Squid and Prawns with Chilli and Marjoram + Meringue Gelato Cake with Chocolate Sauce!

Hello again folks, I hope you are all keeping well and healthy.. maybe even soaking up the sun in a beautiful warm country on holiday or you are just sitting at home in the garden with a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake (I am slowly wishing that was me). Today has been better than yesterday, well it did involve going back to the phone store and engaging (tentatively) in a conversation with the man. Eventually I tuned back in nearer the end and found out that I was to be given a new handset next week and that I will have to live with a little standby again for the next week! Life sometimes isn’t just what you would like it to be. Now tonight I thought  I would lead you into a little trip around Italy culinary style, not one in which a ridiculously bad tour guide does not have a clue what he is rambling on about  (I have had many experiences in the past, don’t ask comment if you dare to listen to them aha), but one in which I will gracefully show you how to prepare and cook two courses of great Italian cuisine with a few cosmopolitan twists. I do not intend for you to slave around in the kitchen at a dinner party, instead I want you to be able to attend to your guests conversations and be able to just slip into the kitchen when you feel the hunger in the atmosphere, and be able to sublimely open the oven door, do some last minute whipping up and serve your feast with a big grin on your face. That is the way to feel and the mood to enter when entertaining guests! One thing I absolutely love about Italian cuisine is the vast amounts of textures they use, crunchy meringues with a sumptuously soft gelato (ice-cream) within and the slight chew from seafood mixed with the just soft pasta, makes for a great treat. I believe that as the world is ever growing and the amounts of little ones popping up in families, we have lost that sense of being together as a a family and eating + cooking is just one of those contributing factors to help reconstitute that back into modern day society. In Italy, the very young children in the family can be of great help in the kitchen, such as making meatballs and picking tomatoes with their tiny fingers.. I know it may seem like a daunting task to try and find time in the week to sit down as a family and enjoy food together, but honestly try it, it makes the whole experience of being a family a whole lot better! What I was going to say before that was I also believe we have become an international nation of one texture cooking, which I find and most people do, entirely boring and uninteresting in the slightest. Experiment with many textures and see what makes your mouth explode with amazement.. These recipes I am posting tonight are full of amazingly different textures and I hope they lead you to trying new flavours and textures within the kitchen!

So to start of with, I usually don’t mention a starter in Italian cuisine due to the fact that it can sometimes be a bit too much if you are going to be nibbling and drinking also. I have chosen two recipes from Nigellissima, which I have put my own cosmopolitan twist on. For main I have extracted squid and prawns with chilli and marjoram as my preferred dish this evening, it has a perfect balance of fire and warmth and is best served with linguine, the pasta for seafood in triumphant bowls ready for diving in with a fork! Pudding is a sublime meringue gelato (ice-cream) with fresh raspberries and chocolate sauce, what a perfect way to end a meal. The chewy crispness of the meringue, the soft fresh tang of the raspberries and the mellowing rich chocolate sauce, who could ask for more than that! Ugh, sheer heaven.. I hope you enjoy spero vi piace!

MAIN DISH:

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 tbsp plain, regular olive oil!
• 1 red chilli finely chopped into strips. or a tsp of red chilli flakes.
• 1 unwaxed lemon or lime, zest and juice.
• 1 clove garlic, grated.
• small bunch parsley, leafs only, chopped.
• 2 tbsp finely chopped marjoram or basil.
• 350g prepared squid rings, fresh if possible (defrost if frozen).
• 20 raw peeled king prawns, fresh if possible (defrost if frozen).
• 1 tsp sea salt. (not rock). 
• 500g linguine (enough to feed 4).

METHOD:

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok and add the chilli, lemon zest and garlic, let it sizzle for a few minutes (watching as the garlic may burn).

Add the chopped marjoram and parsley and give it a stir around. add the salt, squid and prawns and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the lemon juice and check for seasoning.

When ready plate up the pasta into warm bowls and pile the seafood on top. Sprinkle with some more herbs and chilli and pop a little dish of chilli onto the tray to dab on later at the table.

Enjoy!

