Banana Avocado Smoothie

Avocados--quite possibly the greatest fruit to ever exist on the planet. I bought a bundle about a week ago and they have just now become perfectly ripe. They've been tormenting me all week, sitting in a bowl on the kitchen table so beautiful and tempting, but not quite ripe enough to enjoy. Well the glorious day of perfect ripeness finally came today. Their creamy smooth texture makes them phenomenal in smoothies. 

1 frozen banana

1 small ripe avocado

1/2 cup (ish) whole milk

3 ice cubes

Peach & Cornmeal Upside Down Cake (dessert party part III)

(Recipe by Martha Stewart) 

       Ingredients: 

• 5 1/2 ounces (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened 
• 1 cup sugar 
• 3 medium ripe peaches (about 1 1/4 pounds), skins on, pitted, and cut into 3/4-inch wedges 
• 1 cup coarse yellow cornmeal or polenta 
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh lavender, or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried lavender 
• 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt 
• 3 large eggs1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat, using a pastry brush to coat sides with butter as it melts. Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar evenly over bottom of skillet, and cook until sugar starts to bubble and turn golden brown, about 3 minutes. Arrange peaches in a circle at edge of skillet, on top of sugar. Arrange the remaining wedges in the center to fill. Reduce heat to low, and cook until juices are bubbling and peaches begin to soften, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat. 
2. Whisk cornmeal, flour, baking powder, lavender, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat remaining stick of butter and 3/4 cup sugar with a mixer on high speed, until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl. Mix in vanilla and cream. Reduce speed to low, and beat in cornmeal mixture in 2 additions. 
3.  Drop large spoonfuls of batter over peaches, and spread evenly using an offset spatula. Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer skillet to a wire rack, and let stand for 10 minutes. Run a knife or spatula around edge of cake. Quickly invert cake onto a cutting board. Tap bottom of skillet to release peaches, and carefully remove skillet. Reposition peach slices on top of cake. Let cool slightly before serving. 

banana tarte tatin (dessert pary part II)

Recipe from Jamie Oliver

 

Ok, so I agree this looks really disgusting. After coming out of the oven the bananas resembled something like obscenely large anchovies (in my opinion) or mushy sausages (the party consensus). But I swear this was ABSOLUTELY delicious. Bananas + orange zest + cinnamon = a catastrophic success. This was incredibly easy to make as well.

Mega Chocolate Fudge Cake (dessert party part I)

(Recipe by Jamie Oliver)

7 oz good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
  3/4 c butter, plus extra for greasing
  2/3 c soft brown sugar
  2/3 c blanched almonds
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
a pinch of salt
4 large organic free range eggs

  1 1/3 c self-raising flour
  1/4 lb fudge
crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream

 To make your cake
• Preheat the oven to 325 F

 • Break up the chocolate, put it into a food processor with the butter, sugar, almonds, 1 tablespoon of the cocoa powder and the salt, and whiz until smooth

• Crack your eggs, one at a time, into the food processor and add the flour

• Whiz again until smooth

To bake your cake

• Get a deep baking dish roughly 25 x 25cm in size

• Butter the dish really well and sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of cocoa powder over it

• Shake it around a bit so it lightly coats the whole surface of the dish

• Pour the cake mixture into the dish, using a spatula to scrape it all out of the processor

• Break the fudge into pieces and sprinkle these over the top of the cake mix, pushing any larger pieces down into the mixture

• Pop the baking dish into the preheated oven and cook for 18 to 20 minutes

• Take the cake out of the oven and stick a fork into the middle of it

• If there’s a little bit of cake mixture on the fork when you pull it out, that’s okay – you want the cake to still be a little moist inside so that it’s nice and squidgy

• However, if it seems a bit wobbly, pop it back into the oven for another 3 to 5 minutes to firm up a bit

To serve your cake

• Let your cake cool slightly and serve it warm and gooey

• Lovely with a dollop of crème fraîche, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a bit of double cream

Granola

 

Granola (Jamie Oliver)

• 2  cups  quick-cooking oatmeal (not instant)
• 1  heaped cup mixed nuts
• 1/4  cup  mixed seeds (sunflower, poppy, pumpkin, sesame)
• 3/4  cup  unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
• 5  tablespoons  maple syrup
• About 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2  cups  dried fruit

Preheat oven to 350°. Put oatmeal, mixed nuts, mixed seeds, coconut, and cinnamon on a baking sheet. Stir well; smooth out. Drizzle with maple syrup and olive oil; stir. Bake 25-30 minutes. Every 5 minutes or so take out and stir, then smooth down with a wooden spoon and put back in oven. When granola is golden, remove from oven, mix in dried fruit (roughly chop any large pieces); let cool. Serve with milk or yogurt. You can keep leftover granola in an airtight container about 2 weeks, but it's so delicious we'll be surprised if it lasts that long!

Operation Sushi

It's very wise to be friends with a fisherman. Got more white perch fillets from Randy yesterday. I've been wanting to make sushi for a while since receiving a sushi roller from Ryan. After much deliberation I decided it'd be okay to make a roll with my fresh white perch. The Japanese pair sushi with wasabi paste because it serves as an antimicrobial. This was enough assurance for me. Here I am 12 hours later and I feel perfectly fine, stomach quite happy. I shall keep you posted if any problems arise however. So the moral of my story is to never be afraid to be adventurous in your kitchen. 

Fish Baked in a Foil Parcel with Green Beans and Pesto

 

It's still summer and nothing says summer more than fresh fish. And when you don't have any fresh fish you can just use frozen, but by eating it in the summer pretend it was actually caught yesterday. 

This original recipe was done with salmon but I have frozen tilapia in bulk stashed away in the freezer so I used that instead. Tilapia has a more subdued taste that salmon so the taste of the pesto really dominated the flavors, which I didn't mind because the pesto was amazing.

Fresh Pesto 

(recipe by Nourishing Traditions):

Makes 1 cup

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves, washed, dried

2-4 garlic cloves, peeled

1/2 tsp sea salt

1.4 cup pine nuts (optional!)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4-1/2 cup evoo

Fresh pine nuts were entirely too expensive so I did with out. Place basil in food processor. Pulse. Add garlic, salt, pine nuts and cheese, blend well. Slowly pour in evoo while processor is still running.  Pesto will form a thick paste.

Fish Foil Parcel

(recipe by Jamie's Revolution)

2 handfuls of green beans

2 lemons

1 7 oz chunky salmon fillets

2 heaping TBSPs green pesto

olive oil

sea salt, fresh ground black pepper

Heat oven to 400 F. Trim beans and wash. Place in center of large piece of tin foil. Place fillet on top. Drizzle with pesto and olive oil. Squeeze lemon. Season with salt and pepper. Fold up foil into parcel. Place on baking sheet and into oven for 15 minutes. That easy!