as hot as possible so that the meat browns quickly burning it’s juices to the bottom of the pan as you go.

Once all the meat is browned add a little more oil to the pan and add all the vegetables and bay leaves at once and cook until tender. Return the meat to the pan and give a good stir. Pour in all the wine and bring to the boil. Boil until you can no longer smell the alcohol. Add the tomatoes and some puree if you so desire and bring the heat right down to only a gentle simmer. Then just leave it to simmer until the point where the meat is literally disintergrating and falling off the bone. Break any stubborn bits of meat with a wooden spoon and remove any bones and clean them of meat which should go back in the sauce. The meat should have the consistency of pulled pork. Cook it all day if needs be using your lid to adjust how thick you want the sauce. If it gets too thick you can always add some water or stock to loosen it, but I like mine very thick so that it clings to my pasta.

I quickly realised during the cooking that given the shear protein constitute of the pan, there would be a distinct inability to pass this from one pan to another. Even the most carnivorous of intestines would require some form of ruffage to ease the transition. Olives, green and black. Preserved in brine and sitting forlorn in the bottom of the fridge, they have the added benefit of adding a bit of salt which given the quantities at stake, you will need all the seasoning you can get, but remember, you can always add more, but you can’t take it out, and always season towards the end of cooking, as reduced liquid will make the dish saltier than you intended.

We just had some for dinner and I added some mushrooms, which worked wonderfully.

I would warn you though, it is incredibly rich, but as rich as it is versatile. I have a pot in the freezer which I plan to make all sorts from; anything from ravioli to canneloni and lasagne. It will just sit in the freezer brewing for weeks and come out even more delicious than when it went in. Amazing stuff and, if you have the freezer space, well worth the effort.

As for pasta, don’t use spaghetti, use something that will let the sauce cling to it; fusilli works perfectly. Enjoy.

Chimichuri Shrooms

 

Churi Shrooms 2, originally uploaded by foodforfraud.

Got a bit obsessed with Chimichuri. It is amazing frankly and I would happily put it on almost anything. But this comes from the man who would happily put mustard on anything, which is probably a good barometer of where my taste buds are at.

Whether you want to use this one on it’s own, or with anything else (corn on the cob works well with Chimichuri) or as a side for some steaks I heartily recommend this.

For the Chimichuri:

8 cloves of garlic – very finely chopped to get the heat out.
Juice of one lemon
Parsely – flat leaf is best, and a standard supermarket pack is fine for this recipe in these quantities
1 whole chilli finely chopped, seeded or deseeded depending on how hot you want it
olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste.

Make it how you want, if you don’t like it so heavy on the garlic, use less, if you want it sharper use more lemon juice. It’s really up to you. The above is just a guideline.

Basically fill the mushrooms with the Churi Fury and bake about 20 mins in a prehaeted oven at about 180C. Awesomeness personified. I served up with some sausages and weird marinated and grilled corn on the cob. Need to get recipe down before I expose it to the general public in case I cause harm to anyone.

In short a pretty simple supper or side for a nice piece of meat. Or just to make a bottle to keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Ideal for BBQ’s. Versatile to the point of ridiculousness and always awesome. Enjoy.

Death by Chickpea

Dinner mainly of chickpeas, originally uploaded by foodforfraud.

So, just for no reason I decided to soak a packet of chickpeas. Not sure why, thought I could do some good, Kate and I had been buying a lot of hummus, so I guess I thought it’d be a good idea to have a go at my own.

Before I go further, I must give Kate credit for the photo’s. I couldn’t really be bothered with them after having diverted from the Hummus on to Falafel.

I had been meaning to teach myself Falafel for years, but had never got round to it. I hadn’t quite calculated just how much Hummus 500g of dried chickpeas would make, so having made far too much Hummus, Falafel seemed to be the logical progression.

I won’t give the Hummus recipe here, it wasn’t that great and frankly was only made good by covering it in smoked paprika, which whilst not a bad thing, isn’t really a great basis for a recipe.

The Falafel however, was immense:

250g dried chickpeas (which have been soaked over night)
4 cloves of garlic
a handful of fresh coriander
1 tablespoon Tahini
Tabasco
1 teaspoon cumin
1 egg beaten

Basically put it all in a blender apart form the egg and blitz. Once it’s looking suitably crumbly, put it in a bowl and stir in the egg.

