Tropical Tart Nouveau

One of the best things about being an expat in Bangkok is the amazing circle of friends you make from all over the world. One of the worst things is that just as you feel like you are becoming really great friends, they take up a new posting thousands of miles away. I have had my heart broken several times in this way since moving here and console myself with the knowledge that I will be warmly welcomed if I am ever in Istanbul, New York, Nairobi or Dhaka.  The latest heartbreaker is my friend Marcus, who is about trade in his charmed life in this city for a gritty humanitarian experience in Afghanistan where he will be helping get food to people who need it. By way of send-off, I hosted a Sunday lunch called ‘Come Swine With Me’ – three pork-based courses before he moves to a land where pork is strictly off the menu.

I wanted to end the meal with a flourish and serve a dessert that would reflect Thailand’s bright colours and sweetness. And then I remembered that I suck at baking and I have a shameful history of tarts with soggy bottoms. But nothing says “I will miss you loads and wish you a safe passage to Kabul” like a home-made, from scratch tropical fruit tart. So I avoided the temptation to buy a ready-made dessert, did my research, cherry picked the most doable bits from some of my favourite chefs’ tart recipes (many thanks Delia, Pascal and Michel), added my own tropical twist and this is the result. It really worked. There were moments in the process when I thought it wouldn’t – my crème patissiere went lumpy in the fridge but I whisked it out, my pastry fell apart as I transferred it to the dish but I patched it up. It came good in the end and the whole thing vanished as soon as it was served. I will definitely be making this again – not least to welcome back absent friends who come to visit.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

120g unsalted butter

60g icing sugar

140g plain flour

70g ground almonds

2g baking powder

1 egg yolk

1 pinch salt

For the crème patissiere:

200ml full fat milk

40g caster sugar

2 egg yolks

14g cornflour

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the fruit:

8 large strawberries

2 kiwis

1mango

30ml sweet white or rose wine

1.5 tbsp clear honey

Method

1.       First make the pastry. Take the butter out of the fridge and cut into small cubes. Place in a metal mixing bowl and leave to soften. Add the icing sugar and whisk together until pale and smooth. Sift in the flour and then add the almonds, baking powder and salt. Mix together with your finger tips. It should be a sandy texture. If it feels too buttery, add a little more flour. Then add the egg yolk and combine until you have a dough (it will still feel a bit buttery). Don’t over-work the pastry – once it is done, wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge for 2 hours.

2.       Meanwhile make your crème patissiere. Bring the milk to the boil. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg yolks until you have a silky, thick paste. Add the cornflour and continue whisking vigorously.

3.       Pour half of the boiled milk into the bowl and whisk until combined. Then pour the mixture from the bowl into the saucepan with the remaining milk and whisk. Bring it back to the boil and then reduce to a low temperature. Keep whisking the mixture over the low heat for 3-4 minutes and add the vanilla extract. Don’t take your eye of the mixture and keep stirring otherwise you will over-cook it and ruin the texture.

4.       After 4 minutes of cooking you should have a thick, silky cream. Transfer it to a shallow dish, cover with cling film and put in the fridge. After half an hour or so, when it has cooled down, take it out and whisk it up again. Don’t worry if it’s a bit lumpy, keep whisking and the lumps will go away. Cover once again with cling film and leave in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

5.       Next prepare your fruit. Cut it into slices however you like – either lots of thin slivers or big thick chunks.  I went somewhere in between. Then combine the wine and honey and pour over the fruit. Cover and leave to marinate until you are ready to serve.

6.       When two hours have gone by, take your pastry from the fridge and pre-heat the oven to 160°C. Dust with flour and roll out to about half a centimeter in thickness. You then need to transfer it to a tart dish. I did not manage to do this in one clean movement – my pastry was too delicate so I ended up transferring it in pieces and reconstructing it in the tart dish. I’m sure this isn’t how the professionals do it but it worked for me. Pat the pastry snugly and evenly into the dish, making sure you build a generous crust around the edge of the dish.

