Saucy Banana and Caramel Pudding

Now this is my kind of pudding. A Pudding with a capital P. A rich, sticky, seconds-for-me-please, where-did-all-the-leftovers-go? sort of pudding. Fantastic.

Thanks and praise for this little gift of a recipe should be directed towards Jo Pratt whose first book, In The Mood for Food is fast becoming my recipe book of the year. You can find three more of her recipes here, here and here but I do recommend you try and get hold of your own copy. It will provide you with inspiration for all occasions and will be a very attractive addition to your bookshelf!

Puddings like this are notoriously hard to photograph (particularly for a novice like me, short on props and good lighting) and this photo really doesn't do it justice. Just try to picture the dish beneath the spoon filled with a golden banana sponge floating on a lake of caramel sauce....tempted yet?

So, the next time you have a couple of bananas browning in the fruit bowl don't even think about making yet another banana cake....make this!

Saucy Banana and Caramel Pudding

(adapted from In the Mood for Food by Jo Pratt)

Serves 6

For the pudding

125g plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon or cinnamon

125g light muscovado sugar

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1 large egg, beaten

200ml milk

75g unsalted butter, melted

For the sauce

4 tablespoons golden syrup

125g light muscovado sugar

1) Preheat the oven to 180c/fan 160c/gas 4

2) Mix the flour, baking powder and mixed spice or cinnamon in a bowl then beat in the sugar, mashed banana, milk and butter until well combined.

3) Pour into a buttered 1.5 or 2 litre ovenproof dish (the bigger the better to avoid it bubbling over and making a mess of your oven) or six individual dishes (about 300ml or 400ml each).

4) Place the golden syrup, sugar and 250ml water into a pan on a medium heat. Stir until dissolved and bring to the boil. Pour immediately over the top of the pudding (don't be alarmed by the resulting cake-mix soup, it will turn out fine!). Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until golden and just firm in the centre when pressed.

5) Leave to cool for a few minutes before serving with ice cream, cream or creme fraiche.

Fragrant Chicken & Spinach Curry

Ever since I dug out my copy of Bill Grainger's Everyday and lavished a bit of attention on it as part of my Unloved Cookbooks project I've been promising myself that I would come back to it at some point and try out the other recipes that caught my eye.

So the next recipe on the list was Bill's Fragrant Chicken and Spinach Curry. This recipe was fairly simple and straightforward and the result was everything I've come to expect from Bill Grainger - fresh, light and healthy but with good flavour - an ideal weeknight supper.

Fragrant Chicken & Spinach Curry

adapted from Everyday by Bill Grainger

Serves 4

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

pinch cayenne pepper

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

750g/1lb 10 oz boneless chicken thighs, cubed

400g tin chopped tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons soft brown sugar

1 tablespoon lime juice

90g/3 1/4 oz baby English spinach, chopped

Large handful fresh coriander leaves, chopped

1) Heat the oil, add the onion and cook, stirring, for 5-6 minutes until softened. Add the spices, garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes more.

2) Add the chicken and increase heat to medium-heat. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes, or until the chicken is browned.

3) Stir in the tomatoes and salt and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

4) Add the sugar, lime juice and spinach and stir until the spinach has just wilted. Remove from the heat, sprinkle with coriander and serve with steamed rice.

A Christmas Trifle

I recently came across a request on the UKFBA website calling for volunteers willing to get creative and come up with an alternative use for the traditional Christmas pudding.

The competition was set by Matthew Walker Christmas Puddings, who are reputably the World's Oldest Christmas Pudding Maker and have trademarked their 'Recipe 13' 'The Perfect Christmas Pudding Recipe'!

So my puddings arrived, handsomely packaged in brown, gold and green and I set to thinking what to make. The Christmas pudding is pretty much the complete package really and apart from a jug of custard it doesn't really need anything adding to it. So my thoughts turned for possible uses for leftovers. Cake....leftovers......trifle! I can't say I've considered putting christmas pudding in a trifle before and I can't recall anyone else doing so either but it was worth a go.

Trifle is a pretty simple combination of cake, fruit, custard and cream but what fruit to use? Well, this is a Christmas trifle and nothing says Christmas to me like citrus fruit so oranges seemed the best option. It's also traditional to add a swig of something alcoholic to the layer of cake, however as Christmas puddings are alcoholic by design I decided not add anything extra. Don't let that put you off adding a little splash of something if you fancy it though.

So, decision made....I was ready to go.

Well, the result was delicious! It was far better than I'd hoped and I will, without question, be making this again at Christmas. I may well even buy an extra pudding in case I'm not left with sufficient leftovers on the day. I assembled the trifle while the pudding and the custard were still warm to great effect however the small amount that I somehow managed not to eat straight away was still gorgeous a while later from the fridge.

Here's the recipe...

Christmas Pudding Trifle

Serves 1 (but can easily be scaled up)

100g Christmas pudding

1 orange, segmented

50-100ml custard

50-1ooml double cream, whipped to soft peaks

Mixed peel or flaked almonds to decorate

1) Break the pudding into bite sized pieces and line the bottom of a small dish or ramekin

2) Place the orange segments in a layer on top of the pudding

3) Layer the custard over the orange and top with cream

4) Decorate with mixed peel or flaked almonds.

