Banana Toffee Pie (Banoffe pie)

When you come across the same dish in 4 different blog, all in a single day, then think no more. Its the great baker in the sky telling you that its time you made that dish. And hey, who am I to question the great baker's plans? and so I made the Banoffe pie, which is simple banana and toffee mashed up together, much like in this dessert. Its decadent, its rich and its most definitely yummy. Its true that you cant eat too many helpings cause it is frankly a sickly sweet recipe and you can get satiated with one slice but thats only a problem, if you are just making this pie for yourself. One the other hand if it is for a dinner party, then you wouldnt know where the dessert disappeared! Here are the things you need,

• 4-5 medium ripe bananas
• 400 mils of double cream
• 1/2 cup sugar and 3tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 tin condensed milk
• 250 grams of digestive biscuits
• 125 gram butter

Method:

1. In a blender/food processor, mix together the digestive biscuits and butter until they form coarse crumbs.
2. Press the biscuit crumbs onto a springform tin to form the base. Remember to press the crumbs on to the sides of the tin. 
3. Refrigerate for 1/2 an hour
4. In the meanwhile, on low heat melt together the sugar and water. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved.
5. Then raise the heat to medium and leave the sugar undisturbed for 5 minutes or until it begins to caremelize.
6. Now quickly add the condensed milk and butter and whisk until the toffee sauce thickens.
7. Then remove the rested pie shell from the fridge and pour half of the sauce all over it, including the sides. 
8. Refrigerate it for a further half an hour.
9. Now chop the bananas into medium sized slices and whip the cream to form still peaks
10. Fold the bananas into the cream
11. Spread the cream evenly over the biscuit and toffee base
12. Pour the remaining toffee sauce over the cream and refrigerate for another 1/2 an hour.
13. Then dig in!

You could omit steps 4,5,6 and make toffee sauce another way. All you need to do is remove the label from the tin of condensed milk and then immerse the tin in a pot water and place that pot on low heat (simmer) for about 2 and half hours and then when you crack open the tin of condensed milk, voila! its toffee sauce! :) While, this is a far easier process it is a lot more time consuming. So, choose your method according to your convenience. The result is just the same though!

Also, one way to reduce the sweetness of the dessert if its a tad too much for you would be to use, just ripe bananas instead of medium or overtly ripe ones. This way, the lack of sweetness in the bananas will help even out the overall sweetness of the dessert.

For the base, try using salted butter instead of unsalted butter, as the saltiness of the biscuit plus the butter forms and interesting clash with the sweetness of the toffee sauce.

 Remember to wear stretch pants ore PJs when you eat the dessert. Why you ask, you will know! This dessert might even make you wish for spandex! :P

Nigella's Mini Key Lime Pie

Well, as you can probably guess, I have an abundance of lime around me and so, I'm doing the best thing I can do with it, make pie! :) :) That and the fact that I got gifted Nigella's ' How to be a Domestic Goddess', which is filled with many many of such lime n lemony treats. Its truly a simple recipe and what I like about it is because we make it in small tart tins, it gives us scope for experimentation. The basic recipe stays the same, but you can always add different flavouring agents to it and so you end up a dozen or more pies, all in different flavours! An assorted pie tray of sorts. Well, I tried many of them. Tried the basic lime pie, key lime pie, orange pie, passion fruit pie and pineapple pie. Stayed on course with tropical fruit though. Its really simple, you should most definitely try it. You don't even need freshly squeezed juice to get the flavour, packaged organic juice works just fine. Nonetheless the name of the post is Nigella's Mini Key Lime Pie cause, well it is her recipe after all and all I've done is make changes to it.

Here is what you need,

• 1 can of condensed milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 egg whites
• 250 gram digestive biscuits
• 100 grams of butter
• about 4 tbsp of key lime/lime/pine apple/passion fruit/orange juice (Not all at the same time but you know that already. However, I wonder if adding spoonful of each would give it a carribean flavour?? Hmmm..I wonder)
• A pinch of salt

Method:

1. Pulse the digestive biscuits and butter together in a food processor until it forms nice buttery crumbs.
2. Then press it into your mini tart tins. Take care to line the sides too.
3. Leave in the fridge for atleast 30 minutes.
4. Pre heat the oven to 170 degree Celsius.
5. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks together until it becomes thick.
6. Continue whisking and add the condensed milk and the fruit juice of your choice. Mix well.
7. In a different bowl, beat the egg whites plus the salt until it forms soft peaks.
8. Now fold the whites in to the yolk mixture.
9. Pour it into the biscuit base and bake for about 10-12 minutes.
10. Leave it to cool completely. Refrigerate if possible.
11. Serve! Yum!

