Besan flour, banana and choc chip loaf - gluten free

Well we are still in banana cake mode here as I  hate to see them go to waste and the fruit bowl every week seems to contain at least one unloved spotty specimen. I like to ring the changes when it comes to recipes, so this recipe is another gluten free one featured bananas.

I wanted to experiment with cake making using besan flour, naturally gluten free, this earthy high protein high fibre flour is made from chickpeas and some times lentils or other beans. This flour is much more cost effective when compared with other gluten free flours and I am pleased to say produces a very tasty bake too, no hint of  lentil or chickpea at all.

Its moist and decadent and the loaf has just the right amount of sweetness and the chocolate chips provide just the right amount of chocolately flavours in every bite.

What you need

• 2 large very ripe bananas- mashed
• 3/4 cup of Thick live yogurt
• 1 egg - free range
• 1/2 cup light brown soft sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1/3 cup coconut oil - melted
• 1 1/2 cups besan flour (different brands have different mixes, mine was chickpea and lentil, some are just chickpea) - above all check gluten free if required most are
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 pkt of dark chocolate chips

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c and prepare your loaf tin, either oil spray or base line a 2lb loaf tin
• In your mixer blend the bananas, yogurt and egg, until well combined and the mixture is creamy.
• Seive the besan flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt and cinnamon on to the wet mixture, incorporate using a wire ballon whisk to retain the air in the mixture.
• Stir in the chocolate chips and pour the batter into your prepared tin, smooth the top
• Place in the oven and bake for approximately 50 minutes until well risen and golden. Test with a skewer to ensure done.
• Cool initially in the tin for 10 minutes and then remove to cool fully on a wire rack.
• Store in an airtight tin
• Freezes well when double wrapped

                                       

We are linking up to Love Cake this month, created and hosted at JibberJabberUk, the theme this month being in the words of the lovely Toyah "Its a Mystery !" as besan flour isn't usually used in cake baking.

                                                           

And recipe of the week , over on A Mummy Too

Pear, ginger and cardamon loaf

This is a perfect recipe for this time of year, slight spicing adds a warming note to this delicious bake, great served with a steaming mug of tea after a wild and windy walk, but also great as a pudding cake served with custard.

This loaf cake isn't going to win any prizes in the beauty stakes but is definitely a prize winner in the flavour stakes, I just love the moist fruity pear chunks and the crunch of the flaked almonds. It does have the habit of swallowing the pears and almonds into the cake but I still love it, its frugal too as it a good recipe to use up pears that are starting to become overripe. I am using British Conference pears here which have a great flavour, they aren't in season very long so make good use of them while you can.

So go on embrace the season and create a beautiful warm spicy fug in your kitchen as a perfect antidote to the weather outside, the Danish have a word for it Hygge, give it a try......

What you need

• 175g softened butter or quality vegetable margarine
• 1 tsp ground cardamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 175g light brown sugar
• 3 conference pears - peeled, cored and cut into 1/8ths
• 2 free eggs 
• 175g self raising flour (gluten free works fine)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp flaked almonds
• 2lb loaf tin - lined

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in your stand mixer
• Add the flour and baking powder, spices,  and eggs to the bowl, mix until you a smooth mixture
• Place half the mixture into your prepared tin, roughly level with a palette knife, place roughly half of the pears (chopped into little cubes) in a layer on the cake mixture
• Top the pears with the rest of the cake mixture and places the rest of the pear slices on the top, sprinkle with flaked almonds
• Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden and cooked through.
• Cool in the tin for at least 20 minutes or so, perfect warm on its on or with cream or custard. Cold its great with a cup of tea.
• If you like serve cold with a dredging of icing sugar

We are linking up to Recipe of the Week over on AMummyToo 

                                                                 

And to Casa Costello's Bake of the Week 

                                                          

JibberjabberUk - Love Cake linky whose theme this month is Best of British

                                           

And two of my favourites Credit Crunch Munch from Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food for All, hosted this month by Elizabeths Kitchen and No Waste Food Challenge from Elizabeths Kitchen, hosted this month by Its not Easy being Greedy.


                                             




                                                             

Butternut Squash and butterbean soup - vampire fighting and frightfully good !

There is definitely and nip in the air, so soup is in order. A delicious tasty recipe perfect for warming your bones after a night out trick a treating  and also an ideal recipe for using pumpkin middle just substitute for the butternut squash in the recipe, no waste here ! This soup also improves with keeping, ideal for popping in the fridge and for taking to work the next day to be re-heated.

