Banana tahini slices

You can buy tahini, the powerful-tasting sesame seed paste used in eastern Mediterranean cookery, in Holland and Barrett and other health food shops and in larger supermarkets.  This started out as a muffin recipe (you’ll notice the method is the same).  But although I liked the taste I felt they were far too doughy.  So today I tried it again as a tray bake and the result is excellent; I got eight fairly thin bars which are crispy on the outside and moist inside, chewy but not stodgy.  The combination of flavours is delicious, faintly reminiscent of sesame halva.

1 large ripe banana

1 egg

1 full tbsp tahini

½ tsp vanilla essence

½ tsp almond essence

1 cup No 1 baking mix

¼ cup sesame seeds

¼ cup raisins

1 heaped tsp baking powder

1 level tsp xylitol

1 level tsp cinnamon

Mix the dry ingredients together and toss through the raisins.  Beat the egg and mash the banana, mix the two together and stir in the tahini and the two flavouring essences.  

 The wet mixture looks pretty horrible - gooey and faintly glaucous - but fear not!   

Beat the wet into the dry mixture, adding a little water if need be to get a soft dropping consistency.  Spoon into a greased and lined baking tray measuring approx 20x20cm, smooth off – it will be quite a thin layer – and bake at 140 degrees C (fan oven) for 30-40 minutes.  Turn out and cool, then cut into bars.

Giant baked beans

If you've ever seen the above - or just "baked beans", or the even more blunt "big beans" - on a translated menu while on holiday in Greece, and you've avoided what sounds like a rather boring item, you've been missing a trick.  Fasolia gigantes, literally giant beans, are one of the joys of Greek cuisine, and they are nothing like our familiar Heinz Baked Beans, nor indeed the Boston Baked Beans those originally derived from.  They're a classic piece of "peasant" cooking; simple, wholesome, gluten and nut-free, and not just vegetarian but vegan; they're also easy to make, very tasty and highly diabetes-friendly.  Beans give a decent amount of vegetable protein and a reasonable amount of low-GI carbohydrate, set-off with plenty of fibre for your digestion. 

 

Giant Baked Beans, or Gigantes Plaki, fresh out of the oven

Unfortunately, I've never found them on sale in this country except as canned or (slightly posher) bottled versions, ready cooked.  These are okay, with a taste evocative of holidays.   But the real thing, cooked at home from the basics, are much better.  These days I bring a bag of dried fasolia gigantes back religiously from holiday each spring, so I can make my own Gigantes Plaki, giant baked beans.

Edited, 28/5/16, to add: I have now discovered at least two companies importing gigantes, hurrah!  here is one of them: https://greekmarket.co.uk/index.php/greek-groceries/greek-beans-grains.html

Gigantes look a bit like butter beans, but butter beans that have been working out; they are thick and beefy-looking, and they have a meaty texture and slightly sweet taste.  They're not the cheapest bean but they're worth the extra money.  If you do buy a bag on holiday and bring them home, try to use them up within 9 or 10 months maximum.  Don't hoard them; I've made this mistake, and found that like any dried pulse they go stale after they've been open for a while, and then won't cook properly.  I wound up throwing the last 1/4 of the bag away and feeling thoroughly cross with myself.

This is one of those dishes where every family which likes them is probably going to have their own variation on the recipe.  I've evolved mine from adopting things that seem to me to work well; it's quite variable so don't be afraid to tweak it to suit, for example, what herbs you've got.  The recipe can also be made with any other good dried beans, of course; borlotti beans are flavoursome enough and so are kidney beans (amend the cooking time if so, as gigantes are surprisingly quick to cook).  But though that will give you a very good simple bean stew, it won't be authentic gigantes.

1/2 lb/ 200-250g dried fasolia gigantes, rinsed, checked for grit and soaked overnight
1 large onion, chopped
Vegetable oil and olive oil
1 can chopped tomatoes
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced finely
1 dessertspoonful dried oregano
1 large carrot, sliced
1 heaped teaspoonful dried dill
1 small bunch fresh parsley, chopped
1 small bunch fennel leaves, chopped
Optional - a couple of handfuls of spinach or a couple of stems of celery, chopped, plus leaves
Black pepper, tomato puree, stock powder, (optional) a little cinnamon

Put the beans in a saucepan, cover with fresh water and bring to the boil.  Boil hard for ten minutes, then simmer for 30-40.  They should still have a bit of solidity at this stage, so don't cook until they are completely soft - they've still got almost an hour of cooking to go.  Slice the onion and fry until golden in a tablespoon or so of ordinary vegetable oil; after 5 minutes or so, add the carrot, garlic and all the dried herbs, some pepper, plus the celery and cinnamon (if using).  Continue cooking for another 5 minutes, then add the tomatoes, a dessertspoon or so of tomato puree and a teaspoon of stock powder, and the fresh herbs.  Simmer for another 5 minutes until thick and rich, add the spinach (if using), stir in and allow to wilt.  Add the beans and a little of their water and stir all together quickly.  Pour into an ovenproof dish or a deep baking tin.  If the beans aren't covered by the sauce, add a bit more of the water.  Pour a slug of olive oil on top and sprinkle with a little more oregano.  Cook in a medium oven (Fan 150 degrees, gas 4 or so) for 45 minutes to an hour.  Serve hot or cold.  This should be enough for two people as a main dish or three to four as a starter or side dish.