The only disappointment I had with these pies, and it was more my fault than theirs, was that they looked a bit boring! I expected my lime pie to be green and my orange pie to be, well, orange and so on. I know I am being silly but really, these neutral colours broke my heart a little.:(

Steamed Rice And Prawn Pie

Seen those bamboo steamers that are such a rage these days? Well, a few weeks back I happened to go travelling to the interiors of India and what do you know, the tribal have always been cooking with them. Infact, I happened to meet a very accommodating local who within a matter of minutes, chiseled out for me, my very own bamboo steamer. Yup, custom made! How cool is that? Anyways, today I decided to put the steamer to good use and baked my self a yummy steamed rice n prawn pie.

Here is what you need,

• 1 cup Basmati rice or small grain rice (which ever is handy) soaked in water for a couple of hours
• 5 cups of coconut milk (You could also use 3 cups coconut milk with 2 cups water if you like)
• Pinch of sal
• 1 cup cooked prawns
• 1 onion finely diced
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp chili powder/paprika
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• a small piece of ginger, finely grated
• a small knob of butter, melted

Method:

1. In blender, mix together the pre soaked rice with coconut milk until a very smooth and runny batter is formed.
2. Add the salt to it and mix really well. Keep aside.
3. In a pan, pour a little oil and saute the onions until they turn translucent.
4. Now add the garlic and ginger and saute for a couple of minutes.
5. To this, add the paprika/chili powder, salt and the turmeric powder and fry until the raw smell disappears.
6. Now tip in the cooked prawns and mix until everything is well coated with the spices.
7. In a greased cake tray, pour half of the rice batter and allow it to steam for 10 minutes or up until it cooks and becomes firm.
8. Then, lay down the prawns in a layer on top of the cooked rice batter and pour half of the remaining batter on top.
9. Steam it for 5 minutes and then quickly pour the rest of the batter on top.
10. Steam for a further 10 minutes or up until the pie is fully cooked. You could try the toothpick test to check if the pie is cooked.
11. Remove from the steamer and give the pie a butter wash.
12. Let the pie cool before transferring it to your serving dish.
13. Enjoy!! Yum!

PS: I know it looks a little minimalistic and plain jane, but the flavour of the prawn and the melt in your mouth consistency of the pie more than makes up for it.

Crumbly silky chocolate pie

The first thing I read today morning was a post by Tara of Butterdish and everything about the post touched me. It was moving and inspiring and it made you wanna bake, not for yourself but someone else. This chocolate pie was a result of that post. Agreed, the post asked for a peanut butter pie but due to certain reasons, I just could not make a trip to the supermarket and so had to make do with what was in my pantry. Well, the pie turned out B E A U T I F U L. It was just like its name, crumbly, silky, chocolaty and felt velvety in the mouth. I wish I could have shared a slice with you, just so that you would know that I am not fibbing. You must try this!

Here are the things you need,

For the crust:

• One 250 gram packet of Bourbon biscuits
• 50 grams of butter

For the filling:

• 2 squares of chocolate bars (approx 250 grams)
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 tbsp gelatin
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp zest of orange (for a tangy-ness only) 
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, separated (not divorced, only separated..sorry sad joke, I know)

Method:

1. Mix together the biscuits and butter together in a food processor.
2. Now tip the mixture on to your tart tin and press it in so that it spreads evenly. Make sure it covers the edges of the tin too
3. Refrigerate the crust for about 30 minutes.
4. Now, mix the gelatin in cold water and allow it to  rest for 15 minutes
5. Boil 1/2 a cup of water and mix the chocolate in to.
6. Once the chocolate is fully melted, add the gelatin and bring the mixture to a simmer.
7. Keep stirring until all the gelatin has dissolved.
8. Now add 2 egg yolks to the mixture and mix
9. Then add the vanilla essence.
10. Take off from heat and allow the mixture to cool. 
11. Now, whip the egg whites with the sugar until it forms still peaks.
12. Fold the cooled chocolate in to the mix and pour into the tart tin.
13. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
14. Serve! Yum!