Banana Tarte Tatin

A little left of field with a little bastardisation, this banana tarte tatin is amazing. I have adapted this recipe from the traditional French classic, Apple Tatin. Made with a lot of love, butter and sugar you’re in for an easy treat. I used store bought individual fillo pastry sheets, coating with butter between layers too. Serve hot with ice cream and topped with cinnamon.

Ingredients

Serves five to six

3 large bananas

5 tbsp salted butter

2/3 cup caster sugar

1 tsp orange zest

½ tsp cinnamon

2 – 3 sheets individual fillo pastry sheets

Butter for coating

Directions

Start by melting butter, adding orange zest and cinnamon. Follow quickly with sugar and cook until a beautiful caramel forms. Halve bananas length ways then again, sideways. Place flat side up in a pie dish, then pour caramel over bananas. Add layer by layer of the fillo pastry, coating with melted butter between every layer. Be sure not to confuse regular fillo pastry sheets, which may be thicker and contain many micro layers. The regular is fine too.

Cook in preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. Let cool outside of oven for 5 minutes, then using a knife separate edges of the tarte tatin from the pie dish. Placing a flat plate over the top, turn the bowl over and let sit until it falls nicely onto the fillo pastry.  

Seared Scallops with Wasabi and Avocado Puree

The butter of the sea paired against a beautiful wasabi avocado puree, topped with fried onions

This is a fusion Japanese dish, melding butter and Chinese wine to sear scallops. Scallops are naturally rich and buttery in flavour and searing in butter really enhances the taste of the scallop.

I love wasabi and purists would never really mix wasabi, as it dilutes the intensity. However, modern cooking calls for adaptation. Mixing wasabi and lime with avocado really adds so many levels of sensory confusion when you eat with a buttery scallop. I wanted to create a new intensity, to augment the purist ideals of traditional Japanese cooking. Adding the walnuts to the puree gives the dish a beautiful crunch and you really need it as the whole dish is quite soft.

You don’t have to cook the life out of the scallop either, nicely seared on either side, with a mellow translucence in the centre is perfect. The fried onions topped on the dish and the Chinese cooking wine are readily available in most supermarkets in the Asian aisle.

Ingredients

Serves two

6 -8 scallop

4 tbsp butter

3 tbsp Chinese Wine

For the Puree

1 medium avocado

¼ lime juice

½ tsp wasabi

¼ cup walnuts

2 tbsp chives, diced

Garnish

2 tbsp fried onions

1 tsp chives

Directions

Start by leaving the scallops in a paper towel for 5 minutes to absorb excess juices they may release when cooking. Next, smash all the puree ingredients, making sure you retain some crunch from the walnuts. In a pan, heat butter on a medium to high heat. Butter won’t burn too fast, but adjust heat as needed. Put the scallops on as soon as the butter is piping hot. Sear on the first side for 1 -2 minutes then turn carefully once with tongues and sear for around 1 to 1.5 minutes. Add Chinese cooking wine at the last moment to deglaze the pan and to pick up all of the beautiful flavours, it almost caramelises the scallop.

Plate the scallops on the puree, drizzle remaining butter and finish with fried onions and chives. Salt and pepper to taste
 

Chilli and Garlic Caramel Crab

 Lime, chilli and garlic caramel swimmer crab with sage butter potato medallions and a radish salad with ginger vinegar

I really enjoy food that heightens the senses with acute tastes, sharp on the palette contrasted against texture. I decided to experiment today and shift my focus to seafood and Asian fusion. I wanted to use beautiful soft crab meat to pair against bitter and sweet flavours, as well as adding soft and crisp elements with salad and vegetable. The meal has three elements and is a lot easier to finish quickly if you do all of your preparation first. Start with crab element, then potato than radish – quick fast execution gives you a beautiful meal that looks and tastes equally amazing.

Ingredients

Serves two

For the Crab

1 medium swimmer crab

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine

½ tsp fish sauce

½ lime

1 clove garlic

1 small bullet chilli

For the Potatoes

2 medium washed potatoes

3 tbsp butter

3 – 4 sage leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

For the Radish and Ginger Vinegar

3 medium radishes

¼ cup vinegar

¼ cup caster sugar

¼ water

1 tsp finely chopped ginger

Sprouts for plating.

Directions

Start by preparing the crab; boil in a pot for 5 - 7 minutes. While boiling, dice chilli and garlic. When done, open the torso, clean and carefully remove the meat – this can be timely, but have patience. In a pan, heat butter and add remaining ingredients. Softly stir through the crab and remove from heat shortly after to avoid over cooking the crab meat. Set aside.

