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Bake with me...

except there is zero baking in this episode because we are making Banoffee pie and that's basically the easiest thing in the world.

I've never followed a recipe for Banoffee pie cos it's basically the easiest thing you can ever attempt, but people are always happy cos it's stupid delicious!

Firstly you wanna get some of that pent up anger out and bash the shit out of some of your favourite biscuits, add some butter to bind it all and give you that delicious buttery biscuit base! Pop that bad boy in the fridge.

Next your gonna take your tin of condensed milk and your gonna totally ignore the warning on the can that says "do not boil" Now apparently there is a risk it will explode, but it hasn't happened to me yet, just make sure the cans are always totally covered in water, it's gonna take about 2-3hrs. Badger started talking about the electric bill and I told him he had to shush or he couldn't have any pie when it was done.

Once the caramel is ready to go you wanna prep those bananas, now you're not gonna see the pretty arrangement of Banana, so do what you want, but I like to make it pretty cos it makes me feel better to know they are neatly tucked.

The advice when boiling the can you shouldn't be boiling is to let it cool before you open it or it will burst caramel everywhere, but I ignored the first warning so I always ignore this one too...

Spread it all over the place! And then let it cool.

Now, the cream is next, don't do what I did and over whip it, I do it every bloody time, I don't learn from my own mistakes so someone else should.

Usually I would crush up a Cadbury chocolate flake over the top but I didn't have any, so I did a Nutella drizzle instead.

Pop that in the fridge till after you had that epic roast that left you stuffed.

When you're ready for it, take as many fancy pants pictures as you can, before people start complaining that you always take too many food pics and force them to wait before they can eat.

Voilà

#cook with me #cooking with ella #my cooking #home cooking #cooking #baking #bake with me #desert #recipe #Banoffee pie #cook along

Golden Beetroot with Capers, Orange and Oregano Sauce

A simple starter with a really great dressing, this dish brings balances the sweetness of the beets with the bright and punchy flavours of orange, sherry vinegar and capers.

Look for golden or striped beetroots – a few of the stalls at the Marylebone Farmers Market have had them in the past few weeks.

These quantities are for four starter portions:

4 medium sized beets (golf ball sized) or three large beets (tennis ball sized) 4 teaspoons of capers (soaked and rinsed if using salted capers, or well rinsed if using capers in vinegar)

For the dressing:

Juice of half an orange 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil or extra virgin rapeseed oil 1 teaspoon of sherry vinegar 1 heaped tablespoon of flat leaf parsley 1 heaped teaspoon of oregano 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Scrub any mud off the beets, trim the tail and the stalks off, rinse in water, and while they're still a bit wet wrap them in tin foil. You want the parcels to be loose around the beetroot, but firmly sealed all round.

Bake them in the oven at about 160°c. Large ones the size of your fist will probably need an hour, but test with a skewer to check they're soft all the way through. Leave them to cool in the foil (and you can happily cook them one or even two days in advance). When you're ready, unwrap them and the skin of the beets should easily just rub off.

Slice the beets and arrange on a plate. Sprinkle over a teaspoon of capers on each portion.

For the dressing, blitz all of the ingredients in a food processor. Drizzle this over the beets and serve.

#food #recipe #vegetable dishes #vegetarian #cook along

Beetroot and Kale with Pearl Barley

The second of my cook along posts with more detailed instructions. This is a really versatile main course dish to learn, as you can make it with all sorts of vegetables according to what's in season throughout the year. This version was made with beautiful golden beetroot that just had a dash of pink in them, and black kale (often called cavolo nero when you see it in the shops). If you make it with regular beetroot you'll get an amazing combination of crimson-purple and dark green.

For four people:

3 large beetroots or four small beetroots

1 large bunch of black kale

4 large shallots, or 1 large onion

3 tablespoons olive oil or rapeseed oil

250g of pearl barley, rinsed in a sieve under cold running water

1 small soft cheese - about 100g or so. I used an Alham Wood Little Iambors buffalo milk cheese, but a goat's cheese could work well.

To prepare your beetroots, cut off the little tail root if it has one, and the top stalky bit, and peel the beetroot. Slice them across their diameter (into two rounds if small, three rounds if larger) and then slice each of these into cubes which are about 2cm square.

Bring a pan with about 1.5litres of water to the boil, salt it with about a teaspoon of good sea salt, and cook the beetroot until it is firm but cooked. This might take about 10 minutes, but start checking it after about eight minutes, and keep going until it is is cooked through, but still with a bite. Lift it out with a slotted spoon and keep to one side.

If you've never prepared black kale before, it's really easy, but does take a few minutes. Take each leaf, set it down on a chopping board, and slice down each side of the long thick spine, which you then throw away, leaving you with two long leafy sections like this:

Slice these across so you end up with a pile of rough squares. Plunge these into the same boiling water that you've cooked the beetroot in, and cook for about three minutes, until the kale is a bright, vivid green. Lift out with a slotted spoon and keep to one side. Let the cooking liquid settle a little, and then carefully pour off one litre of it, taking care not to disturb any sediment at the bottom that has come from your cooked vegetables.

Dice your shallots or onion, and in a shallow sided pan, heat the oil, and sauté the shallot until it is translucent. Add the drained, rinsed barley, and stir around for a few minutes to coat with the oil. It should look like the picture below, on the left:

Add about a quarter of the reserved stock, and stir round, bringing it to the boil. Unlike a rice risotto, you don't have to stir constantly, but giving it a shake or stir every couple of minutes is good. Don't put a lid on it, and keep an eye on it, and each time the liquid has almost gone, you want to add more, never filling it more than about a centimetre above the barley.

This stage will take about half an hour. You'll see the grains expanding and turning white. After about 25 minutes, start taking out a couple of grains and testing them. They will be chewy to start with, but then you'll start to feel them softening.

When they are almost as soft as you'd like them, add the beetroot and mix in. Add the final bit of stock if necessary – you want it to be loose when you stir, but no so loose you have big puddles of stock in the pan. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary.

When it's at the right consistency, add the kale, and stir, add a lid and cook for another two minutes. Turn off the heat, dot the cheese across the top, and put the lid back on it and let it rest for a couple of minutes.

And you're done.

#food #recipe #vegetable dishes #vegetarian #cook along

Grow your repertoire of dishes this year

I'm going to attempt a new type of post now and then, where I give more detailed instructions, more pictures of how to do it, and even some timings and quantities...

Over lunch with a friend recently he mentioned that his family had got stuck in a rut at mealtimes and needed a few new dishes. Then a colleague at work found himself cooking for his household for the first time and needed some recipes he could follow, so I thought I would try and post a few dishes aimed at people who don't cook as much as they would like to.

To begin with, they're all going to be meat free, and you'll find all them available by clicking here, or on the Cook Along label above in the menu bar.

First up: a simple vegetable soup.

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