A Boozie Smoothie

1 banana
2 large handfuls of ice cubes
300g fresh strawberries
100ml Malibu or white rum
100ml pineapple juice
Sprig of fresh mint

Serves 4

Boozie Smoothies (as the name suggests) are smoothies that contain alcohol and are great as a relaxing cool fresh drink on a summer’s evening or to go with a barbecue. What’s more they are really easy to make, so long as you have a blender that is strong enough to crush ice, if not they can be a bit physical

First up you’re going to need to core the strawberries, once this has done load your blender, ice on the bottom then the banana, followed by the strawberries and finally the Malibu (coconut rum) or white rum and the pineapple juice.

Whizz it all together in the blender until the ice has been crushed and all the ingredients have been mixed together, then serve topped with a sprig of fresh mint.

If your blender won’t crush ice, then you will need to crush the ice separately and stir it into the rest once blended. The best way I’ve found to crush ice (apart from in the blender) is to place it in a plastic bag and wrap this up in a towel, then beat it with a rolling pin/baseball bat/cricket bat until it gets to the consistency that you require.

You can substitute pretty much any fresh fruit for the strawberries and you can substitute orange juice for the pineapple, I’ve made these with grape and kiwi, mango, passion fruit and because you are using the banana to “thicken” the smoothie you can use any citrus fruits you fancy as well.

Of course you can also leave out the alcohol so the under 18′s can enjoy these smoothies as well.

So experiment and have fun with them, just be careful not to have to much fun, remember always drink alcohol responsibly

Freshly sliced Banana Bread

Ingredients;

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed banana (approx 3 bananas)

You will need 2 bowls and a 2lb loaf tin. The older and browner the bananas, the better this recipe will turn out.

Preheat your oven to 190 C.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a second smaller bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar (easiest done with a hand mixer). Stir in the eggs and banana to this bowl.

Finally add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir well until the flour mix is incorporated fully.

Liberally grease your 2lb loaf tin with cooking spray or butter and pour in the mix.

Bake at 190 C for approx 50 mins. Test if it is done by sticking a cocktail stick into the loaf and swirling around gently. If the stick comes out clean or covered in crumbs, then the loaf is done.

Remove from loaf tin and leave to cool before cutting. Gorgeous served with a thin spread of butter or some Nutella. This loaf will improve after a few days storage, keeps for 5-7 days in an airtight container.

Choconana crumble: Photograph by Redmum

Ingredients;

225g Plain Flour
60g sugar
145g butter
a pinch of salt
195g Dark Chocolate
6 Tablespoons of cream
1 tablespoon of sugar
half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 tablespoon of cognac
115ml Water
6 medium sized bananas

Serves 6

Making the crumble

Take your flour, 60g of sugar, 115g of butter and a pinch of salt and place them in a bowl, simply scrunch the lot together with clean hands until it looks like breadcrumbs and put this to one side.

Making the chocolate sauce

Take a small saucepan and place it on a low heat, to this add 115ml of water and a tablespoon of sugar. Bring this to a low simmer while stirring. Keep it simmering until all the sugar has dissolved.

Once the sugar has dissolved, remove the pan from the heat and add 30g of butter and the dark chocolate while stirring constantly. It’s best to break the chocolate and butter up into small chunks as they will melt quicker this way. Keep stirring until all the chocolate and butter have melted completely.

Next, add the Vanilla essence, cognac and cream and keep stirring until they all combine to give a smooth looking sauce.

Assembly

Peel the bananas and split each of them lengthways into 3. This is done by gently pushing your finger into the end of the banana where that tough seed like lump has been removed and running your finger to the other end. This should leave you with 3 separate segments.

Arrange all the segments in a large oven-proof dish and pour the chocolate sauce over them, making sure that all the bananas are chocolate coated.

Unless you are planning on cooking and eating immediately stop at this point and cover both the crumble and the chocolate+banana and refrigerate until ready to cook.

When you are ready to cook, get your oven up to 200C. Sprinkle the crumble over the chocolate+banana making sure to spread it out evenly. Then pop it in the oven for 30 minutes. If the crumble has not turned a golden brown at this point simply pop it under the grill for a minute or 2 to brown the top and let it stand for a few minutes before serving with a few scoops of berry ice-cream.

Berry Ice-cream

Berry ice-cream

The Berry Ice-cream I make to go with this is based on Kieran’s Banana Ice Cream with Chocolate Shavings recipe over on Ice-cream Ireland. Many thanks for sharing this recipe Kieran, I would have given up on trying to making ice-cream myself long ago without this.

I follow this recipe exactly except for 3 things…

1. I use 150g of Raspberries and 170g of Blackberries instead of the Bananas
2. I mash the Rasperry & Blackberry mixture through a sieve as I add them to the custard
3. I don’t add the chocolate shavings

This gives an ice-cream that while it is sweet and creamy, it is also tart enough to balance the sweetness of the rest of the dish.

Please give this a try, it’s a wonderful dessert. As always we’d love to here about your results and your thoughts on the dish as a whole.