PUDDING:

INGREDIENTS:

For the Gelato:

300ml double cream.

30g dark chocolate, 70%. chopped.

1 tbsp, coffee liqueur or Tia Maria or rum.

8 meringue nests.

For the chocolate sauce.

1 tbsp, coffee liqueur or Tia Maria or rum.

125g chopped dark chocolate, finely. Again 70%.

250ml double cream.

250g raspberries to serve and decorate.

METHOD:

Line a 450g loaf tin with cling film thoroughly, making sure there is enough overhang (make life easier later on).

Whip the cream until thick, but soft, chop the chocolate in splinters and fold into the cream along with the liqueur.

Now using all of your force, crush the meringues and fold into the cream mixture.

Now place this mix into the loaf tin and  spread out evenly then fold over the overhang of cling. And freeze for 8- overnight hours, until solid.

Carry on with the chocolate sauce (about an hour before serving), put the cream and chocolate in to a pan and heat gently until the chocolate has almost melted, then turn off the heat and leave the chocolate to melt fully in the heat of the cream.

Once all melted, add the liqueur and pour into a serving jug. whisking every now and then until the desired consistency is reached. If it gets too stiff, place it over a pan of barely simmering water to heat through.

When ready to serve, remove the gelato from the deep freeze and unwrap the overhang and use it to remove the block in one go. Place upside down onto a serving plate and dot raspberries over the gelato, then jacksonpollock the chocolate sauce over.

Take to the table with more chocolate sauce in the jug and a bowl of fresh raspberries.

Please take ultimate pleasure from these recipes, Enjoy and feel ultimately Italian!!!

Ciao,

Ryan!

 

 

 

 

Quick Update!

Hello folks, just a little message to say that I will be posting tomorrow again… I have had dilemmas all day with phone stores trying to get my phone repaired and it has come to the stage in the evening when I feel completely only utter darkness and a cup of camomile tea will revive me of my lost energy and soul (not that drastic) but feels this way! Anyway, I have a lovely Italian meal all prepared in the leisurely style tomorrow! Can’t wait to post, see you all soon..

Enjoy your evening, goodnight and see you tomorrow,

Ryan!

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Mayonnaise! My kitchen’s secret weapon…

Hello again everyone, I hope you are all keeping well and are in good health! I have to admit the scottish weather has been surprisingly beautiful today, and I do sincerely hope it stays this way as the sun just seems to bring this bright, fresh (unforced) smie upon peoples faces. Ha, the amount of forced smies I see each day (including myself) is a bit depressing, but the sun is a natural remedy for unhappiness and makes the whole world that little bit more pleasant, to be apart of. So, this day marks the end of a very hardworking year at school before all of the feared exams arrive, ugh they have to be done and well I believe the most terrifying thing about them is the thought of them shaping your future, that is most scariest. But fear not, they are still many months away and I try to tell my brain to keep them on thought simmer inside me at this moment in time. I feel as though my school years so far have just completely vanished before my eyes, well by that I mean it’s like someone has said have fun for this limited amount of time, and then suddenly wrap it up in a little ball and throw it away! But 7 weeks of holidays will do me just fine aha.. Okay, so mayonnaise isn’t exactly the most interesting of recipes, it can seriously test your culinary skills in the art of sauce making… although I am not going to put you through that pain, just let you go leisurely through it. Or you could simply crack open a jar (highly unrecommended) unless you wish to eat congealed gloss white cream:( what shame when it is one of the simplest sauces in the world. A real mayonnaise should be slightly ‘yellowish’ in colour and have a distinctly sharp taste to it and not contain any preservatives such as those dreaded e numbers, only vinegar! In my opinion, mayo is my kitchen’s secret weapon and it is not only useful in salads or in the dressing of chips. It can be used in many satisfying ways such as serving it with a slice of fish, (mayo mixed with fresh herbs i.e. parsley), or even with eggs and cold meats stirred through with a tad of mustard for extra kick!

