Banana Bread

Oh haaaaaay! It's been a month since I last posted but I've had a some other exciting-and-kind-of important-sort-of life-changing stuff occupying my time of late. And I've actually just been pretty busy with quite a few weekends away from home, but I have still managed to squeeze in some cooking here and there.

I was working from home the day I made this, which meant when I finished up for the day I had some time to put a banana bread in the oven. There were a couple of dire-looking bananas in the fruit bowl, which normally I chuck straight in the freezer for future use in cakes or smoothies, but I was inspired to whip something up then and there. I looked for a 'healthy' recipe for banana bread, something without as much sugar and fat and found one on BBC Good Food. I didn't quite have the right amounts of everything so I adapted it a bit to suit, and added some extras.

140g flour - wholemeal would make this even healthier, but I didn't have any.

100g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon mixed spice

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2-3 ripe bananas, mashed - I think 3 is best, but I only had 2.

4 tablespoons of agave syrup - I only had honey, so I mixed about 3 tablespoons of clover honey with a little hot water, to make it more like a syrup. I used a little less as I didn't want it to be too sweet.

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

150ml of low-fat, plain yoghurt - I didn't quite have 150ml so about 50ml was some mixed berry yoghurt I also had in the fridge.

chopped pecans or walnuts (optional - and I didn't opt for these).

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees celsius, fan bake. Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and line a loaf tin with baking paper - make sure you leave it coming up over the sides a bit. In a second bowl, combine the mashed bananas, agave syrup/honey, beaten eggs and yoghurt. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour into the tin and sprinkle the nuts on top, if you're using them. Bake for 1 hour 10-15 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean - mine was done in just over an hour though so keep an eye on it. Cool on a wire rack and eat warm, or like the Aussies do, slice it, toast it and spread it with butter, cream cheese or even lemon curd at breakfast time. Store in an airtight container and it should last at least a few days, longer if you're toasting it.

I was a bit over the usual for breakfast and this was a bit of at treat for the rest of the week but it didn't taste overly sweet and a couple of slices with butter were surprisingly filling. It wasn't quite as banana-ry as I would've liked, so I'd use 3 bananas next time. I've recently bought an Easiyo yoghurt maker too, which is great as I use a lot of natural yoghurt, both in cooking, smoothies and just to eat, so it's nice to be able to make your own. It's also great served with any sort of sweet cake instead of cream, to take the edge off the sweetness a wee bit. Enjoy!

One-cup Pancakes

It was Mother's Day recently and instead of a pressie, I thought I'd invite Mum over to have brunch with me and just hang out. I offered her a 'menu' a few days before, with several choices, and she chose pancakes. Now I know this isn't a super fancy thing to make, and most people can probably pretty easily whip up pancakes, but this one is uber easy - and you probably have everything in your cupboard already. This recipe is another Jamie Oliver one, but I chose it because it's the simplest of simple recipes. It was a lovely sunny day, so making these in my kitchen on a Sunday morning for my mum was really nice.

1 large free-range egg (I used 2 smaller ones)
1 cup of self-raising flour
1 cup of milk
sea salt
1 tablespoon of oil

And whatever you want to put on your pancakes! I chose:
1/2 cup of frozen mixed berries
6 tablespoons of plain yoghurt
2 teaspoons of runny honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Crack the egg(s) into a large mixing bowl. Add in the flour, milk and a pinch of sea salt. Whisk it all together until it's a nice smooth batter. If you wanted to put anything in the pancakes, like blueberries, you would fold these in at this point. Put a large frying pan on a medium heat and add half the oil to the pan. Make sure the oil covers the whole pan - I usually use a pastry brush or a paper towel. Add large spoonfuls of the batter to the pan, with space between each pancake to allow them room to spread out. Cook them for 1-2 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface, and then flip them over for another couple of minutes on the other side. You need to cook them in batches, so once they are cooked, I put them on a plate in the oven on a low heat so they keep warm. Use the rest of the oil between batches if you need to.

For the accompaniments, I put the frozen berries in the microwave for about 20 seconds and then blitzed them a little with a hand blender, but not so much that they were completely puréed and smooth. I divided the pancakes between two plates, in piles, and topped with the plain yoghurt, berry sauce, drizzled the honey over and sprinkled a little cinnamon on the top.

We washed our pancakes down with some mimosas (a fancy way of saying bubbly with orange juice), even though I was a little hungover. It was a really nice way to treat my mum, but with something homemade we could enjoy together.. I'm lucky that I live in the same city as my mum, so I see her fairly regularly, but that hasn't always been the case - I spent the better part of nine years living overseas and despite the fact that I've been living back home for over two years now, she still tells me how happy she is to be able to spend time with me. I am sure everyone says this about their mum, but mine is pretty special, so it was a pleasure to make these, and enjoy them with her. Love you Mum!

