Brilliant Banana Bread

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this, what with one thing and another it got a little delayed, anyway here you go.

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4
Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin  I used a silicon one and there isn't enough fat in the mixture for it not to be greased.

140g Softened Butter
140g Caster Sugar
140g Plain Flour
2 Large Eggs- beaten
1 Tsp Baking Powder
2 Very Ripe, Large-ish Bananas


Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.

Add the beaten eggs into the creamed mixture slowly, adding in a little of the flour at the same time. Once all the eggs have been mixed in add the rest of the flour and baking powder and fold in. Mash up the bananas, fold that into the mixture and pour into the loaf tin.

Bake for 45mins, it may need longer, and it might go quite dark on top, but make sure it is cooked all the way through.  Mine sank a little after it cooled, but it was still delicious, especially still warm from the oven and spread with a little butter. Trust me it's amazing.

Here is what was left of mine after about 2 hours!

Rainy Day Risotto

Yesterday was not a nice summer's day in the slightly north of London area where I currently reside. I wanted something summery in taste, but comforting food for a soggy day. Risotto seemed like a good option, I had a few veggies knocking around, onions, carrots and celery that needed eating up, but needed something to give it a bit of a pick me up. After juicing all those lemons for the lemon and saffron chicken I ended up with 5 lemons worth of zest to use up- what goes well with lemon I thought- Peas! Broad Beans! Both of which I had handily in the freezer, which helped with another task of using up the freezer in order to defrost it. I know some people dismiss the frozen broad bean, in salads I would definitely agree, but baby broad beans that have been frozen are a life saver and delicious so there we have it.

Risotto:

Serves 4

1 Onion very finely chopped
2 Carrots very finely diced
3 Stalks of celery, peeled and finely diced
About 270g risotto rice, I don't tend to measure this out just shake it into my pan.
pan of stock- about 1 litre - better to have too much stock than too little, I used Boullion powder for ease
A cereal bowlful of peas and broad beans
Lemon zest- about 1 lemons worth
Parmesan
Olive Oil
Pea Shoots to serve
(added naughty extra- créme fraîche for delicious extra creamy risotto)

In a large frying pan with deep sides heat the olive oil and add in the onion, carrot and celery, sweat off until just starting to soften, then add all the rice and mix well. You want the rice to get coated in the oil and start to go glossy.
Meanwhile make your stock and have it on the hob, on the heat for the entire time you are cooking your risotto.
Add your stock ladle by ladle stirring as much as you can be bothered to- I know you should constantly stir to make the best risotto but I always get distracted by something. About halfway through add the peas and broad beans to the stock and make sure you bring it back to the boil, continuing to add the stock slowly until the rice is cooked and everything looks lovely and creamy.
Add in the lemon zest and a good grating of parmesan. Taste and season.
Stir in the créme fraîche if using taste again and add more seasoning if necessary.
Spoon into bowls and top with with the pea shoots.

Pour a glass of white wine and enjoy!

Cooking from Persiana

The new Persiana book by Sabrina Ghayour has been staring at me from the kitchen shelf for a few weeks now. I somehow managed to buy it from a store before its official publishing date. I really wanted to cook everything and anything from it, but various things kept distracting me, mainly things like having to empty out the freezer eating up all the mixtures of leftovers for the last month.

Then we had guests to stay and the perfect opportunity arose for me to try out at least one dish. Then the decision, which dish from the myriad of delicious, mouthwatering options. Eventually I chose Saffron and Lemon Chicken- Joojeh Kabab. It was a joy of golden, unctuous deliciousness, with the benefit of being pretty easy too!

Here:

Serves 4:

4 Onions sliced into half moons
5 Lemons- juiced I felt it was a waste not to zest them first so I have kept the zest for another time.
4 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Ground turmeric- I would advise not to wear anything white when making or eating this dish!
400g Greek yoghurt-  I ended up using Greek Style, which made the dish a bit more wet. I wil try again with proper Greek yoghurt
3 tbsp Sea salt- crushed
Generous pinch of saffron
3 tbsp Boiling water
6 Large chicken breasts- chopped into chunks

Mix together the onions, lemon juice, olive oil, turmeric,yoghurt and salt in a large bowl.

Grind the saffron to a powder and pour over the boiling water - be careful I managed to splash this everywhere- and leave to infuse for 5-10 minutes

Add the chicken into the yoghurt mixture and mix well, the add the saffron water, mix again thoroughly, cover and leave to marinade for as long as possible in the fridge.

When ready to cook preheat your oven/grill to the highest setting.

Get a large baking sheet and line with baking parchment, lay the chicken out in one layer and bake/grill for 18-20 mins, until cooked through and slightly charred on the edges.

Serve with flour tortilla wraps or rice - we are going through a brown rice phase and it was delicious, salad and yogurt if you desire.

No pictures as it was wolfed down so quickly, plus I don't think my photos could ever match up to the beautiful styling of Sabrina's book.

Enjoy!