Banana loaf

This is one of those quick recipes that can get you out of a bind when you need to make something "wow" but you don't have the time or you're not in the mood for too much effort.
Take 2 to 3 very ripe (over ripe even better) bananas and mash them in a mixing bowl, using a fork. Next, add in a third of a cup of melted butter and mix through. Now add a teaspoon of baking soda, a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, a beaten egg as well as a cup of sugar (reduce this if you want the cake to be less sweet). and mix through. You will now have a very runny mixture, to which you will need to add one and a half cups of flour, to give you a thick yet runny batter.
Pour the batter into a bread baking mold and bake in a pre-heated oven at 175°C for about an hour or until a toothpick stuck into the cake comes out clean.
You could easily add in crushed nuts to give the cake an alternate texture and once cooled, pour an icing sugar topping over the cake and allow to set before serving. Enjoy!
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Samoosas

When I was a child growing up in South Africa, every birthday party or other social gathering seemed to have these savory delights present. As I got older they became a popular snack while out and about, bought from any of the Muslim fast-food places in my neighbourhood.
In effect, a samoosa is a pie filled with spicy minced meat and onions, although the Indian versions are often vegetarian.
If you are lucky to live in a country where samoosas are popular, all of the processes below will seem a waste of time, as you will simply pop down to the supermarket where you can buy them frozen. For those of us who are not so lucky, here is a very simple way to make samoosas.
First of all, make the dough: take 270g of flour, salt and add 180ml of room temperature water. I like to add half a teaspoon of tumeric, just to give my dough some colour and flavour. Once your dough has been made, divide it into three equal parts and roll each one out as thin as you can. Next, baste each layer with oil and layer the next layer on top. Once all three layers are arranged, cut into strips about 8-9cm wide (narrower will produce smaller samoosas).
Arrange these strips on a baking tray and bake for a few minutes and remove from the oven, separating the leaves one from the other.
The filling: take a large onion and dice finely, add crushed chilis, curry powder, garlic and ginger paste and fry until the onions are soft. Now add minced meat (optional: add peas or cooked potatoes).
Once the filling has been cooked and has cooled, place a little on the one end of each strip and then fold diagonally one way and then diagonally the other way, making a triangle. Repeat this process for the length of the covering. The end piece will then be tucked under one of the folds, thereby sealing the samoosa.
Fry in hot oil until brown and crispy. Allow to drain on kitchen paper and enjoy.
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Dips

I recently prepared a farewell brunch for a good friend and was totally undecided as to what I should make. So I decided to make a variety of dips, accompanied by easy-to-make flat bread. The total prep time was less than half an hour and the final product was amazing. Here are a few of the dip recipes:
Hummus: this is rapidly becoming a favourite both among my family as well as my friends and colleagues. Take a tin of cooked chickpeas and drain the liquid. Add the juice of half a lemon as well as a clove of garlic. Add two to three tablespoons of olive oil to start with and then blend with a hand-held blender. Keep adding olive oil until your hummus reaches the consistency you desire.
Tuna dip: drain the water from a can of shredded tuna and empty contents into a bowl. Dice half an onion as well as a quarter red and a quarter green pepper. Add paprika and black pepper as well as a big dollop of mayonnaise. Stir with a fork, adding more mayonnaise until you reach the consistency you desire.
Pea dip: drain the liquid from a can of peas and pour contents into a bowl. Add a tablespoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste, three tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese, 100g of cream cheese and a dollop of chopped parsley. Blend everything together and add some parsley for garnish.
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Butter cookies

There are few things that I would rather be doing on the first day of the school winter holidays than making cookies with my daughter. The camaraderie in the kitchen, the small talk, the planning and then the actual baking. Coupled to the fact that the kitchen has that homely smell of cookies baking. All in all a great experience. And the recipe is the simplest one of all:
Take 250g of soft (room temperature) butter and mix it with 150g of caster sugar until well blended. Now add the yolk of one large egg and beat until the mixture is smooth. Next add 300g of flour and a half a teaspoon of salt and mix until you have a dough ball. Wrap the ball in some plastic warp and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour.
Once cooled, dust your work surface with flour and roll out to about half a centimeter and then cut with cookie cutters. I used two heart shapes (big and small). Bake until lightly brown. Allow to cool. Place some (red) jam, like strawberry in the middle of the solid heart (on the back side) and place the heart with the hole over it. Enjoy!
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Carrot cake (muffins)

On one occasion, many years ago, when I first arrived in Argentina, I was invited to an asado on a farm in San Antonio de Areco. And, as is my custom, I baked a cake to take along. A carrot cake. Unknown to me at the time, carrot cakes were not that well known amongst my group of (new) friends and the amount of banter I had to put up with for making a "salad" cake was unreal. Thankfully, today, my friends are all in love with this simple and very tasty cake.
The cake is made in two separate bowls, one for the dry ingredients and the other for the wet ingredients. In the dry ingredients bowl: 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, half a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg.
In the wet ingredients bowl, 4 eggs, half a cup of oil, 3 cups of grated carrots, half a cup of broken up walnuts.
Mix each bowl separately and then combine, mixing just enough to combine the ingredients. Pour the mixture into a loaf baking pan and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes on medium heat or until dry on the inside. Alternatively, as I did this time, bake in muffin tins.
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Potato bake

This is a very simple dish to make that is also a sure winner on so many fronts: looks, taste, cost, ease.
Start off by boiling a few potatoes. I leave them whole and then cut them afterwards, in that way they don't break apart in the pot. If you'd prefer the more rustic version to this recipe, use small potatoes, leave the skins on and boil whole.
Once the potatoes are in the pot, cut up a large onion as well as a clove or garlic and fry these in a little butter until soft and transparent.
Next, cut up some salami (optional) and set aside. Also, grate some cheese for garnish.
And the final ingredients: in a bowl, beat two eggs, add salt, black pepper to taste, as well as some cream.
Now to pull it all together: cut the cooked potatoes into thick slices and arrange in an oven-proof dish. After the first layer, sprinkle some of the salami as well as some of the braised onions. Repeat this layering process until all the ingredients have been used up. Now pour the egg mixture on top and finally, cover with cheese. Bake in the oven for about ten minutes (keeping in mind that almost everything is already cooked) and finally place under the grill to brown the cheese. Enjoy.
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