2 ingredients pancakes

A while ago I watched one of those Facebook ‘life hack’ vids. This one was of recipes using just 2 ingredients. I promptly forgot all about it.

This morning as I went to make poached eggs on toast I realised that I only had egg whites, the yolks having been used up in a tiramisu.

Flashback to video of someone (actually disembodied arms) making pancakes using egg whites and bananas. I had bags of sliced bananas in the freezer. I always have sliced bananas in the freezer to prevent a glut of them blackening in the fruit bowl. I mostly use them to make that fakey ice-cream that’s all over the internet which consists of some blended frozen banana. It actually works too, I make it with a spoon of peanut butter or a couple of strawberries blended with the frozen banana slices.

So, for these internet life hack 2 ingredient pancakes which probably won’t work, 4 egg whites and half a bag of frozen banana slices (I would guess 2 bananas) into the food processor. Whizz whizz whizz.

Then I fried dollops of the batter in butter. Small dollops or the middles splurge out making it look like the pancakes have been sick (see third photo).

It actually works. They don’t fill you up much as are so light, but taste good. Keep the heat low as they burn easily. They are also deliciously sweet.

Banana and oat drop scones (scotch pancakes)

 

 

 

 

Serves 2-3 people for breakfast and makes about 20 small drop scones/ scotch pancakes (they are the same thing, right?). Also works with soya yoghurt and non-dairy milk e.g. almond or soya but needs the egg so not suitable for vegans.

Ingredients

• 100g oats (you can can gluten free oats if you need those)
• 4 tbsp yoghurt (of any kind – fruit/plain/greek, soya)
• 1 egg, organic natch
• 1 banana
• possibly a splash of milk
• 1/4 teaspoon of bicarb of soda
• sunflower oil or butter (better) for frying

Method

• Attack the oats with a stick blender until they make a rough flour (or buy oat flour but it costs a bomb)
• Add the egg, banana and yoghurt and carry on blending until you have a rough looking pancake mix. Lumps of banana are fine, unincorporated egg is not.
• If you need to, add a splash (or more) of milk. Sorry to be vague but it depends on how big and ripe your banana is, what kind of yoghurt. Add milk if its too solid to make pancakes with, but you do want a fairly thick batter, not at all like making crepes.
• Add the bicarb (or baking powder) and mix it in well
• Bang the bowl several times on the counter before cooking to pop the little bubbles
• Melt the butter and when hot enough, drop tablespoons of batter in, I usually do 4 per pan.
• When the batter bubbles, turn the pancakes over and cook for a few more minutes
• You can keep them warm in a low oven while you make the rest of the batches or just serve to hungry people as they’re ready
• Serve as they are or with maple syrup or (even better) rosehip syrup.

Vegoada

Vegoada, is a pun on feijoada, a Brazilian/ Portuguese concoction of masses of meat, black beans and cabbage. This (obviously) has no meat, and is cooked in an entirely different way, and pretty much has nothing in common bar the black beans and a smokey flavour. No recipe as such – just throw it together. In fact the only reason I’m writing it up (despite having made it once a week for aeons) is because a friend suggested I blog recipes my (currently 8-month-old) baby likes. Hence the new category ‘stuff my baby will eat’.

Ingredients

• 4 medium sized beetroot (but I’ve also used carrots, celeriac and sweet potato instead)
• Olive oil
• Big tin of black beans, drained (get from Portuguese/Brazilian/Angolan/ Caribbean shops)
• Either a few fresh tomatoes, chopped, or a carton of passata
• Few shakes of smoked paprika
• Bunch of coriander, chopped
• Juice of 1 or 2 limes
• Yoghurt or sour cream or poached egg to top (optional)

Method

• Roast peel, chop and roast the beetroot (or other veg) in the oil and smoked paprika for about 20 mins at 200 c (ish)
• If using fresh tomatoes add them for the last 10 mins of cooking
• Add the passata (if using) and tin of black beans, stir and return to the oven to warm through
• When hot, stir in the lime juice and fresh, chopped coriander
• Add salt and pepper to taste, then serve naked or topped with the yoghurt or sour cream or poached egg

My Portuguese meat eating boyfriend loves this, despite also loving the actual feijoada, and my baby likes it too. Here’s the evidence of him eating it (and hitting it, smearing it about, natch).