Containing lots of lovely vampire fighting garlic (also bug fighting too ! as the cold and flu season is now with us), add just a touch of chilli for a thrill !

What you need

• Butternut squash - 1 large , peeled and de-seeded and chopped into 1 cm pieces
• 1 white onion - finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic - peeled and crushed
• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 1/2 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 1 small red chilli - finely chopped (optional)
• 1 can butterbeans - drained (retain juice if you want to use as Aquafaba)
• 1 large sprig fresh rosemary - leaves picked
• 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 500ml vegetable stock

What you do

• Heat the oil in a large saucepan
• Add the onion and cooked for a few minutes until softened
• Add the cubed squash, crushed garlic, chilli and rosemary, cook stirring for a few minutes
• Add the stock, maple syrup and lemon juice, bring to a simmer and cook until the onion and squash are soft
• Add the sherry vinegar and butter beans and bring back to a simmer
• Cool slightly and then blitz with a stick blender or in a a liquidizer to the desired texture.
• Bring back to a simmer and serve piping hot
• Delicious sprinkled with rosemary.

We are linking up to recipe of the week over at A Mummy Too. 

                                                         

Cook once Eat Twice - over on Searching for Spice

                                                       

No Croutons Required - co hosted by Lisa's Kitchen and Tinned Tomatoes

                                                               

No Waste Food Challenge, created by Elizabeths Kitchen and hosted this month by Veggie Desserts.

                                                        

Legume Love Affair hosted by Lisa's Kitchen, created by The Well Seasoned Cook.

                                                          

And finally Credit Crunch Munch from Fab Food for All and Fuss Free Flavours.

                                          

Fig, yogurt and rosemary loaf cake - gluten free

I just can't resist beautiful fresh figs and at the moment they are at their peak, I have always had a thing for them even as a child, mainly in the form of a fig roll (newton) I might add. High in fibre and with a sticky sweetness whether fresh or dried they make a great addition to many dishes, my favourite memory is of picking a perfectly ripe specimen off a huge tree outside my apartment window whilst staying in Calvi, Corsica. Still warm from the Mediterranean sun and so juicy, a great food memory.

Inspired by a bake I spotted whilst wandering on the internet this recipe, my version is gluten free and uses rapeseed oil rather than olive and has the subtle addition of almond extract also. Don't worry about the rosemary in this sweet bake its barely noticeable and just provides a slight herbyness to the sponge, the cake is moist and very moreish.

                                      

What you need

• 175g caster sugar
• 2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary - finely chopped
• 125g ground almonds
• 50g plain gluten free flour
• 2tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp almond essence
• 180g Greek yogurt
• 120 ml Extra Virgin rapeseed oil
• 2 large eggs - free range of course
• 4 fresh figs - halved
• 2tbsp - soft brown sugar
• 2lb loaf tin, lined

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Whisk the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy and tripled in volume
• In another bowl or jug, whisk together the yogurt, oil and almond essence
• Add to the egg and sugar mixture, the ground almonds, flour, salt, baking powder and rosemary, fold them in gently and try not to loose to much air.
• Quickly whisk in the oil and yogurt mixture until incorporated, then pour into a prepared 2lb loaf tin
• Carefully place the halved figs on the top, place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes
• Sprinkle the brown sugar on to the figs and bake for another 20 - 40 minutes until tested cooked with a skewer, if the cake is browning too much cover with foil
• Remove when bake and cool initially in the tin, cool full on a wire cooling rack.
• Serve as it is or with a little additional yogurt

A delicious moist cake with an exotic twist.

This last few weeks my blogging mojo has been a little absent and life generally has taken over, hopefully normal service is now resumed.

We are linking up to a few of our favourite linky's

Bake of the Week from Casa Costello, fellow WI member and all round lovely person.

                                                       

Emily over at A Mummy Too for Recipe of the Week

                                                             

Karen over at Lavender and Lovage for Cooking with Herbs - them this month Herbs for Autumn ( Bay, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme)

                                       

Dom over at Belleau Kitchen for Simply Eggcellent - them this month Anything Goes as long it contains free range eggs.

                                                          

Adapted from a recipe by blog.plentyofzest.com

Banana and honey loaf cake - gluten free and no artificial sugars

Here at Lancashire Food we don't like to waste food and also where possible create recipes which not only taste good but do you good. This recipe ticks all the boxes for us, using ripe bananas for the majority of the sweetness for this cake and just a touch of honey its free from artificial sugars and being full of all things that are good for you it a "super" bake.  A great debate currently ranges in the food community about the amount of sugar in our diets and home cooking and baking gives you the control to adjust the amount of sugar added to your recipes. We like that, we use buckwheat flour here for its nutritional value but a basic plain gluten free flour would also work.