Note’s on how to make the perfect mayonnaise:

• Temperature – temperature plays an important role in most sauces, especially those made with egg yolks, it helps a huge amount if all the ingredients start of at natural room temperature.
• Egg yolks – Before adding anything to egg yolks beat for a minute until sticky, then add.
• Addition of oil -the oil MUST!! be added DROP BY DROP at first while continually whisking until the mixture begins to turn into a heavy cream, then the oil can be added more rapidly.
• Proportions – be aware of the volume of oil that can be readily absorbed by one egg yolk. The general rule of thumb is that 1 large egg yolk will readily absorb 6 fl oz oil under normal room temperature, anything more and the egg proteins wil break and the sauce will just be a runny liquid mess.

INGREDIENTS:

3 egg yolks.

1tbsp lemon juice.

1/2 tsp salt.

1/4 dry or prepared mustard.

1/2 to 3/4 pint or olive oil or veg oil.

METHOD:

Warm a glass mixing bowl in some hot water, then drain and dry out thoroughly. place the egg yolks into the bowl and beat for 1-2 minutes until they are broken and sticky.

Add the lemon juice, salt and mustard, beat for a further 30 seconds.

Now the eggs are ready to receive the oil, drop by drop feeding is appropriate. Do not ever stop whisking until the sauce has thickened. Stop pouring oil every 10 seconds and carry on beating to insure the yolks are absorbing the oil. After 1/8 to 1/4 of the oil has been added, the mix should resemble a very thick cream.

At this moment, the arm can take a break and then you can add the remaining in tablespoons. Beating after every addition.

when the sauce becomes to thick and stiff, carefully beat in lemon juice until the consistency you wish has been accomplished. Beat 2 tbsp boiling water into the sauce now, this is an anti curdling agent! Season to taste.

Enjoy and happy dipping, mixing and sharing! 🙂

Au revior,

Ryan!

 

 

Crêpes Fourrées et Flambées!

Hello again everyone, I hope you are all keeping well and are enjoying the not so summery weather (well that’s for Glasgow at the moment, to say the least). This week has started off pretty well if I must say, an awards ceremony today at the local parish church, to celebrate the successes of people across the school including myself. At first I believed it was going to be the same as the past two years, were every year group attended the one ceremony, but they split in into senior and junior levels which lead to the whole thing going in a lot faster that expected.. before I knew it, I was shaking hands with the prize giver and ushered back to my seat, all in all the experience was pleasant and quite enjoyable to say the least, a productive start to an overall productive day! Although today wasn’t all that spectacular, when I received a phone call from mum saying that my phone company is giving me a ‘standby phone’ until my own phone is repaired or until I am given a new one. It really frustrates me and it must rack your nerves to, when phone companies find it compulsory to allegedly advise you into taking a standby-phone and then they patch it up with oh it will be repaired in 5-10 days.. I’m not totally heartbroken without it, I just like to have the reassurance that it is there and that I can rely on it for my diary, and easy ‘qwerty’ texting functions, also with the addition of apps and internet access.. Okay, enough of me droning on about my personal loss ( but I probably have already, apologies in advance by the way). I am going a little out of my ordinary way of posts here and i am going to share with you possibly for the next few weeks, recipes from two cookbooks which are my cooking bibles: Mastering the art of French Cooking’. I honestly could not get to the level of expertise I have achieved in French cookery skills without them! The recipes I will be posting from these books are not in the tiniest bit stressful or complicated, but are relaxing and help you find that inner Français. I find these recipes are classics and they are so step by step you will find it hard to go wrong (by all means). The dish I have choosen to share with you today is a recipe for crepes or pancakes with an orange and almond butter, flambeed at the last minute at the table! How very déclassé! The is very simple and I am going to give you the definitive recipe for crepes that I go by every time I pursue to make them… So here goes:

INGREDIENTS:

The quintessential sweet crepe recipe: Apologies for awkward measurements!

Crêpes fines sucrées: Light batter.

1/4 pint whole milk.

1/4 pint cold water.

3 egg yolks.

1 tbsp sugar.

3 tbsp orange liqueur, rum or brandy.. or orange juice (fresh of course).

5 oz. flour (plain is referred to as just flour in this book).

2.5 oz. melted unsalted butter.

