Tuesday 13 March 2012

Low fat banana cake with dried cranberries



Ingredients

  • 3 bananas
  • 125 g full fat yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 100 g dried cranberries
  • 3 eggs
  • 80 ml light olive oil
  • 110 g brown sugar
  • 270 g flour
  • 50 g coconut flakes 
  • 70 g walnuts
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • a pinch of salt
1. Preheat the oven to 160 C. 
2. With a fork, mash the bananas an then mix in the yogurt, the baking soda and the cranberries. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, beat the eggs, add the sugar and the oil, slowly mixing through. 
4. In a third bowl, sift the flour and then stir in the coconut, walnuts, baking powder and the salt. 
5. Line a loaf tin with parchment paper or grease it with some oil. 
6. The final step : mix all the wet ingredients together ( the first two bowls ) and the pour everything into the flour bowl.  With a rubber spatula, fold in the batter by scraping the sides of the bowl. Because it`s a quick bread batter, it is very important not to over mix it. It should result a quite lumpy and thick batter. 
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake it for about 45-50 minutes. As soon  as a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake, comes out clean, it`s ready. You don`t want a dry cake. 

The end result it`s a delicious moist cake, not too sweet and a little tangy from the cranberries. 

Monday 12 March 2012

Lamb steak with peas, feta and garlic mint sauce


Ingredients

400 g lamb steaks
salt, paprika, pepper
100 ml rose wine

for the peas:
300 g peas ( fresh or frozen )
75 gr crumbled feta
fresh lime juice

for the mint sauce:
half a garlic clove
4 sprigs of fresh mint
lime juice
half a teaspoon of brown sugar
extra  virgin olive oil


How it`s done?
1. Boil the peas for about 7 minutes if frozen.
2. Brown the  seasoned lamb steaks ( rub them with the salt, paprika and pepper) in a pan with some cooking olive oil. Set the heat to a high level to obtain the nice brown. It should take 2 minutes for each side. Next, deglaze with the rose wine, making sure you scrape all the goodness from the pan.  After 3 minutes take out the steaks and let the wine reduce.
3. Meanwhile prepare the mint sauce. With the help of a pestle, a mortar and a hungy  boyfriend, crush the garlic, sugar and mint and pour from time to time some olive oil.
4. When they are ready, drain the peas and tip them in a bowl. Add the feta cheese and the lime juice and toss them.
5. At last, take the lamb steaks back in to the pan and make sure the glaze is covering all sides.

Enjoy it with a glass of rose cabernet sauvignon and  good company. :)