Form into balls and deep fry until brown on the outside, once deep fried put them on kitchen paper to drain off some of the oil and cover in lemon juice and salt. This helps to cut through the fat and is very tasty.

You can use more coriander and cumin if you like, I did and it and it was top draw.

Forget the Hummus, though, it’s probably easy and better shop bought, that said, if anyone wants a sub standard Hummus party, I’ve got a jar in the fridge.

Good times, keep up the free love.

Rich xxx

An Evening of Stuffing Vegetables and Myself

Stuffed Tomato, originally uploaded by foodforfraud.

This all started on Tuesday. I had the day off to get over the Bangface Weekender (www.bangface.com). I almost died, but I got through it, admittedly having a driving lesson the day after my return was not my brightest idea, but hey, at least the instructor dropped me off by the butchers . I bought some minced beef, some bacon and some stilton. The stilton absolutely stinks, I thought it’d be one of those that would be too strong to eat, but was pleasantly surprised at it’s delicacy. 

I did this shop the other way round, usually I buy the meat and then buy the veg to go with it, but I popped into the fish mongers and got some haddock and some prawns, didn’t do anything special with them, so aren’t going to blog them. The real treats were the Marmande Tomatoes and the Portabello Mushrooms I found in the greengrocers.

I decided to stuff the tomatoes and the mushrooms, I was planning to do them over two meals but as Kate went out tonight I decided that I’d use them all at once, because what else is a boy to do whilst recovering from the Weekender prior to a bank holiday weekend?

So I’ll start with the tomatoes:

2 Marmande tomatoes

half a red onion finely chopped

half lb of minced beef

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

20g pecorino cheese

a handful of chopped parsely, basil and oregano

salt and pepper

Very simply scoope out the middle  of the tomatoes by removing the top and removing the innards with a spoon. Mix the filling and stuff each tomato with half. replace the lids and bake in an oven at 200 degress C for about 30 minutes.

For the mushrooms:

2 Portabello Mushrooms

half a red onion finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

3 rashers of bacon sliced

stilton cheese

breadcrumbs

teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves

salt and pepper

olive oil

Very simply fry off the bacon in a little oil until it’s just starting to crisp. Next add the onion, garlic and thyme and when both have softened place in a bowl with the cheese and stir until the cheese had melted and covered the bacon in a thick coating of melted cheese.

Add to each mushroom in equal quantities and cover with breadcrumbs and a grind or two of pepper and extra salt if you need it, I don’t.

Finish in the oven for 15 minutes at 200 degrees C.

I served it up with a mixed salad and a glass of white wine.

I ate an entire tomato and a mushroom and a lot of salad and now I can hardly breath. Off to bed now. Please do try these, they’re really excellent recipes.

If you want more photos click on the main one and it’ll take you to my flickr site.

Until next time, big love.

Rich xx

The East India Company of Kings Cross & Molasses Ham

Mustard, Molasses and Sherry Ham, originally uploaded by foodforfraud.

The Finished Ham. The morning after the night before

So Kate goes away for the weekend, most men would call their dealers and minutes later a blacked out Audi full of whores and drugs would be pulling up outside, not me, no. I go for a cook-a-thon.

The Easter ham turned up while we were in Cornwall and I had about 12lb’s of pig to sort out. Being as most people are not really up for eating vast quantities of meat for Easter, unlike at Christmas, I decided to hack myself off a few Gammon Steaks prior to cooking the ham, which went quite well. Then James brought his date home whilst I was wrist deep in pig, knives and saw in tow. I think I sort of managed to not look like a total psycho.

I made a new batch of onion marmalade ready for BBQ season, if it ever comes, although this last weekend was beautiful with blues skies and sunshine, only being slightly interfered with by some volcanic ash or some shit.

For the onion marmalade it’s very simple:

1KG red onions (I use half red onions and half shallots)

70g Butter

70g Brown Sugar

1 large (as in filled to the top) wine glass each of cider vinegar, port, and red wine (approx 1.5 litres)

Melt the butter and sugar in a pan add the chopped onions and cook on the lowest heat possible until all the juices have evaporated and the pan smells of sugar caramalising. This will ensure that the onions are very soft which will ultimately make the marmalade the best it can be, it will also take a very long time, so go for a shit, or better a bath, or if you must a shit then a bath, whatever you do please do not shit in the bath.  Add all the liquid at once and boil until most of the liquid has reduced and when you draw a spoon through the mixture it rapidly fills with juice.

Jar it and leave it to cool. Perfect with burgers and pretty much everything else.