7.       Bake in the oven for 16 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. I wasn’t brave enough to remove the tart from the glass dish, but if you have a springform dish you can do this once the pastry has completely cooled.

8.       When you are ready to serve, remove the crème patissiere from the fridge and whisk up again. Pour it into the pastry and spread evenly. Place the fruit on top of the crème patissiere once piece at a time, arranging it however you like. Serve and enjoy!

Mango Ginger and Coriander Cheesecake

In my quest to improve my dessert-making skills I have been following a fantastic baking blog, Sweet2EatBaking. The wonderful Lisa posts amazing sweet dishes which leave me in awe. And she very kindly allowed me to make a guest post of my newest cheesecake recipes.

It's my most creative ever dessert and I think it's the perfect ending to an Asian fusion dinner. And it's super simple to make - no baking required!

Please visit Lisa's blog for the recipe, and while you're at it, take time to check out her amazing work.

Read the full recipe on Lisa's blog right here!

Creamy Mango Mousse with Soft Pistachio Cookies

Late last night I returned to Bangkok after two weeks of working in Bangladesh. This morning I had a tearful reunion with my kitchen and got straight to work. No rest for a food obsessive, least of all one who is going to turn her home into a restaurant for the first time next week (more on that later).

It is still mango season in Thailand. And I am still trying to get my head around desserts. So I am taking the plunge into the unchartered (by me) territory of mousse. This is a mango adaptation of a very simple mousse recipe. I have accompanied it with a delicious, light pistachio cookie for texture. Either serve the mousse in big glasses for a large dessert or in shot glasses as a canape or as part of a selection of sweet dishes:

Mousse shots

The cookies are so light and airy that the batch didn’t last long at all.

Tempting cookies on the cooling rack

Time: 30 minutes prep (plus 10 mins cooking time and several hours chilling time)

Rating: Easy

Serves: Makes 12 mousse shots or 3 large servings and 12 cookies

Ingredients

For the mousse:

200g mango puree (about 2 medium sized mangoes)

Juice 1 lime

250ml double cream

25g icing sugar

2 leaves gelatine
A few coursely chopped pistachios to garnish

For the cookies:

75g pistachios

85g caster sugar 

25g plain flour 

2 egg whites

Method

1. Start with the mousse. Place the gelatine leaves into a bowl of cold water to soften.
2. Whip the cream with the sugar until soft peaks form.
3. Peel the mangoes and puree the flesh in a blender until smooth. Heat the mango purée in a small pan. Squeeze out any excess water from the gelatine and add to the mango purée, stirring until dissolved. Add the lime juice and continue heating for another couple of minutes to firm up the puree and remove excess moisture.
4. Allow the mango mixture to cool and then fold into the whipped cream mixture. Transfer into serving glasses and refrigerate until set. Garnish with a few coarsely chopped pistachios. You can do this several hours in advance, even the night before.
5. Now for the cookies. Preheat the oven to 180°C  and grease a large baking sheet.
6. Finely grind three-quarters of the pistachios in a food processor or mortar and pestle. Coarsely chop the remaining nuts and set aside
7. Transfer the finely ground nuts to a bowl and stir in 45g caster sugar and flour.
8. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, and then add remaining sugar. Then fold in the pistachio mixture.
9. Place heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto the  baking sheet, using a second table spoon to round them. Leave space between them as they will rise and expand.
10. Sprinkle with remaining chopped nuts.
11. Bake for 10minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. If you want perfect rounds, use a small cookie cutter to cut out the middle section of each cookie and discard the rest.

Chocolate Pear and Cardamom Tart

Last week was Thai New Year – a week of nation-wide water fights and nearly a whole week off work! The prospect of another island mini-break (more on that in later blogs...I picked up some fantastic recipes), coupled with the non-arrival of the threatened tsunami, put me in a really good mood in the run up to New Year. So much so that I decided to bake, yes bake, a chocolaty treat for my colleagues.

