Nostalgic Banoffee Pie

Well hello all! It’s been quite a gap since I last posted, for which many apologies: I’ve been sorting things out around my column and my ever-increasing array of part-time jobs!

One of the only things I’ve managed to cook outside my column and catering jobs in the last couple of months has been banoffee pie, that delicious (and rather addictive) blend of toffee, banana and whipped cream. There’s not a huge amount to say about it: banoffee is a compound word reflecting the dessert’s two main ingredients, and it’s supposed to have been invented at The Hungry Monk restaurant in the 1970s. Since then, though, it’s become a British classic, beloved of Mums everywhere for its easy method and popularity with the younger generation.

My banoffee pie uses a crushed biscuit base – for which I apologise to the original creators, who were apparently pastry purists. You can use either, but I prefer the biscuit base because it’s easier to make and I like the flavour combination with the banana and toffee. If you do want to use pastry, just blind-bake a sweet pastry base (you can easily find a recipe on the internet) then build the rest of the pie as described below.

I made my pie for one of my housemates – it’s her favourite dessert, and I have to say it’s probably one of mine as well. It’s unbelievably easy to make, and for me is always rather nostalgic too – the pudding of childhood parties or special occasions.

It also has more recent, painful associations, from when a friend and I were on a catering job a few years back and sharing the workload. One day it worked out that I did the starter and the main course and he did the pudding – and they’d asked for banoffee pie. He knocked one out pretty quickly while I worked away on the soufflés and full roast for the rest of the meal (uneven workloads? Maybe...) When the meal was over the client popped their head around the kitchen door to say that that was the best banoffee pie they’d ever had, ‘you should package and sell that stuff’. Did they mention my starter or main course? They did not.

Despite that crushing blow, I did steel myself to make another one, for my housemates’ sake. And here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

250g plain digestive biscuits

100g butter

2 small tins condensed milk

4 big bananas

A bit of lemon juice

1 pint double cream

1 tsp sugar

Small block of dark or milk chocolate for grating

Method

First of all, punch a hole in the top of each tin of condensed milk with a skewer. Put them into a saucepan of water so it nearly but not quite covers them. Simmer very gently for 2 ½ hours. When you open the tins the condensed milk should have turned to a dark golden-brown caramel. Alternatively, you can buy tins of ready-simmered condensed milk in the supermarket – it’s labelled ‘dulche de leche’, which is just another name for caramel made from condensed milk.

Melt the butter over a gentle heat and crush the digestive biscuits up really small (the best way is to seal them up in a large freezer bag and give them a good bash with a rolling pin). Mix the butter and crushed biscuits thoroughly and press the mixture into a large tartlet tin. Put it into the fridge – it will solidify as it cools.

Once the dulche de leche is ready and the base has cooled, slice the bananas to around 1cm thick and toss the slices in a little lemon juice to stop them browning. Pour the dulche de leche into a bowl and beat it until it’s smooth and even, then spread it evenly over the base. Cover this with a layer of sliced banana (place the slices on rather than pouring them over, so they form an even layer).

Finally, whip the double cream and spread it over the bananas, then grate over some chocolate to finish. Try not to eat it all at once!

Cougette Carbonara - Comfort with a Twist

There are some days when I long for some comfort food. After the long, rainy week we’ve had (which, incidentally, I’ve spent working very hard catering in the North of Scotland!), it’s just what I need. My ultimate comfort food is my Mum’s spaghetti Carbonara. It’s not the traditional Italian recipe – we add cream and white wine.

Totally traditional Italian spaghetti Carbonara just uses eggs; bacon or pancetta; a hard cheese like parmesan or pecorino; and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. In fact, on a family holiday to Italy a few years ago, I mentioned to a local lady that I needed some cream because I was making Carbonara for my family that evening, and she was horrified!

Nevertheless, I’m not ashamed to say that I love a bit of cream in my Carbonara sauce, and even some white wine for that extra bit of flavour. This time, though, I wanted to take it even further. I felt like the comfort of Carbonara, but with a twist.

There was a courgette in the fridge, so I thought I’d inject a few vitamins into what is, let’s face it, not usually the healthiest of meals. I remembered a method of making courgette ‘spaghetti’ I learned recently, so I thought I’d try mixing the courgette stuff with the real thing. In fact, if you wanted you could even try doing the whole thing with courgette spaghetti. I think you might find it a bit squishy, though.