For the ham cook it for 20 mins a lb this was about 7lb so I cooked it for about 2 a half hours at 160 degrees C. I then took it out and whacked the oven on MAX, removed the skin, scored the fat, and coated that mother fucker with a combination of mustard powder, sherry and molasses which I had heated in a pan until the alcohol had evaporated. What you’re after is something that looks like crude oil. You’ll need to keep it warm because the molasses will cool and you’re not spreading that for love nor money.

It’s worth giving the pig 2 coats as the fat melts off the first one. Cook each one for about 15 mins and then leave it to cool over night. It’s very nice, with everything and even on it’s own.

So that was Saturday night, after I had DJ’d at a pub in Whitechapel and had been suffering my hangover all day, ironically I had decided to cook all night but went to the chinese for dinner, because I hadn’t actually made anything that I could eat.

So Sunday came and the return of Kate was imminent. Having had over 24 hours out of my presence I knew she would need cheering up and as I always say Sunday are for eating.

I found Paneer in the supermarket, and bought it without any actual intention of cooking it immediately, I had been pouring through my “Easy Indian” cook book all day. The problem with cooking indian food is that you don’t…….. actually I should rephrase that; I don’t just make one dish, I make several dishes. So I started, having bought some molasses for the ham I got a bit carried away and decided to try a new idea for chicken tikka. The recipe I have just isn’t quite right for tikka, especially as you can’t fool the taste of cooking on coals. Bring in the molasses.

Ok, so I used:

1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

1 teaspoon Molasses

1 teaspoon Colman’s Mustard Powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon Tumeric

1 piece of grated root ginger

4 cloves of garlic

cider vinegar

3 tablespoons low fat yoghurt

olive oil

salt and pepper

Ok. Before I start, yes I know the idea of putting vinegar with yoghurt is rank at best, but trust me this works. You put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and make them into a loose paste with a dash, yes dash of cider vinegar and some olive oil add the yoghurt, ginger, molasses and garlic and mix well. Throw in your chicken and leave to marinade over night or as long a possible. I used skinned and boned chicken thighs, which worked very well. Grill on both sides to finish for about 15 mins in total.

Now you also need accompaniments for any self respecting curry, how’s about sweet potato bhaji? Oh yes, I think so.

Olive oil

3 Sweet potatos, peeled and diced

1 shallott

1 teaspoon Tumeric

1 half teaspoon Cumin

1 half teaspoon ground coriander

1 green chili

2 cloves of garlic

salt pepper and water

Fry the spices and the chili, garlic and ginger in some oil, throw in shallots until softened and then throw in the potato’s. Keep adding water until they’re cooked. Job done. Very hot but utterly delicious, and looks beautiful when you combine tumeric with sweet potato, you literally do not get better looking food than that. It’s so vibrant, and now I’m starting to write like a wanker so I’m going to move on.

Sag paneer, it’s Kate’s favourite so it was a must really.

Paneer – about 10 small cubes

1 teaspoon Turmeric

1 teaspoon Cumin seeds

1 teaspoon Ground Coriander

salt & pepper

1 Green chili

1 peice of grated root ginger

3 cloves fo garlic

1 shallot

2 tomato’s (quaartered)

yoghurt

Start by shallow frying your paneer until crisp on most sides. Drain on kithchen paper and save for later.

Fry your spices, chili, ginger and galric to release the flava flav.

“Can somebody tell what the time is”? It’s time to add you shallots and fry until softened, once this is done add your spinach and wilt. right at the end add your yoghurt and paneer and heat through. Season to taste.

Now the main treat was next. Onion Bhaji’s. Home made entirely from scratch. So easy it’s untrue.

Gram flour (about 175g)

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon Turmeric

fresh coriander

1 peice grated root ginger

salt and pepper

2 onions

Add all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and mix with enough water to make a thick batter. Slice the onions and add them with the ginger to the mix with the chopped coriander leaves. mix together and leave to stand until ready. Deep fry at the last minute and serve with everything else.

Top grubbing. I’ve loaded the pictures for the ham and the curry night up on (bean)Flickr as well, so if you want to look without the waffle. It’s here http://www.flickr.com/photos/foodforfraud

It was so nice Sunday that we spent the afternoon walking around Brick Lane, I got excited in the Indian Supermarket and bought some samosa wrappers and poppadums, so they’ll feature in a subsequent Indian cuisine night. I also got a bag of lentils and some tapioca flour, fuck knows why, but hey. I also had a mandatory salt beef and gherkin bagel from the bagel bakery, lashings of english mustard, so much that I actually thought I was going to cry.