Vid of baby eating Vegoada

Apple cake with cinnamon cream cheese topping

Ingredients

• 200g self raising flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 100ml sunflower oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 cooking apples (200g when peeled and cored), chopped
• 200g cream cheese
• 3 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 3 shakes of cinnamon

Method

• Heat oven to 180 degrees c, grease a 23cm ring tin
• Sieve flour and sugar into a bowl
• Beat the eggs and beat in the sunflower oil
• Add the egg mix to the flour and sugar, add a splash or two of milk to loosen the mixture into a nice cake mix
• Stir in the chopped apple
• Put in the ring tin and bake for 20 minutes
• Leave to cool for ten minutes and then take out of the tin and leave (right way up) on a cooling rack until completely cold.
• Make the icing by beating together the cheese, sugar and cinnamon. I like the flavour of brown sugar but you could also use icing sugar. Chill while waiting for the cake to cool.
• Once the cake is cold, spread with the icing and  serve.

Black Lentils and Orange Squash

Serves 2 people with leftover lentils. Because leftover lentils are ESSENTIAL for LIFE

Ingredients

• Mug of black lentils (whole urad dal)
• 1 onion
• Splash of sunflower oil
• Tbsp bouillon powder or veg stock cube
• Knob of butter
• 1 butternut squash
• Splash of olive oil
• 4 tbsp Creme fraiche
• A generous handful of fresh sage and rosemary
• Salt

Method

• Soak the lentils (urad dal) for 8 hours or overnight
  then rinse thoroughly
• Finely chop the onion then fry in the sunflower oil for 5-10 minutes, until soft and browning
• Add the lentils and the bouillon, or stock, disolved two mugs of  boiling water. Cook with the lid on until the lentils are soft, about an hour. If there is any water left, boil rapidly with lid off until it’s gone (or drain if you prefer). You may also need to add water during cooking, dal is not an exact science.
• Peel and chop the squash into large slices or chunks (remove seeds) and toss in the olive oil, then bake at 220 degrees for 20 minutes (turn halfway through)
• Using a mezzaluna (or sharp knife and shopping board) very finely chop the herbs together with a half teaspoon of salt so that you end up with some delicious green, herblicious salty dust. Add 2/rds of this to the cooked dal together with a knob (or 2) of butter and warm through.
• Add the remaining salty herbs to the creme fraiche and stir well.
• To serve, ladle the lentils onto plates, top with the squash and a dollop of creme fraiche.

A note about the lentils: Urad dal aka black lentils aka black gram aka mungo beans can be found in Indian shops. If you can’t find them use puy lentils instead (much less soaking and cooking required though). Don’t use skinned urad dal or split urad dal – they taste totally different as the flavour comes from the skins.

You may have had them in Indian restaurants where they are cooked with masses of cream and butter. The skinned urad dal are ground to make dosas. What a versatile bean.

Leftover Lentils Burgers

No weights here as it depends on what quantity of leftover lentils you have. Just bung everything in and it should work. This makes it a useful leftovers recipe, not like that awkward Nigel Slater programme that claimed to use leftovers but in reality continued with his usual style of recipe (admittedly usually lovely) but with some allegedly stale cheese or overripe bananas or whatever. A good leftovers recipe can not be precise.

Ingredients

• Cooked green lentils (I had about 4 portions’ worth, I always cook too many because they are cheap, I love them and the leftovers are versatile)
• Soya mince
• Oregano
• Egg
• Rye flour

Method

• Heat oven to 200 degrees c, grease a baking sheet.
• Blend half the lentils and leave half whole
• Mix both with a few handfuls of soya mince (mine was straight from the freezer), a beaten egg, lots of fresh or dried oregano and salt and pepper. My lentils were cooked in stock, garlic and chilli so already flavoursome but if yours are plain add some more flavour here.
• Add enough rye flour to enable you to shape into burgers.
• Bake for 25 minutes, turning half way through.

Served with lettuce and Wensleydale

 

Rhubarb Ice Cream

I was considering buying an ice-cream machine, but in the interests of saving money and cupboard space (I have none) first tried out a no-churn ice cream. Happily it was delicious enough for me to forgo buying the machine. I tried Nigella’s no churn coffee ice cream which was super easy and very tasty. It’s also very adaptable. Here I’ve left out the coffee liqueur and espresso and instead used poached rhubarb (400g raw) and a splash of plum vodka. The booze helps keep the ice cream soft. Don’t be tempted to add the poaching liquid from the rhubarb, it will cause the whipped cream to collapse and the ice cream to go icey. Yeah, I know this from experience.