Baking. My nemesis, my Achilles heel, the wasteland beyond my comfort zone. The time has come for me to grease up my tins, dust my surfaces and bravely face the unknown. I know that it’s not acceptable as a self-professed foodie to serve stellar savouries but settle for shop-bought cakes or a half-hearted fruit salad.  So I did some research to find the least screw-upable desserts and opted for a chocolate tart which requires no baking other than the pastry. The addition of spiced poached pears and cardamom gives the tart some complexity and welcomes it into Asian Fusion territory.

Unfortunately I can’t find ready-made pastry in Bangkok, otherwise I would definitely have cheated. I made my own using the basic recipe below and was quite satisfied with the results – it didn’t fall apart or taste horrible as I’d feared.



The tart overlooking the view of Bangkok from my office

The proof as they say, was in the pudding and my colleagues loved it and ate every scrap. They have even asked me to bake another! Thai people are generally very polite but food is serious business here – so I think they actually meant it. Look:



 



Ingredients

For the pastry:

200g plain flour

1 tbsp icing sugar

1 teaspoon salt

100g Unsalted butter

1 large egg yolk

4 tablespoons ice cold water

A little plain flour for dusting

(or 350g readymade shortcrust pastry)



For the chocolate filling:

200g dark chocolate

200ml double cream

6 cardamom pods

For the pears:

250ml water

1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger
1teaspoon whole cardamom seeds
1 stick cinnamon

2 large firm pears

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C

2. First make your pastry. Take the butter out of the fridge to soften. Sift the flour, icing sugar and salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter into small cubes and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well in the middle and add the egg yolk and the water, a little at a time. Mix with your hands until it comes together as a ball. Stop as soon as the dough is nice and firm; avoid over-kneading.
3. Wrap the dough in parchment paper and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. While the pastry is chilling, poach your pears. Peel the pears and put them in a pot with the other ingredients for the pears. Simmer on a low heat for about 30 minutes or until they feel soft all the way through when pricked with a fork. Turn the pears once or twice during cooking to make sure they are evenly poached on all sides. 
5. Remove the pears from the water and set aside to cool. Cut the cooled pears into quarters lengthways and remove the core. Slice them evenly lengthways, about half a centimetre in thickness. Lay them out on pieces of kitchen roll to absorb excess moisture.
6. Take your pastry out of the fridge and dust your work surface with a little plain flour. Roll the dough out thinly and use it to line a 25cm tart ring.
7. Line the pastry case with baking parchment and fill with baking beans or uncooked rice and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove the baking beans and paper and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the base of the tart is golden-brown and cooked through. Remove the tart from the oven and leave to cool.
8. While the pastry is cooking and cooling, get to work on your chocolate filling. Firstly split open the cardamom pods, remove the small black seeds inside and grind to a fine powder either in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle.
9. Next heat the chocolate in a saucepan set over a medium heat, stirring continuously until the chocolate melts. Add the cream and continue stirring until the mixture is smooth and thick. Then add the ground cardamom and stir thoroughly. Remove the mixture from the heat.
10. When the pastry has cooled spread a very thin layer of chocolate along the bottom of the tart case. Lay the pears out neatly on top and then pour over the remainder of the chocolate evenly.
11. Chill in the fridge for at least 45 minutes or until the chocolate has fully set.
    
    

Cooking ahead? The whole tart will keep in the fridge a day in advance. You can also prepare the pastry case and poach the pears in advance.



Banana Coconut and Almond Ice-Cream

You may have noticed a dearth of dessert recipes on this blog. It was brought to my attention by one of my followers. “Tough crowd” I thought. But actually, it’s a fair point. I’ve been quite open about the fact that I suck at baking and am terrified by the precision that deserts require. It doesn’t fit at all well with my mad scientist approach to cooking.

However ice-cream is a different story. You have to stick to basic proportions but it’s not nearly as rigid and unforgiving as baking and lets you to go, “hmmmm, I wonder what would happen if I added this…” without the whole thing imploding before your eyes. Like replacing some of the ordinary cream with coconut milk. It seemed like a fitting thing to do. Coconuts are everywhere in Thailand a key flavour in sweet and savory dishes.

