Saturday 10 December 2011

Clafoutis

The traditional French dessert Clafoutis is tenderness itself! This beautiful dish is created by baking various fruits and berries in a light batter. It is so simple to make and very quick - there is little reason not to give it a go!

Originally Clafoutis was made with cherries and I’m sure there are a few purists and traditionalists out there who refuse to call a dish Clafoutis if it contains other fruits, but really you can use any kind of fruit and berries (in fact I recommend it!).

Here is my Clafoutis, which was made with a variety of berries (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries). A little bit too much, perhaps, but I had small amounts of each left over and decided to make use of them all at once. This Clafoutis was delicious – but I have to tell you that one I made with soft, ripe figs was out of this world – simply divine! Unfortunately, it didn’t last long enough for me to photograph it, but if you want to make it with figs, just replace the berries with fresh, ripe figs in the recipe below (quarter the figs) - you can also skip the first step and simply place the quartered figs into the buttered dishes.

I have made this dish in individually-sized portions using ramekins or small baking dishes or in a family-sized portion using a single baking dish to serve from the table – both work really well.


Baked butternut squash

Unusual, but so tasty!  Baked butternut squash with rice, pine nuts and sage.
I had never used fresh sage before, using only dried in cooking previously, but using fresh works really well with butternut squash – not too overpowering. This can be a tasty side dish or you can make it into a wholesome meal by adding cooked chicken into the rice.
So simple, so delicious and so colourful...
  



Wednesday 7 December 2011

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

These tasty muffins are perfect for breakfast, guaranteed to give you a great start to the day and to put you in good spirits for the rest of day! Oatmeal, bananas, walnuts - everything you need for a healthy breakfast! The muffins very easy to make, with just 10 minutes preparation time and baking time of 20 minutes – in just half an hour your family will enjoy warm, tasty muffins for breakfast.