Review: Poquito

I stumbled across this great little cafe and bar in Wellington when I had about half an hour between the gym and a hair appointment (which sounds so 'ladies who lunch', but it was a Saturday, ok). I was really hungry and I was trying to find something really yummy, but also quick - and a chicken salad sandwich just wasn't going to cut it.

Poquito is Spanish for 'a little bit' and that's pretty much just what I was looking for. On their website they say they are Wellington's best kept secret, and I am inclined to agree. They have a small brunch menu, as well as tapas, cocktails, other alcoholic drinks and coffee. The place is pretty small (sensing the theme here?) but there was a table just by the door which I grabbed. It opens up to some more tables up the back, but it's definitely got an intimate, cosy vibe.

I ordered the Spanish baked egg, with tomato, black bean and chorizo. The woman who served me was lovely and I only waited for about 10 minutes for my food - the apology for the wait when she brought it to me was completely unnecessary. The baked eggs were perfect - it was exactly what I felt like, and just the right size - and at $12.50, frankly, a bargain. Simple, uncomplicated but delicious. They weren't stingy on the chorizo, which is always a bonus, and the sprinkling of toasted almonds on the top was surprisingly on the money and added a really nice texture. The bread was fresh and lightly toasted, but not too hard.

I think this place has got a great thing going on - nice, simple menus with a few things so they can focus on doing them really well. I feel like they would be able to make the shift from brunch during the day, to tapas and cocktails in the evening with ease, providing a nice atmosphere no matter the time of day. I just had a peek at their Twitter, and it seems they have live music there some evenings as well. I'm looking forward to sampling some vino tinto and diablos a caballo here one night very soon.

Poquito
11 Tory St
Wellington, New Zealand

Basil Pesto

I was recently in the enviable position - and fairly uncommon for an amateur city gardener, in my experience - of having a fairly bushy basil plant that was starting to go to seed. Basil needs a really sunny spot - and fortunately my wee garden bed gets lots of it - but only a few months ago, my basil was a forlorn little thing and had mostly been eaten up by bugs. I was on the verge of pulling it out and planting another one when suddenly it rescued itself and took off! Miracle basil! And of course when I thought about what I could do with all my basil, I immediately thought pesto. This is a super easy recipe by the free range cook herself, Annabel Langbein. Her recipe apparently makes a lot more than I ended up with but by the time I got all the basil leaves off my plant, I didn't have quite as much as I'd originally thought.

Basil Pesto

2 packed cups basil leaves - I had 1 cup
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
3/4 cup good quality olive oil - I used about 1/4 cup
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/2 teaspoon of salt
ground black pepper
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts of walnuts (optional) - I used a mix of toasted pine nuts and cashew nuts


This recipe is so simple as all you really need to do is whizz it all up in the food processor.
I used a mix of cashew and pine nuts because pine nuts are pretty expensive and cashews have just as nice a flavour. I toasted them lightly in a dry pan first. Even though I had half the amount of basil leaves, I still used the same amount of everything else, but only 1/4 cup of olive oil. I put everything except the olive oil into the food processor, blitzed it, and the added a bit of olive oil at a time while I blended it a bit slower until I was happy with the consistency - I prefer a little less oil, but you might like a bit more. Good quality olive oil is very important, to get a really nice flavour. My aunt and her partner live in Martinborough and grow their own olives which they press at the village press and I was lucky enough to be given a bottle last Christmas, so I used that.

You can store the pesto in the fridge for two weeks, or freeze it in small containers, according to Annabel. Mine only made one small container though, so I ate it over the next week on crackers, on toast, and stirred through spaghetti with some lightly friend broccoli, kale, spinach, chilli and lemon. Yum!

Huevos Rancheros

We invited my parents came over for brunch over the Easter weekend. They wanted to come visit mostly because they wanted to check out the new-ish couch we got and see our kitten, who's fast becoming a cat....oh and us. I wanted to make something for brunch, that would be filling, but wouldn't mean I had to spend too much time in the kitchen while they were here. I also had a beautiful red chilli that was ripe and ready to be picked from my garden, so huevos rancheros was where it was at.

This recipe is a Jamie Oliver one. I am a bit on-the-fence about the purveyor of pukka tukka. Some of his recipes are great and I use them over and over, others are too involved (30 minutes my arse) or have too many ingredients, some of which can be hard to find. I do have a good vegetarian rogan josh recipe of his that I've used millions of times that I'll blog about at some point. Anyway - this recipe falls into the good category - nice and simple and not a single crazy ingredient.

