Brown Banana Muffins

Having bought a couple of packs of reduced price bananas (20p for 5!) recently and not wanting them to go to waste, I've slightly changed my Banana and Choccie Chunkie Muffin recipe, which incidentally was the first ever post on my blog back in May 2011, to produce these:

Instead of using butter, I've substituted it 80% for Farrington's Mellow Yellow Rapeseed Oil and 20% milk.

280g Plain flour

5ml Baking powder

5ml Bicarbonate of soda

2.5ml salt

125g Soft brown sugar

3 large, over-ripened bananas (about 450g peeled weight)

1 egg, beaten

90ml Rapeseed oil

60m Milk

Fan oven: 170°C.

1. Line a deep, 12 cup, muffin tin with tulip paper cases.

2. In a large bowl place the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar.  Mix these together thoroughly with a fork to get some air into the dry mixture.

3. In another bowl mix together the mashed bananas, beaten egg, rapeseed oil and milk.

4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add all of the wet mixture.  Mix both together quickly for no longer than 20-30 seconds until just combined.  Make sure that you scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl properly to incorporate all of the dry mixture but DO NOT BEAT the mixture or worry about small lumps.

5. Fill each muffin cup to about 3/4 full.  This will then make 12 muffins.

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are slightly browned and spring back when touched.

7. Transfer the cakes to a cooling rack until cool.

I also made up a batch of blueberry muffins using oil and milk as the butter substitute, so I'll share the recipe shortly for those too.

Salmon en Croute

Quick and relatively simple to make when using bought puff pastry.  Light and fresh in taste.  Good for you too!

500g pack of fresh Puff Pastry
4 Salmon Steaks/a side of salmon, boned and skinned
350g Philadelphia cream cheese
Fresh Dill, chopped
1/2 lemon, zested and juiced
Fresh spinach
1 egg, beaten to seal & glaze

1. Preheat your oven to 220°C.
2. Remove the pastry from the fridge and allow to come up to room temp for about 10 minutes.
3. Mix together the Philadelphia cheese, chopped dill, lemon zest and juice.
4. Cut the pastry into half.
5. Roll out one half to a rectangle about 5cm larger both ways than the salmon steaks/side of salmon.
6. Spread a layer of the fresh spinach over the base of the pastry, leaving a 2cm border all round the edge.
7. Place the salmon on top of the spinach.
8. Spread the cheese/dill/lemon juice paste over the top of the salmon.
9. Top with a thin layer of spinach.
10. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little of the beaten egg.
11. Roll out the other half of the pastry and cover the salmon and spinach.
12. Seal the edges of the pastry together.
13. Brush the top with beaten egg and pierce a couple of holes in the top layer of pastry to allow the steam to escape.
14. Place onto a baking sheet and cook for 25-30 minutes until golden and cooked.

Serve with carrots and boiled potatoes.

Kenwood Major Pasta Maker Attachment

I’m a lover of my Kenwood Major Titanium mixer. I have a few attachments that go with it; namely the glass blender jug, the food processor, the mincer and the food mill. I was lucky recently to be invited to a PR event for the launch of the new Kenwood Chef by Clarion Communications. They’ve launched a new retro look Chef in three new colour combinations; white with either ASTRO BLUE, CALYPSO ORANGE, PINTO GREEN. Aren’t these just fab & funky?

I (cheekily) asked to borrow a pasta maker for my own Kenwood Major Titanium to try out, which Clarion Communications (PR Company for Kenwood World) very kindly arranged to have sent to me.

After it arrived, I was itching for the weekend & my chill out time in the kitchen to arrive.

Inside the box you will find a multi-lingual leaflet detailing a diagram of the pasta maker and a recipe for making your pasta. The pasta maker comes with 6 ‘screens’ which allow different shapes to be extruded:

Spaghetti
Macaroni
Rigatoni
Tagliatelle
Lasagne
Large macaroni

These are easily fitted and secured with a locking nut in front of an internal screw, which moves your pasta dough through the machine from where you drop it into the hopper to the screen at the front.

Eager to try this out, I made some pasta & formed it into spaghetti.

I then bought a very thick slice of ham to make a Milanese sauce to go with it.