Please don't expect this to taste exactly like a normal banana loaf as it doesn't, but it still has some sweetness and as we are using honey you can adjust the sweetness level to your taste, I would suggest starting at 1/2 cup and reducing down from there as your taste buds acclimatise to less sweetness.

A couple of months ago we started hosting a local beekeepers hive in our garden and hopefully very shortly we might just (fingers crossed) get to taste some honey from our bees, its a fascinating process and has been very interesting watching the development of a new hive with all its trails and tribulations. In just a short couple of months we have had issues with wasps ( nasty things that attack hives ), the birth of a new queen and the balancing act of when to collect the honey. I have been stung twice once by a bee (yes a honey bee) and also by a wasp ( very painful and much worse than a bee sting).

So hopefully next time I bake this loaf we might be using our own honey .........

What you need

• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour (check gluten free if necessary as not all are)
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cardamon
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 eggs - free range
• 1/4 cup - coconut oil
• 1/4 cup of milk (any type nut, cows, goat)
• 1 tsp cider or wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup of local honey
• 3 ripe bananas

2lb loaf tin, oiled and base lined.
If you don't have all the spices to hand sweet mixed spice or lebuken spice can be substituted

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Mash the banana roughly in the bowl of your mixer
• Add all other ingredients
• Mix thoroughly and pour into prepared tin
• Place in the oven and bake for approx 45 minutes
• Cool in tin
• Delicious served slavered with butter

We are linking up to Bake of the Week over on Casa Costello

                                                             

Also to Recipe of the Week with Emily over on A Mummy Too

                                                            

Love Cake - Back to Basics over on Jibberjabber, as this is good basic banana loaf recipe at heart.

                                   

Simply Eggcellent - Theme being Cakes this month over with Dom at Belleau Kitchen (Happy Birthday !) which celebrates all thing egg.

                                                               

Credit Crunch Munch over at Fuss Free Flavours as once again we are using up manky bananas. A blog challenged created by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food for all.

                                                 

And finally No Waste Food Challenge blog hop over at Foodie Quine this month. This challenge was created by Elizabeths Kitchen Diary.

                                                             

Chocolate and Pear Torte - Gluten free and so very tasty

The other weekend as per usual I was clearing out the fruit bowl as I was drawing up my shopping list of what I wanted to purchase for the week ahead. Just a couple of of pears remained still juicy but on the overripe side, my mind flashed back to a wonderful chocolate and pear tart I had eaten several years ago in an amazing trattoria in Tuscany, Italy. It was the sort of place were there was no menu and the choices were what was fresh from the market or the oven.

This torte is inspired by that tart, this one gluten free and a torte not a tart but equally beautiful and also doing a great job using up pears.

Its a simple recipe and is actually diary free if you use vegetable margarine as the chocolate flavour is coming from cocoa not chocolate.

Ideally you need a 23cm loose bottomed cake tin so you can remove the cake easily from its tin.

What you need

• 150g plain flour gluten free 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 150g soft butter or vegetable margarine (I like the Pure range)
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g ground almonds
• 2 eggs - free range
• 50g Cocoa - I like Green and Blacks Organic
• 2 tsp Choco inglese essence (optional)
• 2 Conference pears - peeled, cored and quartered
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Oil spray

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Prepare your pears and toss them in the juice of the lemon to prevent them from going brown
•  Prepare your tin, base line and oil spray so you are ready for the cake mix
• In a large mixing bowl or ideally a stand mixer, combine all the other ingredients until you have a smooth mixture
• Turn the mixture into the tin, smooth the top and then artistically place the pear quarters on the top, just slightly pressing them into the mixture
• Place in the oven and bake for approx 45 - 60 minutes until the torte tests cooked with a cocktail stick.
• Allow to fully cool in the tin and then remove. Serve as it is or with creme fraiche, cream or Greek yogurt.

The cake will store for a couple of days in a cool place covered with clingfilm or in a cake dome. A very satisfying bake and one that disappeared very quickly.

We are linking this post to Bake of the Week created by Casa Costello and hosted this month over at Jen's Food.

Credit crunch munch as it uses some past their best pears, created by Camilla from Fab Food 4 All and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours   and hosted this month by Food Glorious Food

No waste food challenge over on Elizabeth's Kitchen

We Should Cocoa - who's theme this month is anything goes created and hosted this month on Tin and Thyme

Chickpea and lentil and spinach cheats curry

Chickpeas are a great standby staple and the other day I had a craving for a warming curry, weird I know considering its August in the UK, but the summer weather this year has been really disappointing and even quite cool on a couple of occasions. So I turned to my trusty store cupboard to provide a healthy vegan curry for our supper.