Then I noticed half a leftover bread roll lurking at the bottom of the bread bin and figured I’d top my concoction with toasted breadcrumbs, just to use it up. I liked the result so much I thought I’d write it down for you all.

One last note – Carbonara isn’t really a suitable dish for expectant mothers, the very old or the very young, because there’s a slight risk of the egg being undercooked. If you are cooking for any of these groups, it’s better to overheat the egg and have it scramble a bit in the sauce than to give somebody salmonella. Safety first.

And now that I’ve put you all off, on with the recipe!

Ingredients

(per person)

½ a courgette

Small handful of spaghetti (a bit less than you have of courgette)

½ a small bread roll or one piece of sliced bread

A bit of butter

2 rashers of bacon

A slosh of white wine

A bigger slosh of double cream

1 egg

Grated hard cheese such as parmesan or pecorino

Salt and plenty of ground black pepper

Recipe

First of all, get your bacon in the oven to cook until crispy. Put the bread roll in the oven at the same time, until it’s turning brown and completely dried out.

Meanwhile, you want to slice the courgette into long, thin strips about the size and length of your spaghetti. I did this with a knife, but a mandolin works even better if you have one. Set it to thin julienne and just run the courgette up and down. There are plenty to choose from here if you’re interested in one – and no, I’m not being paid by Amazon, or by a mysterious consortium of mandolin-makers. I just like mandolins!

Whiz up the bread roll in your blender or magi-mix to make breadcrumbs. If you don’t have any fancy electric gadgets, you can always wrap the bread in a bag or tea towel and give it a good bash with a rolling pin. When you’ve got some nice small breadcrumbs, fry them off quickly and gently in butter until they’re hot, brown and crispy. Remove them from the pan onto some kitchen paper to drain.

Boil some salted water for the pasta and get the spaghetti going. Once the bacon is ready, chop it into bitesize pieces. Put it in the pan you used for the breadcrumbs, get it hot, then add the wine and reduce it by about half. Add the cream and bring the mixture briefly to a simmer. Then remove it from the heat, let it cool for a few seconds, and add the egg, stirring well so that it combines into the cream mixture without becoming scrambled. The egg will be cooked by the residual heat from the pan, but it should remain liquid.

When the pasta is about a minute away from being fully cooked (when it’s just too al dente for your taste, in other words) add the courgette strips and let them boil with the pasta for the remaining minute of 30 seconds – that’s all they need to cook.

Finally, mix the pasta and courgette into the cream, egg and bacon. Season it well with salt and lots of ground black peppercorns. Plop plenty into your bowl and top with the grated parmesan and breadcrumbs, and maybe a sprinkling of chopped parsley for some extra colour. Comfort with a twist!

A Truffle-y Treat for Mother's Day!

 

Today I’m off for a yummy Sunday lunch with my auntie and my Gran, at an undisclosed countryside location. It’ll be great to get out of London, and especially to be able to wish them both a very happy Mother’s Day! Sadly, I can’t be with my Mum – she’s at home back in the Bleak North – but I’ve already sent her some flowers and a card. I wanted to do something for my auntie and Gran as well though, and I thought that something home-made and cookery-related would be better than a shop-bought card. Of course, chocolate was the first thing that sprung to mind. The recipe for truffles below is great for any special occasion; don't forget Easter, that ultimate festival of all things chocolate-y, is just around the corner!

If you’re stuck for something to do for Mother’s Day, the clock is ticking, and all the florists and supermarkets are closed, I urge you: head to that local shop that’s still open on Sunday and buy a nice bar of chocolate, a tin of cocoa and a tub of cream. They’ll always see you through!

 But first, read on...

Some Interesting Science-y Stuff

No one knows why chocolate seems to exert such a fatal attraction over so many of us, although scientists have proposed that the taste of it raises levels of serotonin in the brain – the chemical associated with feelings of happiness. It’s a mysterious substance: it can appear in many different forms, from the cacao bean through to nibs, bars, drops, liquid and powder. To make it, manufacturers must go through a complex process which involves fermenting the harvested beans then extracting the ‘nib’ from the shell of the bean. Ground nibs form a liquid known as chocolate liquor; this is pure chocolate. It’s separated into cocoa butter and cocoa solids, which are then blended by the manufacturer in varying ratios with other elements like sugar and milk to create their own brands of dark, white or milk chocolate.