Method:

Put all the ingredients in a liquidizer and blitz on full speed for 1 minute. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours -overnight. When ready to cook, melt a dot of butter with a dot of flavourless oil in a pan and apply a high heat, the oil stops the butter burning.. Then take 3 tbsp of your mix and drop onto the hot pan, swirl or using a crepe stick spread out the batter as thinly as possible! cook on both sides for 45 seconds each side. Just remember the pan should be scalding hot ( I mean it ).

For the orange almond butter:

3 0z. pulverized almonds i.e. almonds that have been blitzed in a blender.

1/2 lb. butter, soft unsalted.

1/4 teaspoon, almond extract, natural.

1/4 pt. orange juice.

For the butter, beat the butter in a processor or by hand in a large mixing bowl, and slowly add the orange juice drop by drop until combined, then add the almond extract. refrigerate until required. Beat the almonds into the orange butter now!

Take a large baking dish, and butter liberally. Then take 18 cooked crepes and fold them into wedges (obviously you don’t need to use all 18), and spread the butter on the not so good side of the crepes. Then place into the dish, and then shortly before serving, sprinkle 3 tbsp of sugar over the top of them and pop in a gas 5 190c oven for 10 minutes, until the crepes caramelize slightly.

The if you wish to flambée, pour over a splash of cognac and a splash of orange liqueur that has been warmed slowly. Avert your face and ignite, and take to the table immédiateté!

Bon appetite, all and have a fabulous week, speak soon!

Au revoir,

Ryan!

 

Cinnamon Plums On French Toast!

Hello their everyone, I hope you have not gone through the day I have, between waking up early and storming my way through the torrential Glasgow rain to an early morning violin lesson, to then discover that a visitor was there and wanted to hear me play a Bach Sonata as they were about to venture into the world of Bach also. Of course, I couldn’t say no and went along with it and placed my violin on my shoulder and placed my bow on the string and elegantly played the opening chord of the Sonata No.1 in G moll, which is possibly one of the most mesmeric pieces out there in the classical world. I can recall distancing away from this planet and entering the unknown landscape my brain had pictured. It consisted of being in Italy (not Germany, surprisingly) and I was wondering the streets of Florence searching for a long lost friend, who I met in the the end and we went for coffee and discussed moral issues and day to day life in Florence, before I took a long car journey home along the river Arno during the ending of the piece! I really could tell you a story for every piece of classical music around but my brain would possibly collapse at the sheer amount.. To put the feeling of being absorbed by music into words is almost impossible, as every piece absorbs you differently and sends you on many pathways, I believe that music is the pathway to all things healing, emotional, openness, and all round general good health and wellbeing… Many to whom I describe this believe I am talking a load of tomfoolery, but indeed in my mind I believe that this happens and that these stories I picture have a meaning and that one day in the near future I will be able to fulfill them myself and recreate them in real time! Now to not take things off topic to much, I would like to just mention that I have re-designed my blogging platform and made it more accessible to my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, also for the fact that my Archives are now at the top of my page for ease of accessibility. Which I regard highly amongst my readers, keeping your life easy is a great success in my view.

As I previously mentioned, the rain has been so incredibly unpredictable today and has left me feeling a bit on the ‘ugh’ side of life. So to uplift my spirits a little I have conjured up one of my most favourite Nigella recipes, which I behold as one of my own now as well. Cinnamon plums on french toast. There is really something nostalgic about this plate of soft swollen fruits piled gently on a base of crisp buttery french toast. There is nothing French at all about French toast, it is simply a bread of your preference dipped in an egg and milk based liquid and then gently fried in butter and a little oil until golden. The bread though must be on the stale side of it’s life! soft bread will just turn into a huge amalgamated mess and will no fry sufficiently (we don’t want that surely)… As for the plum compote that sits delectably on top of the toast, well it’s sharp, not to sweet and balanced by the slight hit of cranberry! The earthy rich note of cinnamon helps revive you after a long day at the office and helps you to wind down or if eaten before a night out, provides a little spice boost to sustain you through the evening! This recipe can use ripe or unripe plums, it is a nightmare trying to track down ripe plums and pears for example, but the heat permeating this compote make the un-yielding fruit somewhat magical! This recipe is also in Nigella Kitchen, if you are wondering also.. So without no further ado, let us tranquilly enter the kitchen and devilishly create this work of wonders….