Huevos Rancheros - or as Jamie likes to call it Mexican Breakfast (how British)

olive oil

1 onion, peeled and finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
2 red peppers, deseeded and finely sliced
2 fresh red or orange chillis, deseeded and finely sliced
1 large dried chilli
3 fresh bay leaves
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
2 large tomatoes, sliced
6 large eggs
6 tortillas
150g cheddar cheese, to serve

My mum is not a big fan of really spicy food, so I only used one fresh chilli and instead of a large dried chilli, I used some dried chilli flakes. I also used dried bay leaves, and instead of tortillas, I served it with some fresh, sliced bread that I drizzled with olive oil and put under the grill for a couple of minutes each side. I don't think this recipe would really serve 6 people if you followed it to the letter - I used 1 and 3/4 tins of tomatoes, 3/4 of one red pepper and 4 eggs and it served 4 of us, but with no leftovers. I think you'd need another half tin of tomatoes at least to stretch it to 6 people, unless you weren't very hungry.

I started by doing the sauce before the parentals arrived, so all I had to do was add the eggs and grill the bread when they got here. Heat the oil on a high heat, add the onion, garlic, peppers, fresh and dried chillis, bay leaves and salt and pepper. Stir and cook for 15 minutes to soften and caramelize everything. I turned the heat down to medium and stirred it pretty consistently so it didn't burn or stick. Add the tinned tomatoes and break them up a bit if necessary. Bring to the boil and turn down to a medium heat and cook it until it begins to reduce down to a thick stew-like consistency. Add more salt and pepper if you need to. I took it off the heat at this point and waited for the 'rents to arrive. When we were ready to eat, I sliced one tomato (because I don't really like fresh tomato, ok) on the top and made wells in the tomato stew and cracked the eggs in. Season from a height (not too sure what the height adds to it), put the lid on and let the eggs poach for about 3-4 minutes - you should be able to see when they're set, or just give them a poke. Grill the bread or warm the tortillas while the eggs are cooking. I sprinkled some fresh parsley from my garden onto the top, took the frying pan right to the table and served the grated cheese and bread on the side so everyone could do their own.

Sometimes when I make this I also add beans (cannellini beans are my favourites), to make it a bit more substantial. Next time I'll add some chopped up chorizo when I'm cooking the onion and red pepper at the beginning - the garlicy, spiciness would go really well in this dish I think,

Mini Breakfast Frittatas

I don't know about you guys but I struggle to find interesting stuff for breakfast during the week. I don't usually eat breakfast until I'm at work at about 9am and I can only do smoothies and yoghurt with fruit for so long. I love eggs and sometimes a savoury fix is what I need. These mini frittatas (sticking with the mini theme here) are great as you can make them ahead of time, which saves time in the morning. And they are a good protein source - if that's important to you.

I just made this recipe up and the good thing is, you can basically just add what you want. It's a good way to get rid of the ends of veggies in the fridge. This recipe makes six, which is three breakfasts for me - just multiply the recipe if you want to make more.

What do I need?

4-5 eggs (depending on size)
5-ish tspns milk (about one per egg - you could also use water or a combo of both). I say 'ish' because you might find you need a wee bit more when you fill up your muffin trays.
1/4 red onion
1 garlic clove (or a teaspoon of crushed garlic, if you still haven't got any fresh stuff, like me)
Veggies - whatever you like and/or have in your fridge. I used a combination of a handful of chopped spinach and kale (as I had these in my garden), 1/4 courgette, 1/4 red capsicum and a wee bit of grated carrot as I had some leftover from the wraps I made for dinner.
Herbs. Again, choose whatever you like. I am a BIG fan of dill with eggs. This time I used a combo of parsley, dill and chives because I had them all growing fresh in the garden (did I mention my garden?). Dried is also ok too.
Cheese. Again, use what you like. For these I used feta, but I've previously used parmesan or just good ol' cheddar. Finely grate it you're using cheddar or parmesan, and you only need a wee bit to top each frittata.
Optional: a little grated lemon zest, a sprinkle of dried or fresh chilli and 50g-ish of ham if you have it/are so inclined (I wasn't this time)
Oil for cooking (I usually use canola)
Salt and pepper

How do I make it?

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Chop all the veggies up pretty small and fry with a little oil (and the chilli if you're using it) for about 5-10 minutes, until cooked. I stir them pretty continuously so they don't brown or burn. Once cooked, set aside. In a jug, beat the eggs, milk/water, chopped herbs, grated lemon zest (if you're using this - and I recommend it), salt and pepper to taste - if you're using ham, don't add too much salt as ham can be pretty salty. Grab a six hole muffin tin (I don't think that's what you call it, but hey) and grease lightly with a little oil on a paper towel or pastry brush. Distribute the egg mixture between the six holes (!). It should fill each one up about half way - adjust with a bit more milk/water if you need to. Then add the veggies, distributing them between the six holes, add the chopped up ham if you're using it at this point too and top with a little cheese of your choice. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the egg is set. Cool on a plate and voilà - three days of breakfasts! Store in a container in the fridge. I usually wrap two up in a piece of foil and when I get to work, pop them on a plate in the microwave for 1 - 1 min 30 and Robert's your father's brother!