More muffins for springtime

A couple of slightly unusual variations on the muffin theme.

Savoury muffins

Because some people don't like sweet stuff!

1 cup/ 100g/ 4 oz No 1 baking mix

1/3 cup/ 25g/ 1 oz oatmeal or gf porridge oats

1/3 cup/ 25g/ 1 oz grated parmesan cheese

1 heaped tsp poppy seed

2 heaped tsp sunflower seed

1 tsp baking powder

Black pepper

10 stoned green olives, chopped

1 egg

Water – at least ½ cup/ 125ml

Stir dry ingredients together thoroughly.  Blend wet ingredients together and stir into dry ingredients, adding more water if needed to make a dropping consistency, then stir the chopped olives through the mixture.  Spoon into a greased muffin pan or similar and bake at 200 degrees C for about 35 minutes.  Makes around 6 muffins.

These keep for about three to four days and are good split and buttered.

Sesame apple muffins

A twist on the usual muffin model with this recipe, as the maize meal goes into the wet ingredients, not the dry ones.  This gives it a kind of pre-soak, and seems to counteract that slightly gritty texture you can get otherwise with cornmeal/polenta products.

The main background picture for this blog is a photo of a tray of these, incidentally.

1 cup/ 4 oz/ 100g No 1 baking mix

1 heaped tsp baking powder

1 heaped tsp xylitol

2 tsp cinnamon

3 tsp sesame seeds for the mixture, plus about the same again to top the muffins

1/3 cup/ 1 ½ oz 45g fine maize meal or fine polenta

1/3 cup cold water

2 heaped tsp tahini

1 small tart apple

½ tsp vanilla essence

1 large or 2 small eggs

1 tbsp vegetable oil

More water – probably about another 1/3 cup

Mix the maize meal with 1/3 cup of water and leave to soak for 10-15 minutes.  Mix together the baking mix, baking powder, xylitol, cinnamon and sesame seeds.  Grate the apple, cored but with the peel still on, and stir into the maize meal and water.  Add the tahini, oil and vanilla and stir thoroughly, then beat the egg and add.  Mix the wet ingredients into the dry and add more water as needed to get a rather wet mixture.  Spoon into muffin cups or a bun tin and top each muffin with ½ a tsp of sesame seeds.  Bake at 150 degrees C for 35 – 40 minutes.  

These are really good cut in half and toasted when they’re a couple of days old.

A couple of sweet muffin recipes

Carrot coconut muffins

 

I'm going to do a bit of a binge on writing up muffin recipes; starting with the ones I just made. 

1 cup/4oz/100g No 1 baking mix

1/3 cup desiccated coconut

1/3 cup raisins

1tbsp flaked almonds

1 tbsp mixed seeds (I used Holland & Barrett’s Omega sprinkle mix)

3 tsp xylitol

1 heaped tsp baking powder

1 heaped tsp mixed spice

1 medium carrot, grated

1 small banana, mashed

1-2 tbsp milk

2 eggs

½ tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Set aside about a tsp each of the flaked almonds and the mixed seeds.  Stir the rest of the almonds and seeds into the other dry ingredients and stir through the raisins and grated carrot.  Beat the eggs and add to the mashed banana, stir in the milk, vanilla essence and oil.  Add to the dry ingredients and beat together to a dropping consistency.  Spoon into muffin cups or a greased muffin pan or bun tin and sprinkle with the reserved seeds and nuts.  Bake at 150C (fan oven) for about 40 minutes. 

Makes around six medium muffins.

Banana nutella muffins

These are certainly naughty (because nutella) but have a true hazelnut chocolate taste.  The amount of nutella involved is enough to give a good flavour but only about 5 or 6g of added sugar per muffin, which isn’t too awful for an occasional treat.

If aiming for a gluten-free muffin, remember that the nutella needs to be from an uncontaminated jar!

½ cup/2oz/50g No 1 baking mix

½ cup ground roasted hazelnuts (available from Sainsbury, and I'm sure from other places as well)

1 heaped tsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

1 egg

1 small banana, mashed

1 tbsp milk or water

1 tbsp nutella

½ tsp vanilla essence

½ tsp almond essence

Stir the dry ingredients together.  Beat the egg, milk or water and the flavourings into the mashed banana and add to the dry mixture along with the nutella.  Stir in and beat well to incorporate the nutella completely.  Spoon into muffin cups or a greased bun tin or muffin pan.  Bake at 150C for 35-40 minutes.  Makes six small muffins or four medium.