INGREDIENTS:

For the Compote:

500g plums, don’t bother to peel them (to much hassle, besides this is stress relieving cookery).

100g caster sugar, reduce to 75g if fruit is ripe and yielding.

250ml cranberry juice.

1 cinnamon stick.

For the Toast:

2 eggs.

60 ml full fat milk ( if using anything less, I don’t want to know about it).

1/2 ground cinnamon.

1 tsp sugar.

4 slices of stale white bread.

2 tbsp soft unsalted butter.

METHOD:

• Put the cranberry juice and sugar into a wide saute pan and stir to help the sugar dissolve, then place over the heat and stir to dissolve the sugar completely.
• Halve the plums and take away the stones, then halve again if still to large in size.
• Once the sugar has dissolved, add in the cinnamon stick and turn the heat up and heat the mixture until it is starting to become syrupy.
• Turn the heat down to just a simmering temperature and add the plums and cook gently for 5-10 minutes (depending on the ripeness of your fruit).
• When ready, the plums should be tender, not mushy. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside, keeping warm.
• For the toast, whisk the eggs, milk, sugar ad cinnamon together in a pie dish.
• Submerge two slices of the bread into the milk and egg mix and soak for 10 second on each side. Then melt half of the butter in a frying pan with a dash of sunflower oil (0r any flavourless oil) to prevent burning and cook until crisp and golden on both sides.
• Transfer to a warm serving plate and keeps warm while you repeat the process, then serve warm with delicate compote spooned on top.. you could for an extra naughty treat, add a dash of cream on top, I don’t personally but feel free.

Thanks for reading and enjoy.. Until next time..

Bon Nuit,

Ryan!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Almond Cake With Cherries!

Hello everyone, just a quick photo of the celebreation Summer party cake I created for a a lovely summers day.. recipe in my archives! Thanks, Ryan!

Chocolate Fondant (delectably melting)…

Hello again folks, I hope we are all keeping well and are soaking up the glorious sunshine outside, well all is wonderful here in Glasgow but I don’t know about your residence. I cannot believe that tomorrow will be my last ever assessment of my third year at school and it’s in chemistry, also the other side to the story is the fact that it will soon be the Summer break in seven days. Unimaginable to think that in eight weeks I will enter a cycle of three consecutive years that will determine what shape my life will take when I leave school.. (scary thoughts there). The stress levels within me next year will be so high my brain might as well just shut down right now, at this very second but I can redeem it back by making these chocolate fondants! Oh my are these spectacular for a perfect end to a sumptuous meal, or even for that special dinner party you have invited all of your friends to, but completely forgot was still taking place.. I love the rich intensity of the dark chocolate here and you must with my strict orders upon you, use a chocolate with a cocoa mass content above 70% as anything less will become disguised by the sugar content (which is small) but still the last thing I want you to do is stretch your wallet to buy such gorgeous chocolate and then not be able to taste it’s earthy, intense flavour. One company I insist on using is the chocolate from Artisan du Chocolat in London, They do deliveries if you ask.. Here are the details: 81 Westbourne Grove, W2 4UL. Nearest tube: Bayswater. If that chocolate is unavailable to you then a good bar of 70% Green & Blacks is just fine! Okay now onto the little choc treats that are going to make you feel so much more satisfied after diving in with a silver spoon ( or whatever for preference). They are chocolatey, intense, rich, not heavy, indulgent, oh the list could go on for eternity!

INGREDIENTS:

50g melted unsalted butter. For brushing.

200g of the best quality dark chocolate you can afford. Chopped.

200g golden caster sugar (for that hint of musky treacle).

200g unsalted butter, cubed.

4 eggs + 4 yolks.

200g plain flour.

cocoa powder for dusting.

Softly whipped cream to serve.. (optional of course).