Slice two potatoes length ways, and using a scalloping instrument, make medallions and set aside. I was savvy and used a metal medicine measuring cup. In a pan, heat butter and add potato. Fry evenly on each side for 3 -5 minutes until brown, adding sage and salt. Set aside.

In a pan, combine ginger, vinegar, water and sugar and bring to the boil. Cook and reduce for 7 – 10 minutes. Slice radish and when vinegar has cooled, toss radish and plate.

Plating is your creative freedom, I used snowpea sprouts to lay under the delicate crab meat, and the heads to colour the dish. You can also serve crab legs in a bowl on the side, a chance to get sticky and messy after the delicate dish; it’s all about contrast, right.

Butter and Butternut Pumpkin Pasta

A great pasta and also an ode to the anchovy. I love them – salty and a flavor enhancement for everything. Anchovies are great if you want to add a more natural salt to a recipe. If you add them to your cooking, especially sauces, they will dissolve and become a well rounded saltiness, no fishy aftermath. I love them so I use them whole too.

This was pretty much a throw together of everything I had left, but it turned out a lot better than I had expected. An easy, partially vegetarian eat.

Ingredients

Serves two - three

250g fettuccini

80g butter

2 cloves garlic

½ medium onion

300g butternut pumpkin

100g walnuts

½ lemon

2 tbsp parsley

¼ cup olive oil

1 shallot/scallion

1 tsp chilli flakes

Pinch of cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Start by coating pumpkin with olive oil, salt and pepper and cook in preheated oven for twenty minutes at two hundred degrees Celsius. Next, cook the pasta with olive oil and salt. In a separate pan heat the walnuts with chilli flakes and cumin to release the flavors and set aside. With the pan still slightly herb coated, add the butter and cook on a medium heat, adding onions and garlic, browning slightly. Follow with chopped anchovies and quickly remove from heat.

The next step is to add all ingredients to the butter sauce, retaining some of the pasta water to help coat pasta with a thicker sauce, adding olive oil to taste. Using the lemon juice, coat pasta an add salt and pepper. 

Brooklyn Brussels and Salad

A sweet and savory adaptation of brussels. 

Despite my disliking of the American green grocer and it's questionable (and unknown) quality, one vegetable that I have taken such a huge liking to is brussels. I never really grew up eating them and I never really remember seeing them much in grocers, but they always had the stigma of being unsavory - 'eat your brussels', force feeding children. Here they are plentiful, cheap and delicious. Every second restaurant will serve them seasonally. Seasonal foods are all the rage. They are cooked many delicious ways, so when I spent time unemployed I learnt to cook well with them. A complete matter of trial and error. Undoubtedly, brussels must be cooked in good butter. Try it and die. But from this platform you can really start to play with sweet and also savory to build an amazing brussels dish. 

I have named my brussels Brooklyn Brussels because I've spent a great deal of time cooking them out here, and also enjoying them at so many restaurants. I died when summer came round and they had been ripped from all of the menus around the city. But now as winter comes round, they are again everywhere and even more delectable. 

I've cooked brussels as I always do and then added them to a salad that you can have warm or cold, served with mixed nuts and fruits, rice and egg.

Ingredients

Serves 4 – 6 people

Brussels

1 Pound of Brussels

3 tbsp Butter

2 tbsp Pickapeppa Sauce ( a Jamaican Worcestershire)

2 tbsp Light Brown Sugar 

2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce 

3 tbsp BBQ Sauce (smokey)

1 tbsp Burnt Sugar

Cumin (sprinkle)

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Directions

In a hot cast iron pan, melt butter and start to cook the brussels. Using a cast iron pan will help brown and cook the brussels immediately. You want them to brown well before adding the sauces

Once they start to brown, add the wet ingredients, mixing well and follow with the dry ingredients. Turn down the heat from high to low and cook until the sauces really meld and cook through with the brussels. The smoky BBQ sauce will add a wonderful taste paired with bitter brussels and salt, the combination of all of the sweeter ingredients works wonders. These can be enjoyed as is, or as a side dish. 

Brussels and Salad

This is to make more of a hefty meal, or a larger side serving. It's great for dinner parties, cheap and most of all, it's all senses engaging dish. Looks, smells and tastes good. The texture of the dish is curious too. 

Ingredients 

1/2 cup Mixed Fruit and Nuts

Balsamic Marinated Chicken

2 Eggs 

1 cup White Rice

While cooking the brussels, add the mixed nuts and let them heat and soften. Once done, combine with cooked white rice and toss. For some color and texture add 2 diced hard boiled eggs, keep the yoke soft if you'd like. It's runny and will mix beautifully through the salad. Serve either hot or cold.