Coconut seller at Klong Toey market in Bangkok

1. Peel and chop the bananas into even sized pieces. Put them into a plastic tub and into the freezer until frozen.
2. Make sure you refrigerate the coconut milk and cream until you are ready to make the ice-cream – the secret of getting your ice-cream to set is making sure all the ingredients are cold already when they go into the ice-cream maker.
3. With a food processor, mortar and pestle or a good knife and chopping board, chop or crush the almonds fairly finely, leaving a few bigger chunks for texture.
4. Put the frozen bananas into a blender or food processor and blend until they are a smooth paste. Add all of the other ingredients except for the almonds and blend briefly until creamy. Don’t blend for too long as this will warm the mixture up.
5. Add the almonds and stir in (don’t blend – you don’t want them to be broken up too finely)
6. Churn in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer instructions
7. The ice-cream should come out fairly solid. If it isn’t, place in a plastic tub and in the freezer for half an hour.

One of the principles of Mango Ginger recipes is that they don’t require you to use specialist ingredients or equipment. I am aware that an ice-cream maker is a fairly specialist piece of equipment. But my experience with it has been so wonderful that I’m allowing myself to break my own rule. Not only will it give you hours of fun, but making ice-cream is one of those things where the ratio of effort required to level of awe from your guests is definitely in the cook’s favour.

Lots of ice-cream recipes suggest making a custard first. But this one doesn’t need it – good quality, thick double cream does the trick. And trust me on the salted almonds, it’s only a tiny hint in the end but it really works. I was so happy with this I am even considering facing my fear of making desserts head-on!

Time: 25 mins plus freezing time (may vary according to your ice-cream maker)

Rating: Couldn't be simpler

Serves: 3-4 (or 1 if you are my husband) 

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas

1 tbsp sugar
175ml coconut milk

200ml double cream
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

40g roasted salted almonds

Method

Pineapple and Almond Crumble Served With Ginger Cream

In the first version of this dish there was no crumble – just glazed pineapple with ginger cream. But by the time I’d griddled the fruit in all that butter and sugar and then covered it in a huge dollop of cream, I figured that this had ceased to be a light healthy dessert and I may as well go the whole hog and turn it into a decadent crumble. I’ll start that diet tomorrow…

I have made my feelings on baking clear in previous blogs: I don’t much like it, and it doesn’t much like me. There’s something about the precision that it demands with which I am yet to come to terms. But a crumble is different. It can’t sink, it can’t turn to concrete when it cools, it’s easy to tell if either the crumble or fruit aren’t cooked enough …in other words, it’s pretty hard to screw up.

To me, there is something wonderfully comforting and nostalgic about a crumble as it is the taste of my childhood.  The contrast of hot and cold with the whipped cream is heavenly. Crumbles, at least in the UK are usually made with apple or rhubarb. The substitution with tropical pineapple and the ginger kick lift the dish and make it bright and cheerful and a great ending to an Asian Fusion meal.

I have a confession to make about the pineapple I used. Here in Bangkok we are fortunate to have mobile fruit stands on every street corner. You can pick up ready peeled, beautifully cut, chilled fruit for just a few baht:

So I did. But I have adjusted the timing in recognition of the fact that some of you will have to wrestle with all the prickles.  

Time: 1hr 20 mins (35-40 mins cooking time)

Rating: Easy as pie (or crumble)

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients

For the ginger cream:

Juice from 2 inches finely grated fresh ginger (1-2 tbsp)

250ml whipping cream

1 tsp caster sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the filling:

700g fresh pineapple (weight when peeled – about 1 medium pineapple)

2 tbsp orange juice (fresh if possible)

2 tsp ground ginger

50g brown sugar

For the topping:

100g whole almonds (skin still on)