All-in-all a good weekend, learnt how to fillet fish and joint chicken courtesy of Kate and her ever useful birthday presents, ate, shopped and cooked. Used the jointed chicken for Coq-au-vin, haven’t taken any pictures but will make it again very soon as it was that good.

Until next time. Big Love.

The Viceroy of India xxx

Dead Fly Biscuits, Eggs Benedict, Meringue & Arctic Cookery.

I so said I wouldn’t do this, but here goes anyway. James cooked Friday night, he made us a roast crown of duck, with stir fried veg and duck fat roasted potatoes. I was most impressed. Considering how hungry I was I felt most full. Well almost.

I then scavenged round the kitchen trying to find something to sooth our hive sweet tooth. After having devoured the white chocolate snowman Kate bought me for Christmas and still not being satisfied, I finally cracked and started on the Waitrose Winter Menu cook book which Kate had picked up for 50p, while James having cracked in a different manner went to the shop for some Ben & Jerry’s.

I settled on the dead fly biscuits recipe, knowing I still had enough currants left over from the various Christmas recipes I had implemented over the festive period.

So here’s how you make them.

225g Plain flour

75g butter

50g Caster Sugar

100g currants

75ml Milk

2 tablespoons of caster sugar mixed with about 1-2 teaspoons of Cinnamon

Rub the butter and flour together until crumbly. Stir in the 50g of caster sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and the currants and bring it all together to a dough with the milk. You’ll need to get you hands in to make it to a dough, as it will look like it’s too dry if you just stir it. Wrap it in cling film and leave it to chill for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile stick the oven on at 200c and flour a surface for rolling out the pastry.

Once chilled and slightly hard, roll out the pastry until it is thin enough that the currants start to come through on both sides. Coat the pastry sheet with the cinnamon sugar, grease a baking sheet and place the whole sheet of pastry on it and bake for 15-20 mins until the edges start to brown a little.

Leave to cook and then cut into individual portions and serve with hot cups of tea, probably best eaten whilst on a sofa in front of the TV.

Saturday was Kate’s girly day. They had champagne round ours, went out shopping and then on to dinner. I made myself a shepherds pie with my Dad’s buttered Leeks. Its a very simple recipe, lots of butter, salt, pepper and ground coriander . Throw in the leeks and leave them to cook slowly on a very low heat until they’re soft and delicious.

I don’t put tinned tomatoes in my Shepherds pie like some, Gordon Ramsay included. I’m not sure that tinned or for that matter ripe fresh tomatoes would have been available to the Shepherd of old, therefore I’ve never seen how these fit in with the dish, plus I make my Bolognese sauce with minced Lamb, so it always reminds me of Bolognese with potato on top and I can’t get my head round that. I did find last night that the additon of a tablespoon of soy sauce and two generous teaspoons of dijon mustard make a lovely warming addition to the feast. So much so that a pie big enough for three was devoured almost in it’s entirety by yours truly.

The Laydeez having returned from dinner to interrupt my very enjoyable evening of being entertained by the Marx Brothers, and having Duck soup replaced by the trying on of clothes and the touching up of make up. They were good enough to give me some brief glimpses of underwear to enjoy with my second and third helpings of Pie, so all was not lost.

This morning, with two tired and emotional women on the sofa and a third in my bed, I set about breakfast. I had been toying with the idea of Egg’s benedict, but had gone off the plan last night. Once I had checked that I had the correct lady was in bed with me, and given her the obligatory morning kiss, I was presented with a rather cool moustache mug and valentines card. All of this inspite of a pre-agreed Valentines amnesty. This blatant abuse of a ceasefire was not something that can be rectified by UN sanctions, it left me with no other option; Egg’s Benedict was back on the menu.

For the Hollandaise; I seperated 3 eggs and reserved the whites in a bowl. I hate waste so I decided that I’d make a meringue once breakfast was cooked and eaten. I whisked the egg yolks with a few drops of white wine vinegar, salt and pepper. And started the long process of beating in a lump of butter at a time whilst the bowl was set over a bain marie. Each lump of butter is about 5g-10g in size and must be combined before the next one can be added. The mixture will thicken steadily until it becomes almost impossible to whisk further, at this point add either more vinegar or lemon juice. I did Lemon juice and in hindsight, next time I will use vinegar, I’ll also use some chives or tarragon in the sauce to give it a bit more depth.