METHOD:

First get your moulds ready. Using upward strokes, heavily brush the melted butter all over the inside of the pudding mould. Place the mould in the fridge or freezer. Brush more melted butter over the chilled butter, then add a good spoonful of cocoa powder into the mould. Tip the mould so the powder completely coats the butter. Tap any excess cocoa back into the jar, then repeat with 1 the next mould.

Place a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, then slowly melt the chocolate and butter together. Remove bowl from the heat and stir until smooth. Leave to cool for about 10 mins.In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale and the whisk leaves a trail; use an electric whisk if you want. Sift the flour into the eggs, then beat together.

Pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture in thirds, beating well between each addition, until all the chocolate is added and the mixture is completely combined to a loose cake batter.

Tip the fondant batter into a jug, then evenly divide between the moulds. The fondants can now be frozen for up to a month and cooked from frozen. Chill for at least 20 mins or up to the night before. To bake from frozen, simply carry on as stated, adding 5 mins more to the cooking time.

Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Place the fondants on a baking tray, then cook for 10-12 mins until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of their moulds. Remove from the oven, then leave to sit for 1 min before turning out.

Loosen the fondants by moving the tops very gently so they come away from the sides, easing them out of the moulds. Tip each fondant slightly onto your hand so you know it has come away, then tip back into the mould ready to plate up.

Starting from the middle of each plate, squeeze a spiral of caramel sauce – do all the plates you need before you go on to the next stage.

Sit a fondant in the middle of each plate. Using large spoons, scoop a ‘quenelle’ of softly whipped cream on top of the fondants.

Carefully place the ice cream on top of the fondant, then serve immediately. Repeat with the rest of the fondants.

Sounds tedious, but the rewards and tastes stakes are high! Until next time,

Au Revoir,

Ryan!

 

 

 

 

 

Langues de Chat Biscuits!

Hello everyone again, firstly I must start with a little confession of apologies over my lack of posting these past few days, due to my absence from home. Being on the orchestra course I went to in Stirling, well Gartmore (wherever, but so lovely apart from the weather and manure smells). I love the atmosphere of these courses, surrounded by really lovely people and amazing music, I mean what else could you ask for. Well in my eyes it’s fantastic! Now I won’t mutter on all night about this course but instead crack on with my recipe of choice for today which is of course French as you can see and they are utterly moreish as an afternoon tea snack with a lovely cup of good old English or Scottish tea. Langues de Chat literally means ‘finger biscuit’ and finger biscuits they are indeed. I love these gently flavoured with a citrus zest of choice for a refreshing lift during the day. These biscuits are very traditional in little petit French cafes and restaurants and are often served warm fresh from the oven and are just a true delight.. With the addition of separating the eggs, you end up with a beautifully light and intriguing biscuit, perfect for any afternoon tea of dreams! The only faff around here is the requirement to sieve flour and icing sugar to ensure a velvety smooth batter. So without further ado, here we go:

INGREDIENTS:

125g soft unsalted butter.

125g icing sugar sifted.

125g plain flour sifted.                                                                            

pinch salt.

1 tsp vanilla.

3 large egg whites.

zest of half a lemon or orange (optional). Experiment later on with things such as cardamom and cinnamon.

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180C or Gas 4. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.

Put the butter into a large bowl along with the icing sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until creamed together and pale in colour. beat in the flour one half at a time with the eggs and salt + vanilla and zest if using. Then add the rest of the flour and beat thoroughly until well combined.
Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a straight nozzle and pipe long straight line about the length of your index finger. Leave about 5 cm between each biscuits as it will spread out on baking.

Transfer the trays to the fridge for 15 mins to firm up the dough, the place in the preheated oven for 10-12 mins, or until lightly golden brown on the edges and then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely!

Bon Appetit folks, until next time,

Au Revoir,

Ryan!

 

 

Foolproof Peanut Butter Fudge!

Hello everyone again, as most of you already know I am on an orchestra course in the heart of Scotland (as if) Stirling if you are interested! I hate being pressured for time, so I must keep this post to the point! I can promise you this that by next week everything will be back to normal again, as it used to be! So on with the fudge, it is not one of those fudges that are brick hard and as crumbly as an old stone wall.. But has character and is perfectly soft and has a subtle sweet and salty flavour!

