Rum (or whatever) Baked Bananas

One of on constant and on-going aims in life is "To Have Less Stuff". I'm not a minimalist, I'm not even close, but I love finishing something up, especially if it's not something I am going to have to replace.
 
Which is why I love this recipe.
 
Right, let's talk about drinks cabinets. Are you like me and have a drinks cabinet full of fairly random spirits that almost never get drunk (I drink gin, but that's pretty much it on the spirit front), but which have been acquired:

The Carrot-Towers Drinks Cabinet - I have drunk all the gin :-(

• As gifts (please, can people stop buying Carrot-Man bottles of whisky)
• Because they tasted nice on holiday (why does a lurid orange liqueur in a weird bottle taste fabulous on holiday but like cough mixture when you get it home?)
• For totally unknown reasons (yes, stone-effect bottle whose label has fallen off, I am looking at you here)

So, a recipe which uses up some of that whilst impressing your guests AND being cheap And being easy! Well, what's not to like?
 
The recipe is based on one in Clare Connery's Store Cupboard Cookery book and is easy adapt, depending what you've got in the house. It serves four.
 
Ingredients:

1. 4 bananas
2. 25g sugar, brown is best. Honey would probably be good too
3. Grated rind and juice of an orange (or just a glug of orange juice and some candied peel, if that's what you have to hand
4. 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
5. 4 tbsp spirit or liqueur of your choice. I used some Dark Rum (& finished the bottle! Hurrah! and some Bacardi Coconut Rum - it was a present, honest)
6. Some dessicated coconut

My tiles are awful, I know, I'm sorry

 
Method

• Peel bananas and cut in half longways
• Place in a shallow dish (the only banana sized dish I have is a loaf tin, which worked brilliantly)
• Put everything else, except the coconut, in a small saucepan and heat up gentle until the sugar melts

 

• Pour over bananas

• Cover in foil

• Bake in oven at 190c (ish) for 15 minutes (ish)

• Plate up and sprinkle with dessicated coconut
• Serve alone or with ice cream (I also served with shots of the coconut rum)

 
 
Yum! I wish I'd make double the amount!

(Almost) Free Food!

Soooo, I am luring you into my new blog with the promise of (almost) free food. How good is that?
 
I don't very often make desserts; I don't have a sweet tooth, I am currently built more for comfort than for speed, so don't need any extra food, plus, generally speaking, I just can't be arsed to cook anything else on top of the main meal.
 
But, when you have a guest, you have to push the boat out a little, right? OK, so, not much time to shop/cook/prepare and, in any case, money is in short supply in Carrot Towers at present, so it's time to fall back on my favourite dessert - Fruit Crumble.

I decided I could kill two birds with one stone and get the filling for free and get it for less effort by taking Carrot-Girl for a nice walk to pick blackberries and collect some apples from the house along the road who puts a nice big box outside with a "Help Yourself" label on.

When blackberrying alone, I always pick from above the height that I think a dog might wee on. However, Carrot-Girl is four, so the line between where she can reach and where a dog might wee is quite thin.

Best just to rinse well and not think about it too hard. Obviously, I decided not to share that information with Carrot-Man and the guest. And anyway, urine is sterile, isn't it?
 

 
Speaking of blackberries, years ago I once went out with a guy who had lived all his life in inner London (Elephant and Castle, for those who know London) but had, just before I met him, moved to the leafy (to his urban mind) Crystal Palace area.

He had a huge and fruitful blackberry bush in his back garden, so I suggested picking them and making some jam or desserts or something.

He looked at me as if I was utterly insane, saying "Are you mad? They are WILD! They will poison you!" To misquote Charlotte Bronte, Reader, I did not marry him. I didn't even stick around until the following blackberry season.

Anyway, enough about badly chosen boyfriends of long ago and back to the recipe. I am using a 2-pint casserole dish, which, if you have a set of three, is probably the middle one.

Rinse the blackberries well (even if you have picked from above dog-wee height), drain and put in the dish. Peel, core and chop your apples and fill the dish (I don't know the weights, I just fill the dish to the top, and left over fruit goes in the freezer until next time).
 

 
Next, make the crumble. You will need:

• 170g plain flour
• Pinch of salt
• 110g butter or cooking margarine
• 55g sugar (basic granulated works best - yay, the cheapest is best!)

And this is what you do:

1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl
2. Rub in the butter until it looks like lumpy crumbs (below)
3. Add the sugar (don't forget this, I did once, not good)

 
Put the topping onto the fruit and cook at 200c for about 45 minutes.

Don't worry about the enormous towering pile, as the crumble cooks the fruit will soften and sink and you'll end up with a flat-ish dessert..............................

 
.................... a bit like this one:

 
Yum! It tasted great! We ate three quarters and I polished off the remainder for my breakfast, before anyone else could get up and snaffle it.

You can make this with any fruit all year round. If you use a very tart fruit, like gooseberry or rhubarb, sprinkle some sugar on the fruit and but a sugar bowl out when you serve, so people can sweeten to taste.

So, what free fruit is available in your areas? I swear by the book Food for Free, by Richard Mabey. I've had my copy for years and it's great. Tells you what's edible, what's not and how to use the edible stuff. Maybe I should anomalously post a copy to my ex-boyfriend.

Thanks all for now,
Carrot Cruncher