Banana Toffee Cheesecake (dairy free)

This is in Nigella's new book Kitchen. She describes it as a way to use up leftover over-ripe bananas and I decided to use up the dregs of the biscuit tin too and some vegan cream cheese that had just been sitting the the fridge looking sad. Whilst the cheesecake is dairy free, it does contain eggs and is therefore not vegan, obviously... and the sauce contains cream and butter. This recipe was also an opportunity to try out my new silicon cake tin i.e. one that won't ooze wet cheesecake mix out the bottom or need lining with clingfilm/baking parchment. Quite how I remove it from the tin is another matter!!

For 10-12 portions you need:

For the base:
250g mixed biscuits (I used a mixture of royal danish butter and ginger)
75g unsalted butter, softened

For the cheesecake:
4 overripe medium bananas
60ml lemon juice
700g vegan cream cheese
6 eggs
150g light soft brown sugar

For the toffee sauce:
100g unsalted butter
125ml golden syrup
75g light soft brown sugar

You also need a 23cm springform tin or I used a 21cm silicon tin.

Start with the base. Blitz the biscuits with the butter in a food processor till it's come together. Press into the tin and chill in the fridge.

Mash the bananas with the lemon juice. Nigella says to use a fork but frankly life is too short so use a potato masher instead and be done in a quarter of the time...

In the cleaned food processor, lob in the cream cheese and blitz. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the sugar and then the bananas and lemon juice. Mix well till smooth.

Pour the batter on to the base and bake in a moderate (160 degree) oven for about 1hr 15 mins. Remove and leave to cool then chill over night.

For the toffee sauce melt everything together then boil for 2-3 mins till light golden brown and bubbly. Leave to cool.

Serve the cheesecake drizzled with the sauce with more sauce on the side for greedy buggers like me. Yum yum yum.

Curried Eggs

You can use any tomato based curry sauce for this. Basically what you want is something spicy, slightly sour and sloppy to contrast with the eggs. It's nice with just naan or some rice too. It's also good cold the next day for breakfast (honest).

For 4 portions you need:

1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 inch piece of ginger, grated
2 tsp tumeric
1 whole chilli
2 dried whole chillies, rubbed together to loosen the seeds
6 eggs, semi hard boiled (7 mins)
2 tbsp oil
4 cardamon pods, crushed
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
350 ml water
300g peeled potatoes, cut into small dice (or any other veg you fancy tbh, peas are nice too)
chopped corriander

Begin by frying the onion in the oil then add the spices, potatoes, chillies, garlic and ginger. Cook for 5 mins or so. Then add the toms and the sliced onion and water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 mins till the sauce is thicken and the potatoes are cooked. Add a little more water if you need to. Peel the eggs and cut in half. After the potato is cooked, add the halved eggs and heat through gently. Serve topped with the chopped corriander.

Steamed eggs with rice noodles and vegetables

This was my lunch today (Lex had his lunchbox as normal!).

For the eggs you need (per person):
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 mushrooms, sliced
handful chopped corriander
glug soya sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
ground pepper
1/2 onion, finely diced

Mix together and pour everything into a small heatproof bowl. Place in a steamer and steam for about 20 mins till cooked.

For the noodles and vegetables:
Soak 1 bundle of rice noodles per person in boiling water for about 5 mins.

Meanwhile stirfry some veggies (I used courgettes, onion, chinese leaf and sugar snap peas). Add some mirin and soya sauce to the pan to taste. Add the noodles once rehydrated and warm through. Serve with the eggs on the side.

Akara with Pili Pili

or Bean Cakes with Chilli Sauce

A traditional Nigerian recipe from Celia Brooks Brown's World Vegetarian Classics

For the akara:
2 x 400g black eyed beans, drained
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 egg
4 rbsp plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Oil for frying

For the Pili Pili
2 red peppers, de-seeded and chopped
1=2 hot fresh chillies
1/2 tsp salt
1 garlic clove, crushed
Juice 1/2 lemon

Place the beans and onion into a foodprocessor. Blitz to a smooth paste. Add everything else and pulse till mixed.

Heat a shallow pan with the oil. When it's hot enough drop spoonfuls of the batter into the oil. Cook till brown and flip over halfway. Drain on kitchen paper.

Mix the ingredients for the sauce and serve with the bean cakes.

Delish.