INGREDIENTS:

250g smooth or crunchy peanut butter (to your preference).

125g melted unsalted butter.

500g dark brown soft sugar! (Just think of all that wonderfully healthy molasses).

120ml full fat milk (may I emphasise that aha).

1 tsp good vanilla extract.

300g icing sugar Sieved..

METHOD:

In a mediun saucepan melt the butter gently.

Add the milk and sugar and bring to boil, then carry on boiling for 2-3 minutes.

Take off the heat and beat in the peanut butter and vanilla.

Tip the icing sugar into a heatproof bowl and add the hot sugar and beat with a wooden spoon to combine then tip into a lined tray or tin and leave to cool slightly and then place in the fridge overnight!

Enjoy, and have a lovely week!

Au Revoir,

Ryan!

Banana and Walnut Bread!

Hello again everyone, this is sadly going to be my last post until I get to my orchestra course on Sunday. I do make a promise to you to do a little post on that day or if not Monday instead. Ah, I really am anticipating going away this weekend, the immense battle of putting up with school and the vast amounts of tests over the past few weeks is satisfyingly enough to get me out of there forever (although I have to still suffer another three years of the horrendous experience). Really all I require is summer aha, and speaking of Summer, Glasgow has received a positive start this year. This time last year we were in puddles of rain and complaining of the cold and now it is scorching hot. There is undoubtedly no balance withing the Scottish weather system, and so this sudden outburst of glorious sunshine is absolutely beautiful. Tonight I speculated that a slice of cake would go down nicely and so I thought what better than a Banana loaf, so profoundly moist and decadent in it own entirety. This cake is packed with subtle walnuts which contain natural oils, that help to keep the cake fresh for up to 3 days. Also, I believe that a true banana loaf must hold a dried fruit of some kind and my choice is sultanas, which are doused in Tia-Maria liqueur. Urgh the coffee and vanilla flavour permeates it’s way into the fruit and leaves behind a wonderful aromatic sweetness on baking! Don’t panic if you are planning to give this cake to children it evaporates of when baking, or if you are still a little paranoid (I understand) you can simply omit it and add apple juice instead, anyway apples and walnuts compliment each other perfectly as I learned from Anna Del Conte and Nigella! Apart from a few minor baking ingredients I have chucked in here on a spontaneous occasion this cake is still the plain, old traditional cake, you would see on your grannies kitchen worktop. And there isn’t really a smell I can match this cake baking to, simply devine!

INGREDIENTS:

• 100g sultanas.
• 75 ml dark rum or Tia-Maria, Please don’t splash out if you don’t have it, Apple juice is a great substitute.
• 175g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• half a tsp bicarbonate of soda
• half a tsp salt
• 125g unsalted butter (melted)                                            
• 150g  caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 small very ripe bananas (mashed)
• 60 grams chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

METHOD:

Place the sultanas and the rum or apple juice into a smallish pan and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and leave to cool completely (covered) and then drain of excess liquid. At least 1 hour does it for me, you want the flavours to permeate.

Preheat the oven to 170c / Gas 3, and place the flour, salt, baking powder and bicarb into a mixing bowl and using a wooden spoon (or implement of choice) and still well to combine.

In a large bowl mix the melted butter and sugar together until the sugar is slightly dissolved. Beat the eggs in one at a time, making sure the butter is cool otherwise you will have scrambled eggs, and then follow by adding the mashed bananas. Add one third of the flour mixture in an stir well to combine before adding another spoonful. Do this until all of the mixture has come together nicely. Now stir in the cinnamon, sultanas and walnuts.

Spoon the mixture into a lined loaf tin and pop in the oven for 1-1 and a quarter hours or until it is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out cleanish! Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then take out a place on a wire rack until fully cool, then dust liberally with icing sugar and garnish with a few toasted whole walnut kernels! Simple.

I hope you enjoy this spectacular and easy-peasy cake as I do, and so until next time I wish that you will all have a lovely weekend!

Merci, Au Revoir

Ryan!