Chocolate changes its state depending on what levels of heat it is subjected to, and in what order. In order to make chocolate couverture (the type of chocolate used by chocolatiers) set hard and shiny, they ‘temper’ it. By heating the chocolate to a certain temperature, then cooling it whilst stirring or agitating and then re-heating it to a slightly lower temperature, they can change the size of the crystals which form as the chocolate sets. Smaller crystals mean a glossy appearance, a firm set, and a crisp snap when the chocolate is broken. It’s very difficult to temper chocolate without the proper equipment and knowledge (you either need a tempering machine or a slab of marble and a lot of experience!), so in the recipes I’ve given here, I’ve made soft chocolate truffles which don’t need tempering. But I promise they’re just as delicious as hard chocolates!

All About Truffles (Mmmm...)

Truffles are so called because they look rather like the rare fungus of the same name which is often used in French cookery, particularly in higher-end restaurants. Although this association with an expensive and exclusive ingredient gives chocolate truffles an air of luxury and sophistication, they are actually very simple to make! The base mixture is a ganache, which is a name for chocolate which has been lightened and stabilised by adding another substance to it, usually cream. A standard ganache will use equal quantities of cream and chocolate, so however many grams of chocolate you have, just use the same number of millilitres of cream.

Once you’ve made your basic ganache, you can flavour it with various things and once the truffles are shaped you can roll them in lots of different coverings. The best bit of this is that you can personalise your truffles to match the favourite flavours of the person you’re making them for. I made three kinds for my auntie and Gran: coffee rolled in almond; vodka rolled in icing sugar (adventurous choice, I admit!); and rosewater and honey rolled in caster sugar. You can buy rosewater at some supermarkets or online; they also sell it at a store near me which specialises in Persian ingredients. I’ve included a couple of other suggestions for flavourings and toppings below.

The Easy Option

If you think truffles are beyond you I have two things to say to you: first of all, they’re not! Believe in yourself! Secondly, I can tell you from experience that the old chocolate-dipped strawberry or coffee bean never goes amiss: just melt the chocolate, hold the strawberry by the green hull or the coffee bean between two forks, dip them in and leave them to set in the fridge on some greaseproof paper.

One Final Thing

When melted, chocolate mustn’t be subjected to sudden changes in heat, otherwise it will ‘sieze’ or ‘split’ and become unworkable. When heating it over hot water, it’s important not to allow any of the water to get into the chocolate for the same reason.

And now, down to the good stuff...

Ingredients

Ganache:

150g best quality dark chocolate

150ml cream

25g butter (unsalted is best)

Flavourings:

 Either:

20ml rum, Cointreau or other alcohol

OR

30ml very strong coffee

OR

30ml rosewater and/or 1 tbsp honey

OR

Zest of 1 orange/lemon and 1 tbsp juice

Coverings:

Flaked or chopped almonds, toasted until golden brown

OR

Cocoa powder

OR

Sugar: icing, caster or demerara

OR

Ground or chopped pistachios

OR

Melted chocolate

Method

 Put the cream and butter in a large mixing bowl and heat it gently, stirring, over a pan of hot water until the butter is completely melted and the cream begins to steam slightly. There is no need to boil the cream.

Break the chocolate into pieces and add it to the cream. Remove the bowl from the heat and stir the cream until it melts in. The best thing to stir it with is a spatula, but a wooden or metal spoon will do. If the mixture gets too cool and the chocolate isn’t melting, put it back over the hot water, but make sure no water gets into the mixture – it can make the chocolate ‘spilt’, which is when it goes hard and unworkable. Once it splits, there’s no going back, so be careful!

When all the chocolate is melted and thoroughly mixed into the hot cream, add your chosen flavouring and stir it in thoroughly. Put the mixture in the fridge and leave it to cool. This will probably take a couple of hours, but stirring the mixture over a bowl of ice can speed up the process. Bear in mind that if you use alcohol for your flavouring the ganache will take longer to set.

While the ganache mixture is cooling, prepare your coverings. Toast the almonds if you’re using them. If you wanted chopped almonds but could only get flaked, you can toast them until they’re a bit crunchy then bash them up in a pestle and mortar or with a rolling pin. If you’re using chocolate, melt it over a pan of hot water, remembering about not letting any water get near the chocolate itself: it is much more liable to split when not mixed with cream. Leave the chocolate in the bowl and keep it warm. For all toppings except the chocolate, just spread out a thick layer on a plate. 