Enjoy!

White Chocolate and Orange Cookies

The October Sweet and Simple Bakes challenge was a recipe for White Chocolate and Orange Cookies. To my great frustration I didn't have the chance to make these in time for the deadline but they sounded so tempting that I was determined to crowbar them into the schedule as soon as possible.

So here they and they absolutely lived up to my expectations. Packed with orange flavour and plenty of chocolate, they had the perfect cookie texture - crispy at the edge but with a soft chewy centre. Mmmmmm!

You can find the recipe here - give them a try!

Pumpkin and Ginger Teabread

It's that time of year again - the leaves are falling from the trees and making the garden look untidy, the clocks go back and suddenly it's getting dark way too early. Then all of a sudden it's Halloween and Christmas is hiding just around the corner. Even if you're not into the full-on American-style trick or treating or such like, I still think it's quite fun to pick up a couple of pumpkins and get creative with a carving knife. But what to do with that big bowl of discarded pumpkin innards? Well if, like me, you're not so keen on pumpkin or squash in savoury dishes then I can wholeheartedly recommend this cake as a great alternative for using up those leftovers.

I found this recipe for Pumpkin and Ginger Teabread in an edition of Good Food Magazine some years ago and I've made it every autumn since. The pumpkin makes the cake lovely and moist, the ginger provides a gentle background warmth and the sugar sprinkled on top adds a contrasting crunch. Perfect for afternoon tea by the fire!

The recipe can be found here.

Unloved Cookbooks Part 4 - Real Fast Food by Nigel Slater

Now I should start by saying that I love Nigel Slater. I love his television programs and he is easily one of the best food writers around. Oh, and the brownie recipe in his Kitchen Diaries is the best I've found to date. However, the Unloved Cookbook in question today, Real Fast Food, unfortunately falls foul of my love of all things aesthically pleasing. In short, it has no pictures - sorry Nige!

My loss as it turns out as when I took the time I found a little book is packed with lots of great sounding recipes all designed to be easy to prepare and quick to cook. Mr Slater's comment that most of the recipes require only one or two fresh ingredients that can be bought on the way home is obviously not aimed at anyone with small children - a trip to the supermarket after work with a small child in tow? Not a chance! So I needed to do a little more forward planning than the book possibly intended. But hey, that wasn't such a hardship.

There were many recipes that caught my eye. Here are just three of them...

First up is a salmon dish. I've been trying to find new salmon recipes to encourage me to eat more fish and this one is particularly lovely. And why didn't anyone tell me about dill before? I am converted!

Baked Salmon with Soured Cream

2 salmon steaks, about 100g/4oz each

1 small onion, very finely chopped

100ml/4fl oz soured cream or creme fraiche

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

1) Put the salmon steaks into a small baking dish.

2) Mix together the remaining ingredients, retaining half the dill. Spoon the sauce over the salmon.

3) Bake in the oven, preheated to 220c/425f/gas 7 for 15-18 minutes. Scatter with the remaining dill.

Serves 2

This next recipe is a fabulous way of sprucing up your new potatoes.

Warm New Potato Salad with Taleggio and Rocket

450g/1lb new potatoes, wiped clean

2 handfuls of rocket, washed and shaken dry

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

200g/7oz mild, semi-soft cheese

1) Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for about 12 minutes, until tender to the point of a knife.

2) Toss the rocket in the olive oil and divide betwe

en two oven-proof plates or dishes.

3) Drain the potatoes and slice each one in half. Scatter over the rocket leaves. Slice the cheese thinly over the potatoes.

4) Place the plates under a pre-heated grill for a minute or so until the cheese starts to melt. Eat immediately.

Serves 2

Oooh, this last recipe was niiice! So easy too.

Hot Blackcurrant Bread and Butter Pudding

4 slices white bread

250g blackcurrants

Caster sugar

Creme de Cassis

1) Butter the bread very generously and lay half in the bottom of a shallow ovenproof dish.

2) Cover with the blackcurrants and sprinkle with two tablespoons of caster sugar.

3) Place the remaining slices of bread on top of the blackcurrants, butter side up. Sprinkle with another tablespoon of sugar and two tables spoons of Creme de Cassis.

4) Bake in an oven preheated to 220c/425f/gas 7 for 20-25 minutes.

Serves 2

Sweet and Simple Bakes - St Clement's Drizzle Cake

This month's Sweet and Simple Bake is the St Clement's Drizzle Cake - a twist on the classic lemon syrup cake thanks to the addition of orange zest and juice. This was very simple to make, as most loaf cakes tend to be, and as lovely on it's own for afternoon tea as it is teamed up with some vanilla ice cream for an indulgent pudding. The cake itself turned out to be wonderfully light and the orange/lemon syrup topping added loads of citrussy (is that how you spell it?) flavour. The next time I make this (and there will be a next time) I think I'll put more holes in the cake so the syrup soaks in even more.

Many thanks to Rosie and Maria for hosting the Sweet and Simple Bakes website and for choosing this great recipe for us.

The recipe can be found here.