Showing posts with label Recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recipe. Show all posts

Banana Bread Bake Off

When I return from holiday I always look forward to being greeted by my own bed, my gorgeous little dog and all those little home comforts that I miss dearly. While all these things were waiting to welcome me as we stepped back into our home, there was also another thing waiting for us. A fridge and fruit bowl full of food that had certainly seen better times... As my brother flew out to meet us a few days later, he had been tasked with disposing of all potential moulding objects, which evidently he had failed to do. All of the unsightly produce was swiftly disposed of, but if there was a silver lining in this scenario it was that we were lift with 2 extremely ripe bananas. And what else do you do with ripe bananas? That's right, You make banana bread!

It's one of my favourite things and reminds me of when I was little. Of course my granny is never one to waste, and she always seemed to be throwing her leftover bananas into this tasty cake. It's pretty easy to make. Just follow this recipe and you should have yourself a loaf of bananany goodness in no time.


You will need... 


125g of butter

150g of caster sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 VERY ripe bananas

 190g of self raising flour

60ml of Milk


Start off by preheating your oven to 150 degrees if you’re using a fan oven, 170 for regular or gas mark 3. Then line a medium sized loaf tin with grease proof paper, grease it and set aside. Next it's time to rustle up some moist and scrumptious banana bread!


Weigh out your butter, sugar and vanilla extract into a bowl before popping it into a pan. Stick it on the stove and melt your ingredients together over a medium heat. Once melted, take it off and place it to one side for a wee second. 


It's then time to get mushy! Mash those bananas together good and proper!


Then add your melted mixture back into the bowl, and crack in your egg. Give it a good stir.


Now as you can see my mixture was looking a tad on the lumpy side due to my bananas. I personally hate chunky banana in my banana bread so I always give it a good whisk at this point to create a smooth mix. If you want to, whisk it up with an electric whisk just until the lumps come out. 



Sift in your flour and add the milk.


Go to town on the mixing until it’s nice and smooth. 


Now it's time to pour your mixture it into the baking tin you put together earlier. Blue Peter style.

Once it's cooked take your cake out of the oven and breathe in that heavenly smell! Remove from the tin and peel of the paper. Let it cool for a bit, but I would always say that this is best served warm!



I put some banana on top for decoration, but if you’re planning on hiding it in a tin for another time, I wouldn't do this. Keep it fresh. 

The cake went down a storm, and had been demolished by my dad and brother by the time I got back from work! All in all, a perfect success! 

The real Burger King


Summer means one thing: BBQ season. When the sun shines back home the shops sell out of sausages, the shorts get dug out of the attic, and that fantastic BBQ smell fills the air. A BBQ back in Scotland is pretty rare, and I guess that’s why I feel as if I’m in constant BBQ mode when on holiday. This week has been no different, and though we’ve obviously barbecued a few times already, we all felt that there was no better way to end our week than with another good old Barbie! 

Up until now we have tried to be a bit more adventurous and let our BBQ taste buds run free, steering clear of your standard BBQ cuisine. Lime and Coriander Prawns, honey and mustard chicken kebabs and matured steak had all been chucked on the BBQ instead of sausages and burgers, but tonight we gave in. Everyone felt like a wholesome, mouth-watering, juicy burger, and that was exactly what we had! More to point, they were absolutely delicious if I don't say so myself! Just take a look at that photo...Need I say more!?





To spice things up a bit they obviously had to be homemade, and i took on the role of burger chef. Every girls dream.. Homemade burgers are always ten times better than your standard shop bought burgers. You know whats going in them, and you can be sure to be able to cook them however you want! I hope its common knowledge that a frozen burger can never be cooked anything other than well done, but if your at all like me, you'll love your burger medium, juicy and packed with flavor! I am always overly cautious when it comes to shop bought burgers. You can just never be sure whether they've served time in the freezer or not, so i would always go for nothing short of well done just to be on the safe side. But when you've made them yourself, your in the driving seat, and the only thing i have to say is Think Pink. 

This recipe is so simple that a monkey could make them blindfolded, so next time you fire up your BBQ on a warm summers day, hustle them up yourself. Trust me, you wont regret it. I promise they will only take you 10 minutes tops!



To make 6 burgers you will need....

600g Beef Mince
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
A good handful of coriander.
1/4-1/2 Onion (depending on preference)
1.5 tbsp Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Start off by chopping your coriander up nice and small, followed by your onion. I personally hate big chunky pieces of onion in my burger, and that is why i choose to go for only a 1/4 of an onion when i make these. More to point, i always make sure that i chop it up as small as possible. 



After you've done your chopping, throw all of your ingredients into a bowl and prepare to get messy...




Im afraid the only way is to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in. Use your hands to combine all of the ingredients until you've formed one big ‘lump’, or the worlds biggest burger...



Then break apart the mixture to make roughly six burger patties. You can make more or less as you please. Some people prefer a thin burger whereas others would rather get there chops around a big chunky number. Just go with whatever your heart desires.




And there you have it. Its time to get that BBQ smoking hot and cook up a storm! For me a great burger is all about the extras so I always make sure you to add plenty of salad, pickles, mayo, and Ketchup. However, tonight we pledged to make burgers that broke the standard  burger rules. We threw in a fried egg, a good helping of cheese, fried onions and some homemade Perinaise. If you haven't had the pleasure of trying Perinaise, it is a combination of a spicy Portuguese sauce (Peri-Peri Sauce) and mayonnaise which is served  in the fast food restaurant of all fast food restaurants, Nandos. I’ll save that post for another time...





My brother tried to be civilised and go in with a knife and fork.


He soon realised there was only one way to tackle this one...



Admittedly there was a photo of me chowing down on my creation, but the general consensus was that its in the best interests of everyone that it isn't released for public viewing. Trust me.

We washed the burgers down with ice cold Coronas as the sun set over Kamares. Nothing short of the perfect end to a fabulous holiday.