Banoffee Pie....

Ah, Edinburgh. Suddenly it was winter, although the calendar claimed to be August. Lies. I wore a coat and scarf. Boots every day. 

One pub night in Montpellier, Georgia and I randomly decided that we were going to go to Fringe for a week in August. I think my flight was seven pounds. (Why don't we have Ryanair-or something similar- in the States? It boggles the mind.) 

 My strongest memory of Edinburgh is the night we arrived. Georgia and I were little bundles of excitement. We went to the pub where Georgia's friend Floss was working, so we could pick up her keys to drop our luggage off. A man came out of the pub, saw us outside with our cases and handed us £10. 
"Welcome to Edinburgh! Enjoy your time in my beautiful city."
We tried to give it back to him, saying we couldn't take it, but he waved us off, and disappeared back into the pub with a smile.
And what a magnificent city it is. I am sure I didn't see the "real" Edinburgh, as it is an entirely different place the other eleven months of the year, but I got a wonderful taste. I also was lucky enough to be staying with Floss, who lives there year round and brought us to plenty of fantastic places off the festival track. 
The morning after we arrived, Georgia and I set out to see some shows, but decided to get lunch first. We found a great deal- lunch for £10 a piece, with a free beer thrown in too! For dessert, we each had a slice of Banoffee pie. I'd heard of it, but barely. Georgia, who's English, and therefore familiar with how incredible it is, urged me to try it and...sigh. Banoffee pie. 
The version I made the other night was absolute perfection. It came from BBC Food, and I wouldn't change a damn thing. 
It is almost entirely sugar and butter, so not exactly something I'd recommend making on the regular, but next time you're going to a party and need to bring a dessert, give this a go. It takes under an hour, no baking is required (although you do make two kinds of caramel) and everybody will go crazy for it. 

 Banoffee Pie

BBC Food

Ingredients

Caramel Filling:

100g/31/2 oz. butter

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

100g/31/2 oz. caster sugar

Pie:

150g/5 oz. English digestive biscuits (you can find these in  a number of import or gourmet markets, Whole Foods,  or sometimes just your local grocery store. Or you can substitute Graham crackers, but try for the digestives! They're great!)

230g/8 oz. pecans

75g/3 oz butter, melted

3 large bananas, chopped

250 ml/101/2oz. double cream, whipped until relatively stiff (again, you can find double cream at gourmet or import stores- I got mine at Whole Foods- and it really is different from our heavy whipping cream, so if you can, use it!)

Cocoa Powder, for dusting

Caramel Sauce:

125g/4 oz. butter

124g/4 oz. light brown sugar

125ml/4 fl oz coconut milk 

Preparation 

Crush together your digestives and half of your pecans. Pour over melted butter and pack into a pie dish. This will be your crust.
Make your filling: in a large, preferably nonstick pan, melt your butter and sugar over low heat. Once melted, add your condensed milk and stir constantly, slowly bringing to a boil. Eventually, after boiling, the mixture will thicken, be a light golden and will smell sweet. Remove from heat, taste to make sure, and let cool slightly.
Stir your bananas into the caramel and pour into your crust.
Cover and refrigerate for about a half an hour.
Meanwhile, make your caramel sauce. Pour your coconut milk, butter and brown sugar into a small, heavy bottomed pan, and stir constantly over medium heat. It will come to a boil, keep stirring for a couple minutes, until it is slightly thick (but still saucy) and a beautiful caramel. Never stop stirring, and be sure the heat isn't too high. Caramel can turn on a dime.  The coconut milk is great- lovely touch, BBC. When it's just right, remove from heat. Set aside.
Remove your pie from the fridge. Spread your whipped double cream over, then cover with remaining pecans (or to taste.) Dust with some cocoa powder, if you'd like. You can either pour the sauce all over (I did) or keep on the side and pour over individual slices.


Enjoy every bite....

Welcome to my BLOG!

 I'm Gabby, and this is my blog. 

I decided to write a food and travel blog because they are my biggest passions. I recently returned from about 13 months overseas (mostly in Europe and Israel) where I did everything I could to be around food. I volunteered on farms, in kitchens, and homestays where the lifestyle was often based around cooking and food production. I also ate every single thing that interested me and wasn't ridiculously expensive. 

I made a lot of amazing friends from lots of countries during my travels, and I made sure to "interview" all of them about their favorite foods and cultural dishes. I learned a lot! 

Now it's time for it to all come together. Hence, this blog. I intend to recreate things I tried, learn to make things I heard about from my friends, cook recipes I collected while overseas, and of course, try new things and be creative in my kitchen!

I hope I can make lots of interesting and delicious recipes for other people like me, who love to see the world through their tastebuds!

That said, let's get started! Incidentally, this recipe has nothing to do with the places I've traveled. I just love making this soup. I made it up, sort of by accident a few years back and it's perfect for a cold day when you can't really be bothered to go shopping (such as  it was yesterday here in Boston). It can easily be made with canned black beans, and dried chile powder can be used instead of the fresh.  I always keep overripe bananas in my freezer, so that helps too! (In this case, the more ripe the banana, the better the final product)

                                                             Black Bean Banana Soup

Ingredients

*1 tablespoon oil (I used a blend of peanut and grapeseed for this particular recipe, but go for what you have on hand)

*2 carrots, diced

*2 onions, diced

*2 cloves garlic, minced 

*2 ribs of celery, diced

*1 chile pepper, diced (use more if you want it more spicy and less if you want it less! No two chiles are the same, I always take a little taste before throwing it on the stove)

*3 bananas, diced

*30 oz. cooked black beans, rinsed

*1 litre vegetable stock or broth
*A few avocado chunks, to garnish
*Lime wedges, to serve

Preparation

In a large pot, heat oil. Add carrots, onion, garlic and celery. Let them sweat out for a bit, stirring occasionally, so they become aromatic and soft, but not brown. Add your desired amount of chile pepper and let that soften up for a bit. 

Once everything is soft, add the bananas! Give it a stir occasionally, but you don't need to stand over it. After a few minutes, it will smell amazing and you will know the bananas are heated through. That's when you can add the black beans. Stir it all to incorporate, and then add half of the vegetable broth. 

Use a hand mixer to blend it all together (or use a blender in batches), and let it thicken a little bit.  Add the rest of the broth. 

Season liberally with salt and pepper.
Serve with lime wedges to squeeze over, and avocado chunks on top. (I love avocado with anything remotely spicy....) 

(PS: As an afterthought, I also grated some manchego cheese on top of it, and I imagine queso fresco would go nicely as well...)

Enjoy!