I always try to buy enough bananas so that the Toddster can get his fill of them, and I will have some leftover blackened ones to bake with.  I confess I am not overly fond of eating fresh bananas, but bake them into a muffin, cookie or a bread and I am all over them!








60g coarsely chopped toasted pecans (1/2 cup) 


 Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F. gas mark 6.  Butter a 9 by 5 inch loaf tin and dust it lightly with flour, shaking out any excess.


Combine the mashed banana with the eggs, both sugars ad vanilla in a bowl.  Beat in the buttermilk and butter.  Sift the flour, soda, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.  Add the banana mixture and beat until well blended.  Stir in the chopped nuts.  Spoon into the prepared baking tin, smoothing the top.


Place the tin into the preheated oven and immediately REDUCE the oven temperature to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Bake for one hour and fifteen minutes, or until the top is risen and nicely browned, the loaf is beginning to pull away from the sides of the tin, and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Let cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to unmold. Carefully turn over and cool completely before cutting into slices to serve.  As with any teabread like this, letting it stand overnight improves the flavour and helps it to cut neater.


Note - this is really lovely toasted and buttered. Just saying  . . .

Todd picked all of our pears last weekend and I have been rushing to try to get them all used up.  I did give a bag of them away to a friend, so that was good.  We have one pear tree, a Conference Pear Tree and it always bears a lot of fruit (Its self-propagating)



Conference pears are a European variety of pear that are good for eating, but are also very good for cooking with because they hold their shape well. They are not too sweet, and can seem somewhat hard when it comes to eating them out of hand.  I don't mind that, but Todd likes his pears to be soft.


Today I used some of them to make a delicious tea bread.  Now by tea bread I don't mean a bread that is made with tea.  I mean a bread that is meant to be enjoyed with a cup of tea, or that you might see served at a "Tea."


They are served cut into thin slices and buttered or not, as you prefer.  My boss's husband down South, loved my Banana bread and often wanted it toasted and buttered for breakfast.  Simply put, tea breads make good eating no matter when and no matter how.


This one is stogged full of grated pear, which helps to keep it moist.  In fact there is no other liquid required in the recipe with the exception of some oil and some egg.


  It also uses a mix of plain and whole wheat flours.  I have also used toasted cobnuts, which is a very autumnal and historic nut here in the UK, but you can use Hazelnuts which will also work fine.


Bake for 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly touched.  Let sit in the loaf tin on a wire rack for ten minutes.  Remove from the tin and cool completely.  Store in an airtight container or tightly wrapped.


Tea breads are lovely breads, falling within the Quick Bread category, meaning there is no yeast used in their leavening.  There is no proofing or rising required prior to baking them.  They are usually very quick, easy and always delicious.  At least I think they are! 


 All about Cobnuts

Nuts are an ancient, natural and nutritious food which have been grown in Britain since time immemorial. During the Tudor period their cultivation on a properly managed basis was evident and formed the foundation upon which the Victorians planted a large number of cob nut orchards, called plats, resulting in some 7000 acres being grown by the turn of the century.

The predominant nut grown was the Kentish cobnut, a type of cultivated hazelnut, bred in 1830 by a Mr Lambert of Goudhurst in Kent. The Kentish cobnut is a larger nut than a hazelnut and has a different and distinctive flavour of its own.

 A Kentish cobnut is a type of hazelnut, just as a Bramley is a type of apple. Unlike most other nuts, cobnuts are sold fresh, not partially dried. They are usually in season from the end of August through to October, but stored nuts may be available from selected outlets through to Christmas.

In the photo above you can see a fresh cobnut on the left and a older seasoned/dried cobnut on the right. Each has a very distinct texture and flavour.  The fresh green ones are very crunchy and have an almost vegetable-like, fresh flavour, which makes them great for using in things like salads. You can also roast them.

At the beginning of the season the husks are green and the kernels particularly juicy. Nuts harvested later on are ripe, have brown shells and husks, and the full flavour has developed. If you would like to know more about them or buy some you can find out more at Potash Farm.

Leave to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, before tipping out onto a rack and cooling completely.



Note - I've been using those pan liners which are like muffin cups a lot lately. They are so simple to use and nothing sticks as they are silicone coasted. I highly recommend!

One day last year I was baking this lovely loaf and I went out the front door to check on something and the wind from the back door blew the front door shut. This was somewhat of a disaster as if the front door closes and you don't have a key . . . you can't get back in. There I was stuck in the front garden, with a loaf in the oven, a small puppy at large inside, no cell phone on my person . . . and a padlocked 10 foot tall back gate that I had no hope of scaling. Thank goodness it wasn't raining.

mmm . . . mmm . . . mmm . . . This was my ABSOLUTELY favourite kind of day . . .  no, the sun did not shine, nor was it really, really hot.  It was kind of muggy actually and humid, so weatherwise not great.  It was my favourite day in another kind of way, in a tasty baking kind of way  . . .

 Its Father's Day this Sunday and I thought it would be fun this morning to share with you some of the things I wish I could cook for my dad.  Unfortunately he is all the way over in Canada, so it will have to be just a wish list.  I suppose I could cook some of them for Todd, even though he's not my dad.  He probably wouldn't complain too  much!  Here are my choices and I hope you will give some of them a go yourself as well!  The "Dads" in your life are sure to appreciate them!

 Do you like sandwiches?   My Aunt Freda loved sandwiches and so do I. They are one of my many weaknesses!  I was really excited to receive this latest cookbook for review . . .  "Build Your Own Sandwich," by Vicki Smallwood.

Have you ever wanted to take your sandwich making to a new and higher level???  My answer is a resounding YES!  Build Your Own Sandwich promises to help you do just that!