When the sauce is ready poach your eggs, grill your bacon and toast your muffins. Job done devour, preferably with a steaming hot cup of tea.

Once breakfast was done, I made a meringue. It’s cooked. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it, but at least I have a meringue. I think the other two Ladies might be getting us take away in a bizarre concept of rent, so I guess we’ll have it for dessert, somehow. The recipes very easy. Whisk 3 eggs whites, once just about stiff but not too stiff i.e not quite in peaks add 180g of caster sugar a teaspoon at a time, as with the butter in the Hollandaise, only add more sugar once the previous teaspoon has been combined. Once all the sugar has been added bake in a oven at 150c for 50mins to an hour. Once done turn the oven off and leave to cool for a further hour. If you take it out and it cools too quickly it’ll collapse. That’s not really an issue if you’re making Eton Mess.

Kate’s just finished being cook of the Antarctic making Blondies, and dressed to celebrate London Fashion week. Our kitchen has no heating other than when the oven and the entire hob is on, therefore this time of the year is spent mainly cooking things that you can leave alone for long periods, unless you’re me that is and are obsessive enough to not care abotu being cold. I’ve finished off the remaining white chocolate which didn’t make it into the Blondies. Nom.

Sunday’s are for eating. Nom. Til next time.

Sunday morning: hungover, hungry and emotional

Woke up this morning on Kate’s side of the bed with breath that could melt Superman’s face, this is usually a sure sign that I got massively mangled and threw up last night. I roll over and a casual glance at the bucket next to the bed confirms my worst fears. Today will be a day of cooking. But first to breakfast. Kate being the wonder that she is bought fish fingers last night. Once grilled, covered in Ketchup, wedged in between two bits of warm toast, and devoured; the world started to seem a brighter place.

I pull a chicken carcass from the freezer, I’ve been storing them up over the last few months and today seems to be a day to use one. I make a stock. It never ceases to amaze me how much better a proper stock is than using a stock cube, and it’s not a lot of effort. I simply filled a pan with water, threw in the carcass with a bay leaf, two celery stalks, a carrot and an onion and left the pan to simmer for hours. You can boil the stock if you like, but if you’re anal, like me; make sure you only simmer it, otherwise it’s goes cloudy. I simmered it for probably about four hours in total. I wasn’t really counting but I managed to get some shopping in and made cake prior to taking it off the heat. Which leads me nicely into the Banana Loaf I made today.

Banana Loaf. I used to make this a lot. Basically I used to throw every thing in a bowl and mash and mix the bastard until it was looking like a batter and then bake it for as long as it takes. There was no recipe and it always came out a little different each time which I kind of liked, but today I decided that I would make it to a definable recipe so it could be copied and redone (or binned if all went horribly wrong).

So what do we need for this recipe?

200g each of self raising flour, margarine (I used flora), light brown muscavado sugar.

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Half teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

6 Bananas

Ok, so the method. First using an electric hand mixer I beat together the margarine and sugar until well combined and it looks like icing. then sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda add the eggs, vanilla essence and cinnamon and whisk together with the mixer until it’s all well combined.

Nest mash the banana’s to a pulp and add that to the mixture and give it another good mix. Not that this seems to make much difference, as all the banana droops to the bottom of the cake, but I must admit I’m kind of digging the whole cake on top soft moist fruit at the bottom vibe. It’s mighty fine.

Next I loaded it into a large loaf tin and left it in a preheated oven at 150c for about an hour give or take a few minutes. The easiest way to see if the cake is done is to put a knife into the middle. If the knife comes out clean the cake is done.

Whilst the cake was cooking, my attention wondered back to the stock. I had already promised Kate risotto for dinner, I had made about three litres of stock and there were two leeks and two potato’s in the fridge. Kate and I have been trying eat a lot of soup during the weeks for lunch and sometimes for dinner as well. So I sweat off the leeks in some butter whilst I peel and dice the potato’s. I add the potato’s to the pan and cook them in the butter for about 5 mins or so. I then add roughly 7 ladle’s full of stock and put a lid on the pan and leave it to cook for about 45 mins on a medium heat whilst I cook risotto for tea.

I’m not going to put the risotto up, it’s on the facebook page if you’re that interested, you can always leave me a comment and I can give you the recipe, but right now my eyelids are heavy and my fingers are tired. All in all a good Sunday.