75g butter

200g plain flour

100g brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C.
2. Start by making the cream so it has plenty of time to refrigerate. Grate the ginger and squeeze the juice from the grated ginger into a large bowl. Discard the pulp. Add the whipping cream, and other cream ingredients. Whip with an electric or hand whisk until soft peaks form. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.
3. Peel and quarter your pineapple. Remove any ‘eyes’ and also the tough core. Chop into chunks about an inch in size and set aside.
4. Spread the almonds onto a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 3-4 minutes, taking out to shake about half way through. They should be very slightly toasted – not too much because they’ll continue to toast when you cook the crumble later. Allow to cool and chop the almonds fairly finely either by hand with a good knife or in a food processor. Don’t worry if you have a few bigger pieces left in there, it gives a rustic crunch.
5. Combine the butter and flour with your hands until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
6. Add the brown sugar and the toasted almonds and combine, again using your fingers.
7. Place the pineapple chunks into a medium sized baking dish (about 25cm) and pour over the orange juice, ginger and sugar. Combine to make sure the pineapple is evenly coated.
8. Sprinkle the topping over the fruit evenly.
9. Put in the oven and bake for 35-40 mins until it is nicely golden on top and the juice below has thickened and is bubbling. Take out of the oven and allow to rest for about 10-15 minutes. Letting it cool gives the sugar time to harden a little and ever so slightly caremalise the crumble and the nuts.
10. Serve warm with plenty of the ginger cream.

Cooking ahead? The crumble can be made several hours in advanced and stored in the fridge, as can the ginger cream.

Kulfi-Inspired Cheesecake: White Chocolate, Cardamom and Pistachio, with Orange Syrup

I introduce this recipe with a confession. I hate baking. I find it the most unforgiving form of cooking. With a curry or a stir-fry, you can taste as you go, correcting heavy-handed chilli doses with salt, lime or sugar, and everything is ok again. But with baking, one mistake and it’s a flop – literally. My latest baking disaster was a cake version of this cheesecake. The batter held all sorts of promise, it tasted divine. But somewhere along the line - maybe an inaccurate weight, an impatient opening of the oven door, who knows – I made a mistake and my cake sunk in the middle, inedible and unblogable.  Like my cake, I was left deflated. 

But I knew I was onto something with the flavour combination so started again, but this time with a cheesecake. I’ve made it twice now, both times (if I do say so myself) with perfect results. So as a self-professed terrible baker, I ask you to trust me. This recipe works and is worth every ounce of effort. It’s quite simply delicious.

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of eating kulfi, it’s a delicious frozen dessert from South Asia. It’s a bit like ice-cream but denser and creamier, made from condensed milk. Cardamom and Pistachio are two of the most popular flavours. It looks like this:

I made this cheesecake at home but decided that my boyfriend and I shouldn’t be left alone with that much cheesecake, so I took it over to my good friend’s restaurant to share with our friends and the kitchen staff. And he let me plate it up in his kitchen, which was really exciting for me! As I was slicing it up, I realised the great thing about this recipe is the number of servings you’ll get out of it – easily 15 slices.

Don’t worry if you have loads left over, it will keep in the fridge for several days, as will the orange syrup. Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the Base:

250g digestive biscuits

100g shelled pistachios (They weigh about 180g with shells still on)

90g unsalted butter (plus a little more for greasing the tin)

For the Filling:

900g cream cheese

225g caster sugar

1.5 tbsp plain flour

20 cardamom pods

4 large eggs

2tbsp double cream

250g white chocolate

Zest of one orange and 2tbsp juice from the orange

For the Orange Syrup:

250ml orange juice (ideally freshly squeezed but if not, good quality shop bought)

100g caster sugar

Garnish

30g shelled pistachio nuts

Strips of orange zest

Equipment needed: 9 inch spring form cake tin; a large baking dish into which you can easily place the cake tin, and some good quality tin foil

Method:

1.      Preheat oven to 165°C

2.      Take the cream cheese out of the fridge so it is at room temperature when you use it.

3.      The first thing you’ll need to do is make a tin foil ‘jacket’ for the cake tin. This is because when you come to bake it, you will place the cake tin into a large dish of water to cook. This is called a bain-marie (a water bath). I don’t fully understand the science but it controls the temperature and importantly, stops the cheesecake from cracking. The tin foil jacket makes the tin waterproof during this process. To make the jacket, stand the cake tin on a piece of tin foil and bring the edges up, but don’t tuck them into the inside of the tin – cut them off if necessary. Repeat with a several sheets of foil. When you’ve finished, take the tin out of its jacket – you don’t need it straight away.

