BANANA AND STRAWBERRY CAKE

I have been told off for sprinkling dried strawberries on top of the cake, which I thought looked really pretty. According to one of my sons I have 'ruined it with THAT pink'. By the end of the day they had eaten the whole cake, so so much for anti-pink prejudice...

You need:
- 2 eggs
- 3 ripe bananas
- 175 plain flour
- 150 ml sun flour oil
- 150 gr sugar
- 10 gr of freeze dried strawberries
- 1 and a half table tespoon baking powder
- half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees.
Mix the sugar, eggs and oil and beat well. Mash the bananas (with a fork) and add them, as well as the strawberries, to the sugar and egg mixture. Combine the flour, baking powered and bicarbonate and add it to the mixture, beating it by hand. Put it all in a greased and lined  tin (we used a rectangular one) and bake for one hour.

The sweetness of the banana and the acidity of the dried strawberries works particularly well. If you do not mind the pink (or the price) you can always add more strawberries.

GAZPACHO

Though they may look similar, gazpacho has nothing to do with salmorejo (see separate recipe) As they say in Spain, the 'king' of the gazpacho' is the cucumber while the 'king of the salmorejo' is the tomato.

You need:
- 1 cucumber (without the skin)
- 10 ripe tomatoes (leave the skin on)
- half an onion
- half a green pepper
- 1 clove of garlic
- a third of a glass of (good) olive oil.
- 2 to 3 table spoons of vinegar (to taste)
- salt (again to taste, but remember that tomatoes take a lot of salt)
- half a glass of water

Cut the vegetables in big chunks, put all vegetables and the water in a beaker and blend (we use a hand held mixer but a blender is good too) until they are liquidised. Add the oil, vinegar and salt and blend again until the oil emulsifies. Get is all through a strainer and put it in the fridge for at least one hour. If it is too tick for you just add more water. You can serve this with cubes of cucumber, red pepper, boiled egg whites or fried or toasted bread. If the weather is very hot add some ice cubes before serving it too.

My children love this but not as much a salmorejo. It is the easiest manner to them to eat lots of raw vegetables.

GOAT's CHEESE PASTRY

This is a simple starter or a main course if you serve it with a salad.
You need:
- a sheet of puff pastry (all butter is best)
- chargrilled aubergine or roast peppers or sundried tomatoes (we used left over aubergines, but all this is optional)
- basil or oregano ( we used Greek basil)
- a block of goats cheese (the hard kind that has a white rim)
- a beaten egg
- olive oil

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Cut the puff pastry in squares. Put them on top of an oven tray lined with baking parchment. Top each square with the aubergine (or pepper of tomato) the goat's cheese and the basil. Paint the edges of the pastry with the beaten egg  - we forgot to do this but they turned out fine. Drizzle some olive oil on top. Bake for 20 minutes until they become golden and crispy.

The colour of the aubergine proved to be a challenge for the kids. So did the acidic flavour of the goats's cheese. After lots of pleading from my side they tried a minuscule portion of cheese but they spitted it up. They ended up eating only the pastry, which they thought was great, but it was shop bought so it had no merit...

CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH CARAMEL SAUCE

One of my sons loves caramel and insisted in a chocolate cake with caramel sauce for his birthday. I should warn you that you try this at your peril...

For the cake you need:
- 350 gr of softened butter
- 350 g sugar
- 6 eggs
- half a teaspoon vanilla essence
- 100 cocoa powder
- 300 gr plain flower
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- a greased and lined round tin.

Preheat the oven a 180 degrees. Beat the butter and sugar with a hand held mixer (or by hand) until they become pale. Then add the eggs and the vanilla. Separately mix the flour and baking powder. Mix one quarter of the flour mixture with the butter and sugar one. Then add the rest of the flour. Put it all into the greased and lined tin and bake it for 45 minutes.  After the cake is cooked you will need to wait five to ten minutes before you take it off the tin.

For the caramel sauce (which comes from a Nigella recipe, though she does it with double cream) you need: 50 gr of caster sugar, 50 gr of golden syrup, 50 gr of brown sugar and 75 gr of butter. Melt it all together in a pan ( it will only take a few minutes so watch it as it melts) Add three table spoons of creme fraiche and a teaspoon of Maldon salt. Once it cools down a little pour it over the cake or serve it on the side. The only problem with this sauce is that you can actually eat it with a spoon, so keep off the spoons.

My kids help with any recipe that involves chocolate so this was a good manner to bring them back to the blog. We have not written much for a while but it is tough competing against football...

DUCK WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH

This is so basic that it is almost not a recipe at all.
You only need a leg of such per person and around 100 gr of diced butternut squash and sweet potato per person (some supermarkets sell them already diced), a bit of olive oil (2-3- tablespoons) and salt.

Preheat the oven at 250 degrees. Salt the duck. Put the duck on a tray with a bit of water. Roast 20 minutes at 250 degrees. Then add the olive oil and salt to the vegetables and add it to the duck. Roast for a further 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 200 degrees and roast for another 30 minutes. It is a very nice and simple dinner.

SALMON IN PAPILLOTE

Fish in papillote is a very healthy and easy meal. You need:
- a steak of salmon
- half a carrot
- half a leak
- half a courgette
- half a lemon: zest and juice
- salt
-1 table spoon of olive oil
- a splash of white wine

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
Take a big rectangle of aluminium foil.  Put the oil on top. Salt the fish and put it on the olive oil. Cut the carrot courgettes and leaks in thin batons and put them on the salmon. Add the zest of the lemon, the lemon juice and the wine. Make a packet or bag with the olive oil sealing well all the sides so that air cannot get out. If you are not sure that it is properly closed put the packet on another piece of foil and seal it too. Put the packet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

The flavors are very subtle so most children like this. You can serve it with rice or mash potatoes. You can also do this with cod, halibut or any other vegetables. If you are serving this to adults you may want to cut the baking time to 10 minutes.

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

This is very very delicious - and a bit (only a bit though) healthier than normal chocolate mousse.

You need:

80 ml refined olive oil (unless you are an olive oil addict it is better to avoid virgin olive oil for this as the taste is very strong)

60 gr caster sugar

150 gr dark chocolate

4 large eggs (separated)

Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a pan over a bowl of simmering water. Once it is melted let it cool down a little. Add the 4 egg yokes and whisk it all well. It will become a very thick paste. Then pour the olive oil slowly while you keep whisking it.

Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Then add the sugar and keep whisking until the mixture becomes glossy. Beat one third of the egg whites with the chocolate mixture. Then fold in carefully the remaining egg whites.

Pour in a glasses or ramekins and let it cool down in the fridge for 2-3 hours. Sprinkle a little bit of Maldon salt over the mousse before serving it.  You can also shape the mousse into  'quenelles' with a spoon (warmed under the hot water tap) and serve it with an orange salad. 

Anything that involves chocolate and whisking egg whites is a winner with my children.They thought that the taste was interesting and even tried the salt. The recipe contains raw eggs so eat within 24 hours (this suited us fine)