Raiding the cupboards and freezer, I came up with this wholesome tasty recipe which used tinned chickpeas, dried red lentils and some leftover frozen homegrown tomatoes from last year and a couple of chunks of frozen spinach leaves I had forgotten were in the freezer.

The recipe made plenty so had ample to freeze or to take to work in a container for lunch the next day and as you in control of the spice level you can make this curry as hot and steamy as you wish.

The other bonus is as you are using canned chickpeas you can also make this fabulous chocolate mousse for dessert using the retained canning juice.

What you need

• 1 tin of chickpeas - drained but remember to retain the canning liquid for other recipes.
• 2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes or the equivalent in canned or frozen tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato ketchup (organic or homemade is best)
• 1 tbsp mango chutney (optional)
• 2 - 3 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp garam marsala
• 3 blocks frozen spinach
• 1 large white onion chopped finely
• Coconut oil or vegetable oil 
• 3 - 4 tbsp red lentils
• Vegetable stock
• Freshly ground pepper - to taste

What you do

• Heat the coconut or vegetable oil in your pan
• Add the onion and fry gently until starting to soften but not colour
• Reduce the heat slightly and add the spices and cook for a few minutes moving about so they don't burn.
• Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan, using enough vegetable stock to cover the legumes and frozen vegetables.
• Now bring to a gentle simmer and cook until the frozen vegetable are cooked and the lentils are almost undetectable. Stirring occasionally, this took about 20 minutes for me.
• Season with freshly ground pepper increasing the spices if so required.
• Serve with roti or boiled basmati rice
• If you have any fresh coriander then this would be a good garnish

The dish froze beautifully and also benefits from cooling and reheating another day so that the flavours are more well rounded.

This post is being linked up to MLLA (My Legume Love Affair) created by The Well Seasoned Cook and Food and Spice and hosted this month on Allotment 2 Kitchen.

And also to Recipe of the Week over on at A Mummy Too

Greek Orzo salad

The first time I ate Orzo (or the Greek equivalent (kritharáki)) was over 20 years ago on a very hot day in Delphi in Greece, home of the legendary of oracle in a stunningly situated taverna overlooking the gorge.  So that's how an orzo based Greek salad came about plus we have a couple of cucumber plants which are producing legendary quantities of fruit, so a Greek influenced pasta salad it had to be.

Delphi was the one place in Greece I would like to return to as it situated in the mountains, so its a little cooler than the plains and there was history at every turn, plus the views were amazing. Our hotel simply furnished overlooking that impressive gorge,I can't for the life of me what it was called but its probably still there as its that sort of place.

On to our delightfully simple recipe, which makes an ideal accompaniment to grilled chicken or fish or as part of a mezze or salad selection for a barbecue or party

What you need

• Roughly 1 dessert bowl - Orzo pasta - cooked and cooled by rinsing in cold water 
• 1 Red onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 whole Cucumber -peeled and chopped in to small chunks
• Tomatoes - chopped into small chunks or cherry halved
• Feta cheese - crumbled
• Bunch of fresh basil
• Freshly ground pepper
• 4 tbsp Olive oil 
• 1 tbsp Lemon juice
• 1 tsp Honey
• 1 tsp Mustard - I used Dijon

What you do

• Cook the orzo pasta according to the instructions on the packet, once cooked rinse under the cold tap to cool rapidly.
• Place in a large bowl with the chopped onion, cucumber and tomato
• Crumble the feta cheese over the top and tear the basil leaves also on the top
• Quickly mix the olive oil, lemon juice,  honey and mustard in a separate bowl to form a dressing, my tool of preference is a small whisk, season with some freshly ground pepper
• Pour on to the contents of the large bowl and toss to ensure everything gets coated with dressing
• Ta dah ! your salad is ready. Chill if you like and it keeps for a couple of days in the fridge.

We are linking up this post to Recipe of the Week over on A Mummy Too

                                                               

And Simple and In Season over on RenBehan, a linky for seasonal food

And we will also be linking up to a few other challenges later in the month once the linky's are live

No Croutons Required hosted by Tinned Tomatoes

                                                                 

Meat Free Mondays over on Tinned Tomatoes

                                                            

And also to Pasta Please created by Tinned Tomatoes and hosted this month by A Mummy too