Now for the messy bit! Wash and dry your hands thoroughly, then, once the ganache is cooled, take a piece as large as you want your truffle to be and roll it into a sphere with your hands. Some people find that coating their hands with a layer of neutral-flavoured oil, such as sunflower, stops it sticking as much; personally, find this makes it harder to shape the ganache. You can also shape the mixture between two spoons, or using a melon scoop (or an ice cream scoop for giant supertruffles!)

 As soon as you’ve shaped your truffles, roll them in your chosen covering. You may need two or three layers if you’re using sugar, especially icing sugar – some of the sugar will be absorbed by the chocolate. If you're using chocolate as a covering, gently spear a truffle on a cocktail stick, hold it over the bowl and spoon over chocolate until it's all covered. Then leave to set in the fridge on a lined tray.

Whatever your covering, put your truffles straight back in the fridge to set once they're done. They only need a little while before serving – just try not to let them get too warm, otherwise they get remarkably sticky! They’re best eaten on the day, but will keep for up to three days in the fridge.

That's all folks! I hope you have a truffle-y Mother’s Day!

Raspberry Coulis and White Chocolate Mousse with Fresh Blackberries

Well. An exciting week here at PDKTC. I've officially submitted my application to study at the renowned school of culinary arts Le Cordon Bleu in London, and I am ecstatic! In tribute to the school I was hoping to cook something blue this week (yes, I know, embarrassingly keen). Unfortunately, as you may or may not know, the edible world is sadly lacking in natural occurrences of the colour blue. In fact, supposedly when Heinz tried making blue ketchup a few years back no-one would eat it because the idea of blue food was just too much to handle. I finally settled on blueberries, which are actually more purple but at least have 'blue' in their name...


Another hiccup became apparent almost immediately. It is emphatically not the British blueberry season - they begin around June, so we're almost as far from last season as we can get. After a gruelling trawl around my local greengrocers and supermarkets, I came up with some rather suspect Mexican-grown raspberries and blackberries (fail on the food miles there). So much for the 'blue' theme. But bear in mind that from June to August this recipe would be delicious with in-season British blueberries in place of the fruit specified here. Please also bear in mind that it's best made the day or at least the morning before your meal.


A final note - in my version, the mousse mixture separated out into two distinct layers as it set in the fridge, a testament to my inaccurate quantities and inability to beat an egg white. However, if this does happen to you, both layers still taste good and in my view it just gives it an extra bit of personality!


On to recipes.


Ingredients
(Makes 3)


Punnet of raspberries
Punnet of blackberries
Large bar (c.200g) good quality white chocolate, broken into small bits - I used Green & Black's
2 eggs, separated
c. 100ml double cream
50g sugar
50ml water


Method


First of all, make the raspberry compote: put about 1/3 of the punnet of rasps into a small pan with the sugar and water. Warm gently, mash the raspberries up a bit, and bring to boil for 5 minutes or so, until the mixture begins to look syrupy. Set aside to cool slightly. Run 3 martini glasses (or wine glasses if you're not the martini type) under hot water, dry, and then divide the raspberry compote evenly between the glasses and refrigerate immediately.


Next, put a slightly larger pan of water on to boil, then lower the heat to a gentle simmer. Put the cream, egg yolks and chocolate into a heatproof bowl which just sits over the top of the simmering water and heat slowly until the chocolate melts, occasionally giving the mixture a very, very gentle stir. As the mixture is melting, whisk the egg whites in a scrupulously clean bowl until very stiff (if they won't stiffen, add a small splash of white wine vinegar and keep trying). When the chocolate mixture is fully combined, fold a small amount of it into the egg whites then fold the egg whites into the rest of the chocolate until completely consistent. 


Take your glasses back out of the fridge and fill each to within 1-2cm of the top with the egg and chocolate mixture. Put back in the fridge overnight, or for as long as you can (at least a few hours).


To serve, gently place or pile the remaining raspberries and blackberries on top of the glasses in a pretty pattern. Enjoy your achievement, it looks great!


...And a sneaky picture with some enormous flowers to distract from the quality of the photography...