4.      Grease the inside of the tin with a little butter.

5.      Then make the base.  Melt the butter over a low heat. While it is melting, weigh up your biscuits and turn them into fine crumbs. If you have a food processor use this, otherwise put them in a plastic back and crush them with a rolling pin. Place your shelled pistachios on a baking tray and roast in the oven for about 5 minutes. Give the tray a shake about half way through and keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn. Allow the nuts to cool and crush finely, either with a food processor or a mortar and pestle.

6.      Add the nuts to the crumbs and then pour over the melted butter and mix well. Press these into the bottom of the greased cake tin. You want to make sure the base is well-compressed so press hard. I used a potato masher which did the job nicely. Then bake without the foil jacket for 8 minutes.

7.      Time to start on your filling. Zest the orange very finely and set this aside. Keep the orange handy so you can squeeze out the juice  which you’ll need shortly. To prepare the cardamom, use a knife to take out the seeds in the middle. Discard the green husks. Finely crush the seeds in a mortar and pestle, removing any bits of stray husk. Set aside for later. Don’t worry if it looks like a lot. It smells very strong when you crush it but blended into all that cream, it gives just the right amount of fragrance.

8.      Put the white chocolate into a bowl above a saucepan of hot water and allow to melt slowly. Avoid over-stirring or overheating the chocolate or it will turn grainy. Remove from heat as soon as it's melted and put aside.

9.      In a large mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese until creamy. If you have an electric whisk, use this on the lowest setting. If not (I didn’t) a wooden spoon does the trick. Then add the sugar and orange juice and mix until smooth, making sure you scrape down the sides to capture all of the mixture. Then add the flour and cardamom and stir in. Beat the eggs and add them in gradually. Finally stir in the cream. By now it should be a thick consistency and smell delicious.

10.  Finally pour in the chocolate – you need to do this quickly to prevent it setting and going lumpy. Keep stirring until all the ingredients are combined and you have a creamy, glossy mixture.

11.  Now put the tin into its foil jacket and place it into a large baking dish. Pour the mixture onto the cooked base and level with a spoon – it should come right to the top. Now carefully pour hot water into the baking tin so it comes about 3cm up the side of the foil.

12.  Now place into the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. When it's ready, the cake will be golden brown on top. The top will have set but the cake will be wobbly to the touch – don’t worry; it will set when it cools.

13.  Remove the cake from the oven. Cover the top gently with a sheet of kitchen roll and leave it to cool in the water bath for an hour. The reason for this is that it cools the cake down very slowly and therefore prevents the top from cracking. Remove from the water bath and cool and refrigerate for at least four hours, still in the tin.

14.   While the cake is cooling make your syrup. In a saucepan, stir together the orange juice and the sugar over medium high heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer down until the liquid is about reduced by half. Let cool and keep in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.

15.  Roast the remaining pistachio nuts in the same way as those used for the cake. Allow to cool and chop very coarsely.

16.  When you are ready to serve, gently remove the cake from the tin and cut into slices. Pour some of the syrup over the top and sprinkle a few of the roasted pistachios and a couple of strands of orange zest. Doesn’t that look gorgeous?

Spiced Banana Griddle Pan Brunch Waffles

I like brunch. Its a fancy way of saying you drank too much last night, slept through breakfast, woke up in need of a big feed and cannot possibly wait until lunchtime. For me this is the perfect brunch recipe. The waffles are filling and are balanced by the refreshing fruit, honey and cool yoghurt. The idea for cooking the waffles in a griddle pan is borrowed from Jamie Oliver. I think it’s brilliant. It’s quick, easy and anything that does away with another piece of kitchen equipment is my kind of cooking.