Oat Biscuits

Quick to make simple, crunchy biscuits.

Ingredients

• 150g porridge oats
• 100g ground almonds
• 125g caster sugar
• 100g butter or marge (I used soya marge which is pretty neutral tasting, so oat flavour is prominent,  but butter would be delicious)

Method

• Heat oven to 180 degrees c, grease a baking sheet.
• Put the oats in a bowl or jug and use a stick blender to turn into a rough flour. You could just buy oat flour but its insanely expensive and oats are dirty cheap.
• Mix the oats with the sugar and ground almonds.
• Rub the butter or marge into the dry ingredients to make damp  crumbs.
• Mould the mixture into rough rounds (or perfect rounds if you wish) and pop on the baking sheet.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes and then take out of the oven and leave to cool and crisp. They’ll come out of the oven soft but don’t be tempted to bake for longer, they turn crunchy as they cool.

Coconut Tapioca Pudding

I made this because I was heading to a BBQ with guests that, between them, had allergies to bananas, peanuts, wheat, dairy and eggs, which rules out almost every pudding in the world, other than plain fruit. Tapioca is made from cassava so I assume is technically a veg. I’d never eaten it before, associating it with old fashioned school puddings (I was a packed lunch girl). I based the recipe on this one, with some adjustments because of a) the allergies and b) because it seemed way too liquid, perhaps because of non-standard cup measurements, or perhaps because of non-standard tapioca. Was mine less absorbent maybe? And I used mango instead of melon because the mango I bought was deliciously ripe, and the melon pretty bland.

It’s very delicious, and very unlike any other pudding I’ve had. Like a sweet, fragrant coconut soup with fruit and nuts. Yum.

Vegan. Serves 6-8.

Ingredients

• 300g medium tapioca pearls
• 250g sugar
• 150ml water
• 250ml almond milk
• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 mangos
• handful pistachios or pistachio praline

Method

• Cook the tapioca pearls according to the instructions on the packet. My packet (TRS) didn’t have any, and the instructions from the original recipe didn’t work – they were still solid – so by trial and error I worked out that 30 minutes soaking in cold water followed by five minutes of boiling did the trick. Then I drained them and rinsed in cold water. Any residue in the pan or colander turns into a gluey substance very difficult to get off, so do wash up as you go.
• Put the sugar and water in a pan and dissolve the sugar, then bring to the boil.
• Take off the heat and stir in the almond and coconut milks. Add the cooked tapioca and pop in the fridge and leave to cool. It should be absolutely cold before serving.
• To serve, ladle into bowls and add chunks of mango to the top.
• For added crunch a sprinkle of pistachios or pistachio praline is also nice. To make pistachio praline put equal weights of sugar and pistachios into a heavy bottomed pan and heat until the sugar has melted and turned brown. Then tip into an oiled sheet. Once firm you can chip into fragments.

Celeriac and Pea Shoot Salad

Serves 2.

Ingredients

Half a celeriac

Bunch of pea shoots

Handful of parsley

Half a soft goats cheese log

Half a lemon

Tbsp poppy seeds

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

Method

Grate the celeriac, roughly chop the pea shoots and parsley and mix in a bowl with the poppy seeds.

Grate the rind of half a lemon in to the mix, and add the juice of half a lemon.

Drizzle with (I used Greek extra virgin) olive oil and mix well

Add some crumbled goats cheese and serve

I served the salad with fat chick peas  in fresh pesto and some smoked tofu, marinaded in lemon peel and black pepper and then shallow fried to make it crispy.

Actually I didn’t use pea shoots, I used an unknown veg from the Indian grocer at Crown Point which looks like a  cross between pea shoots and clover and tastes like a cross between pea shoots and spinach. It has pretty yellow flowers too.

Chick pea aside:
If using tinned, always use cheap Asian brand, not supermarket bullets, the cheap ones are nice and fat. Or you could spend £4 on some fancy Italian ones in a glass jar, but that would be stupid when you can get lovely fat chick peas in tins, 4 for a pound, in the corner shop.