In my quest to cook things diabetic friendly, I cooked this Banana Coconut Bread the other day and was very pleased with how it turned out!  High in fibre and low in both fat and sugar.  Yay!   That makes me happy.  Although you still wouldn't want to binge on something like this of course.  All baked goods should be occasional treats (which I am now saving for weekends) and not  daily thing.

  

Cuting out sugary foods and high fat snacks is an important way to improve your diet and help maintain good blood glucose levels.  It helps to have alternatives available when you are feeling that urge to snack on something or when your levels dip and you just don't have time to make a meal. Having alternatives at the ready and achieving a balance are really important for long term success!  It's okay to have an occasional sweet treat, but in all reality, those need to be kept at a minimum, and it's best to develop a taste for nutritionally sound snacks.

What with Thanksgiving and everything I am only getting to show you this fabulous banana bread now.  It is a little bit different than my usual favourite banana bread recipe, in that it has a lovely crumb topping.   

I baked what is possibly the most delicious Banana Bread I have ever baked yesterday, and that is saying a lot.  I've baked many Banana Breads in my life time and I have my favourites but I think this recipe just kicked the lot to the curb and took their place!    A bold statement indeed!

I don't know why I didn't think of this before.   Making my own Turkey Subs.   I love the Turkey Subs at Sub Way back home and every time I go home I treat myself to a six inch turkey sub with all of the trimmings at least two or three times.  I guess I never thought I would be able to make one at home that would taste like theirs do, but the other day the craving got the best of me and I attempted to do just that!



I lived on these subs back in 1999 when my marriage broke up and I was living in a rented bedroom in someone else's house.  The girl I was renting the room from wasn't very nice.  Although I was supposed to have kitchen privileges, she didn't like me having any food in her cupboards or her refrigerator.  She didn't like me using the stove either, which really put a damper on my cooking mojo.  I survived by eating a lot of salads, using a kettle and microwave that I had in my room, and buying six-inch turkey subs from SubWay.  With all of the vegetables on it, I figured I was getting at least some of my five a day!



Which brings me to my topic for today . . .  how to build a perfect turkey sub sandwich.   It's not that hard but it does involve a few "must haves."

One,  you need to begin with a really good bread.  It's not necessary to have an artisan bread for these, just a good one.   I think subs need soft buns, not crisp buns.   That's a lot of sandwich. You want something that you can easily fit into your mouth once you get it stuffed with all of your meats/cheeses/toppings!

I really like the honey and oat buns that SubWay have, but you can't really buy them in the shops here.  I just bought generic fresh sub buns and they were pretty good!  You can toast them or not as you wish.  I prefer mine un-toasted.

  

You want a nice sauce to place on the base of both sides of your bun.  I like the Hellman's garlic mayo. It's really nice and it comes in a squeeze bottle and is really easy to squirt it on.  I also like the Hellman's Lemon mayo and their mustard mayo. . . .  and their roasted onion mayo is also really good.

This "Sauce" will help prevent the bread from getting soggy.  You could of course use ketchup, or a mayo/ketchup combination, mustard, etc. You can use whatever floats your boat.  You just don't want anything that will prevent you from tasting that lovely turkey you are going to put onto it.

Once you have the bun split and slathered with your chosen sauce it's time to begin building your sandwich!  



You want to use only the freshest of ingredients . . . fresh meat, vegetables, etc.

1.  Freshly sliced roast turkey from the deli counter.  Don't get that stuff that you buy already sliced and packed in those plastic packets.  I have always found it to be a bit slimy.  Yuck.  It's also pressed meat, and not actually sliced turkey breast.   I hate re-formed poultry.  Double Yuck.  Two or three slices is ample for one six inch sub.

2.  You want a nice mild cheese, something with a buttery flavour like an edam, gouda or a havarti.   Of course if you want to really kick it up you could use something a bit stronger, but I think with turkey you want a mild cheese.  One slice, cut diagonally, does the trick!

3.  You want sliced really fresh peppers (red and green if possible), some ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, mild red onions . . . all very thinly sliced.  Slice them as thin as you can.  I used my mandoline.  It did them perfectly.  You will also want some sliced gerkin/dill pickles.  I like the garlic ones myself.  These pickles add a nice touch of flavour and piquancy to the mix.  You will also want some pickled hot peppers.  In Canada they use pickled hot banana peppers, which we can't get here in the UK.    I used the Discovery sweet pickled yellow jalapeno peppers.  They are not as hot as the green ones and have a nice sweetness, which goes well with the turkey, but of course,  if you like a lot of heat, use the regular pickled green ones.  You want some finely shredded lettuce in there as well. I like to use baby gems, because they are sturdy and have a lot of flavour. They are almost bitter. Nice, nice!! 



4. I like sliced black olives on mine.  I just buy the sliced black olives in brine.   Don't pimp for fancy dried Spanish black olives.  They are too strongly flavoured.  The purpose of all of these fillings is to enhance the turkey, not overpower it.

5.  A final drizzle of some oil and vinegar (if desired) and a light dusting of salt and pepper and Bob's your uncle!  You are done.   Shut that sub, cut it in half crosswise . . . . and dig in!



Mmmm . . .  these are so good!  I am in love!  I seriously fed my craving and was a very happy camper after this and the best thing of all is . . .



I won't have to wait until I go to Canada again to indulge myself in these fabulous taste treats!  I can make myself one whenever the craving hits.  I like that idea, and I am betting you will too!

Of course you could get really fancy and add assorted meats, bacon, capers etc., but when you just want a good old fashioned turkey sub, this is the way to do it.  Manga!  Enjoy!