Pancakes

It's Shrove Tuesday, so obviously pancakes!  I made this basic mixture and split it in two, tonight.  I added parmesan to about two-thirds of the mix and made that into two pancakes which I served with stir-fried asparagus and tomato and some garlic; then I added coconut, and some vanilla essence, to the last third and made a rather chunky dessert pancake which I had with a dab of cream cheese and some cinnamon.

Low-carb pancakes

1 oz/ 25g/ ¼ cup No 1 baking mix

1 oz/ 25g/ ¼ cup oatmeal or oatbran or gluten-free porridge oats or desiccated coconut

1 egg

3 tablespoons water

Stir dry ingredients together, beat in egg and water and leave to rest for 30 minutes.  Cook like normal pancake batter, using a little vegetable oil in a frying pan or omelette pan over a medium heat.  Serve any way you like.  I like to have these as a breakfast treat, with some fresh fruit and a dollop of low-fat cream cheese or some thick yoghurt.

The mixture doesn't flow as easily as a normal batter so you'll need to spread it out gently in the hot pan, using the back of a spoon.  You'll also probably need to cook this mixture slightly longer than a regular wheat-based batter would need.  The version with coconut makes a slightly odd-looking batter but it cooks okay and has a pleasantly crunchy texture once done, and a sweeter taste than the oaty version.  

This makes a moderately thick batter that will give you 2-3 pancakes using a 20cm/6” omelette pan.  Use less water if you want to make small north American style pancakes, or more for a thinner batter and thin crepe-style pancakes (but NB the coconut version won’t work as a crepe, I think the batter’s too bitty).

Add a dessertspoon of grated parmsan cheese for a savoury pancake; very tasty filled with grilled or fried vegetables, tuna or (for a mega-cheesy version) slices of cheddar.

Chocolate cake (yes, for real)

I've tinkered with the original recipe and I may tinker with it some more, but this is already coming out a treat.  I mean that literally.  A chocolate cake that I can eat is a huge treat; and this is genuinely chocolatey and has a moist, almost fudgey texture and even a trace of that classic top-crust that brownies get.  Mmm.

No-added-sugar chocolate cake

100g/ 4oz chopped pitted dates
1 teabag
75g/3oz No 1 baking mix
25g/1oz pure cocoa powder
100g/4oz butter or margarine
2 medium eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence
Generous pinch of salt
50g/2oz finely chopped very dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)

The previous night, make a mug of plain black tea (NB no milk) and pour it over the finely-chopped dates in a heatproof bowl.  Leave to soak overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180C/160 fan/Gas mark 4.  Grease a sponge cake tin or similar (I used my wonderful new nonstick silicone baking tin from Lakeland - check it out, they're tremendous).  If you know that your tin tends to stick, line with a disc of baking paper or greaseproof as well, as the mixture you're going to make is on the gooey side.
Puree the dates and the remaining tea, using a blender if possible, then add to the butter in a mixing bowl.  If you don't have a blender you'll need to sieve them, which could be hard work.  Beat the pureed dates and the butter together.  It may be simpler to do this with a blender as well (pausing frequently to scrape down), or use a food processor if you have one.  I used one of those handheld blender gadgets and it did a terrific job.
Don't be put-off, incidentally, by how weird the date-and-butter mixture looks.  They aren't exactly natural companions (one being fatty and the other pretty watery) and they won't cream together the way butter and sugar would do.  In fact the mixture may very well curdle and look completely revolting at this stage.  Ignore it if so and persevere.
Beat in the two eggs and the vanilla essence, then the salt (adding vanilla essence and salt is a really good way to improve the flavour of any chocolate dish made with cocoa).  Now sieve the cocoa powder, cinnamon and baking powder together and mix them into the wet mixture.  Add the baking mix and stir that in well.  Finally add the chopped dark chocolate and mix in.
You'll have a fairly sloppy cake mix, noticably wetter than the classic "soft dropping consistency".  Don't panic, it's okay for it to look like this.

Uncooked cake mix, rather wet and shiny looking

Spoon into the cake tin and level off, then bake for 30-35 minutes.
Either serve warm from the oven as a dessert, or turn out and allow to cool, and eat as a cake.

Resulting cake.  The top's a bit cracked, it wouldn't win a WI prize for presentation, but it tasted fine

When warm, the middle is quite gooey and moist.  I suspect with a bit more tinkering I might be able to get this to do that "self-saucing" trick and have a molten bottom layer. 
The dates have a high-enough sugar content that the result is only slightly less sweet than a conventional recipe would be; but it's all slowly-digested fructose (not to mention having the considerable fibre whack of dates) so not so nasty for the diabetics!

Chocolate cake...

Edited, February 4 2016, to add; this also keeps well!  As in, almost a week in an airtight tin.  It gets steadily gooey-er and tudgey-er with time but doesn't dry out, go stale or grow grey furry fuzz.  It's a winner!