All posts tagged: easy recipe

Maple, Banana & Dark Chocolate Tray Cake

You will never need another banana cake recipe once you have tried this. It’s so easy rustle up and is the perfect way to get rid of the bananas browning in your fruit bowl. The finished result is a sticky sweet banana bread that’s still spongy and light, perfect served hot with ice cream or custard, or enjoy cold with a cup of tea. 130g butter, softened 100g golden caster sugar, plus extra for dusting 2 medium eggs 3 medium ripe bananas, well mashed or pureed using a hand blender 45 ml milk 1 tsp vanilla bean extract 100g dark chocolate, broken into small chunks 1 tsp cinnamon 250g self-raising flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 pinch of salt 3 tbsp maple syrup   Preheat your oven to 180C and butter a small deep baking tray. Using a wooden spoon, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Now crack in the eggs, add the mashed/pureed banana, milk and vanilla extract and beat until until smooth. Into the wet mix pour the chocolate chunks, …

10 minute flatbreads with smoked salt, hazelnut dukkah & ghee – a Diwali celebration recipe

All photographs styled and shot by Lauren Miller (www.laurenmiller.co.uk) (@millerisere) and Faye Wears (www.forksknivesblog.wordpress.com) (@forks_and_knives) It’s Diwali time! The Indian festival of lights takes place this Wednesday 11th November and I just can’t wait. I have been busy creating some delicious recipes inspired by the rainbow of colours and flavours that Indian food has to offer. These dishes are perfect for a celebration with friends and family and are all really quick and simple to prepare. I first came across dukkah whilst in Egypt with my family. We could smell it as we walked into the restaurant. You tear off a chunk of warm freshly baked flatbread, dunk it in quality olive oil and then into this amazing blend of roasted nuts, spices and herbs and devour. It is such a simple but fabulously tasty dish to plonk in the middle of the table over drinks and chats. So, I have adapted this great dish that I first tried in Egypt and given it an Indian twist. The great thing about dukkah is that you can put …

Leek bhajis

For me, onion bhajis are one of the things I get most excited about when I go for an Indian meal. Their like a little explosion of everything I love about Indian food- the staples of a great curry paste (onion, ginger and chilli), carefully selected and delicate spices, and plenty of fresh coriander. In India, bhajis are more commonly known as pakora (fritters), and don’t exclusively contain onion. Some have potatoes, spinach, peas, chicken, or anything you fancy. The Onion bhajis that we know and love in this country have a distinctive taste and smell from ajwan and nigella seeds, and can range from big boulders served in chip shops to tiny delicate nests. In any case, When done properly they have a crisp fried onion shell and perfectly cooked batter and soft onions in the centre. I recently had the opportunity to learn how to make Spinach and Onion Pakoras with head chef Rakesh at Cinnamon Kitchen. His trick was to combine the chopped onions and spinach with spices and salt before leaving it …

green coriander chutney

I’m working on some lovely Indian dishes in my little old kitchen at the moment and here’s a little taster of things to come. A punchy, green chutney full of chilli, curry leaf, lemon and herbs! It’s perfect with poppadoms, naan bread, drizzled over BBQ meat or kebabs or stirred into soup or dhal! Serves 4 1 big handful of coriander 1 sprig of curry leaves 1 garlic clove 2 green finger chillies 1 sprig of mint mint the juice from ½ a lemon a glug of groundnut oil a pinch of salt a pinch of sugar Roughly chop the herbs, chillies and the garlic and blend everything in a mini food processor to a puree. Taste and add more seasoning if required. Done.

Baconnaise, with Sweet Potato Fries

The first time I had baconnaise was at GBK; what a revelation. I know it has become the trend in recent years to add bacon to everything (just type Bacon into Buzzfeed and you’ll find bacon jam, bacon sushi, bacon wrapped pizzas, chocolate bacon… i’m going to be sick!) Where most of these sound pretty gruesome to me, baconnaise – mayonnaise flavoured with smokey bacon, with crispy bits – is divine, especially with sweet potato fries. I couldn’t find a good recipe anywhere (and GBK don’t post their ingredients online…damn cheeky) so i’ve been trying to replicate it myself. And i’ve gone and cracked it!   Serves 2 Ingredients   2 large sweet potatoes 3 good quality smoked streaky bacon rashers 250ml mayonnaise 2 egg whites light olive oil 3 tbsp flour 2 tsp smoked paprika ½  tsp garlic powder a pinch of celery salt black pepper Add the bacon rashers to the cold griddle pan, turn the heat on high and cook until really crispy on both sides. Remove the bacon and leave on a …