Inspiration for this dish came to me during a recent work trip to Punjab, Pakistan. I spent most of the time in markets talking to market traders to understand what foods are available and at what price. The first thing that struck me when I walked into the small village stores was the amazing smell of spices. Huge sacks of cinnamon, cloves and other spices take up most of the floor space and make the shops smell so warm and welcoming.

The other thing I noticed was the bananas. Every fruit and veg stand had them hanging down in huge bunches. They only sold one variety but they’re sweet and packed with flavour.

I have taken the classic waffle recipe and added sugar and spice and other things nice. Adding banana into the waffle batter makes them moist and a bit denser. They also bring a bit of sweetness, which I’ve topped up with just a little sugar.

The spices are the real hero of this dish. Ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg are found in a lot of South Asian dishes. They are used in savoury and sweet dishes and every good south Asian kitchen will be equipped with its own spice rack and be used just about every meal time. In this dish, the spices give the waffles an almost Christmassy flavour. The bananas blend with the spices perfectly and will fill your kitchen with that same divine smell when the waffles are cooking.

Combining this with tropical fruit makes a lovely contrast. We are so lucky in Thailand to have fruit vendors on every street corner. They push small trolleys of fresh fruit on ice and for 10 baht (about 20p) you can get a little bag of pineapples, guavas, melon, and other fruits you didn’t even know existed.

Time: 35 mins

Rating: Easy like Sunday morning

Serves 2 (hungry people – these are generous portions)

Ingredients

1 egg

150ml milk

115g self-raising flower

1 ¼ tp baking powder

50g unsalted butter plus a little more for cooking

Pinch salt

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 banana mashed -100g when peeled

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg (preferably grated, if not ground)

1 medium banana (about 100g when peeled)

Selection of fresh tropical fruit: mango, papaya, pineapple, bananas

Coconut yoghurt to serve

1. First, put the butter in a small saucepan and melt over a low heat. Once it has completely melted, set it aside to cool.
2. Next, chop up the fruit that you are going to serve on top of your waffles into nice large chunks. If you’re using bananas, leave these til the last minute so they don’t go brown.
3. Peel and mash the banana using a fork. Don’t worry if there are a few lumps left – it doesn’t need to be a fine puree.
4. In a separate mixing bowl whisk the egg and milk. Then sift in the flour and baking powder. Add the salt, sugar, and dry spices. Whisk again to combine the ingredients.
5. Next add the mashed bananas and whisk again until they are evenly mixed into the mixture.
6. Then stir in the butter (using a spoon rather than whisk) very gently. This is important, if you over-stir the butter it will lose its silkiness and your waffles will come out a bit stiff.
7. Heat a knob of butter in your griddle pan over a high heat. The butter needs to be hot and bubbling when the mixture first hits it to make sure the waffles are brown and crisp on the outside.  Using a ladle or a large spoon, spoon the batter into the pan. You should be able to get two large waffles out of one pan. Don’t worry about making them perfectly round, they’ll look charming and rustic with uneven edges.
8. Turn the heat down to a medium level and allow the waffles to cook for about five or six minutes. You should start to smell the spices, butter and banana combining and smell amazing! Check that they’re not burning by lifting up an edge with a spatula and checking the colour. After five minutes or if they look like they’re brown enough, gently flip them over with a spatula. Cook for another 5-6 minutes on the other side. Turn over once more and cook on the other side for one more minute.
9. Plate up: place on a plate and drizzle generously with honey. I’m not sure what kind of honey I used. It’s a local variety that comes in a big bottle but it’s in Thai so I can’t read it! But any clear runny kind will do. Next carefully place your fruit and serve with a small pot of coconut yoghurt. Spooning the yoghurt into a glass looks nice and lets people add as much as they like.

Alternatives:

If you want to switch the tropical fruit for something more local or seasonal, consider using apples, pears, cranberries in Winter, or berries and stone fruit in Summer.

Coconut yoghurt goes well with the tropical fruits and spices. But you could use any you like, or even switch to Greek yoghurt which would go nicely with the honey.