Is there such a thing as a ‘banana bread connoisseur’? If there is, I think I’m one of them, as I’ve certainly consumed my share of banana bread, especially during pregnancy!!

This is a seriously good banana bread, adapted by Tana Ramsay’s banana and apple loaf recipe, the only difference being that I prefer pear over apple and enjoy the crunch of walnuts too.

If you’re planning a brunch or afternoon tea for your Christmas celebrations, this would make a lovely addition. Bake the day before and toast before serving with a knob of butter and dusting of icing sugar. Alternatively, you can always save this recipe for another day when you need to use up bananas and pears on the turn.

Be sure to have a gorgeous Christmas and New Year!!

Love, Suzanna

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Recipe

Serves 10-12

Ingredients
1 cup (115 grams) walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
4 medium-sized ripe bananas, mashed
1 pear, peeled and coarsly grated
2 large free-range eggs, beaten
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated brown sugar
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups (250 grams) self raising flour, sifted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
pinch of salt

Icing sugar to serve (optional)

Method
1) Preheat oven to 150°C and toast walnuts on a tray for 5-10 minutes or until fragrant. Once cooled, coarsly chop and set aside.

2) Preheat oven to 175°C. Grease and line a rectangular loaf tin (approx. 12 x 40cm).

3) In a bowl mash bananas with a fork or potato masher, add grated pear and mix to combine.

4) Using an electric hand-held mixer (medium setting), beat the eggs, sugar and butter until pale and creamy (approx. 5-7 minutes).

5) Stir in the mashed bananas and pear and sieve in the flour and other dry ingredients.

6) Once well mixed, tip into the loaf tin and bake for 40-45 minutes.

7) Remove to a wire wrack and cool in the tin for 20-30 minutes. Remove from the tin onto the rack and finish cooling completely before slicing.

8) Serve toasted with a sprinkling of icing and knob of butter.

Tips:
- Replace walnuts with pecans and pear with apple or carrot.
- Freezes well for up to three months.

Firstly, a big thanks to everyone for your lovely pregnancy wishes – it’s wonderful to know how supportive you all are.

Cravings are synonymous with pregnancy and the one thing I can’t get enough of this pregnancy is salad, I guess I should thank my lucky stars I’m not craving a block of chocolate each night!

Here’s an exceptional salad recipe, which can also be prepared in advance for summer-time parties. It’s delicious served with grilled lamb or on it’s own.

This salad is also another that fits into the ‘Dave’s favourite’ category, so I often cook a big batch of sweet potato and onion, keep it in the fridge and quickly assemble for dinner or lunch. If your salad leaves are washed and ready to go, (I keep mine in a salad spinner) it takes less than five minutes to prepare, heck, it’s so easy that even David can put it together himself, and trust me, there’s not much he can put together in the kitchen!

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Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients
Baked sweet potato
500g sweet potato (or kumera), peeled and diced
2-3 garlic cloves
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Caramelised onion
1 large brown onion, peeled and thinly sliced length-ways
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 heaped tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Dressing
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

100g rocket (arugula) and baby spinach leaves, washed and spun dry
80g goat’s cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons lightly toasted pinenuts

Method
1) Preheat oven to 250°C. Place chopped sweet potato and garlic cloves in a large baking tray tray lined with grease proof paper, drizzle over olive oil, add salt and pepper and mix well. Cover baking tray tightly with a sheet of foil and bake on high for 20 minutes. Remove foil after 20 minutes and reduce heat to 200°C, continue baking for further 30-40 minutes, turning the sweet potato half way through until lightly golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

2) For the caramelised onion, fry onion in olive oil over a low heat until softened (15 minutes). Sprinkle over sugar and fry for further 5 minutes. Turn heat up to medium and allow onion to caramalise to a lovely rich golden brown (5 minutes), add balsamic (1 minute) and remove from heat, allow to cool.

3) For the dressing, combine oil, balsamic, water, salt and pepper in a jar. Just before serving shake well to emulsify.

4) In a large serving platter arrange rocket and spinach leaves, scatter over baked sweet potato, caramelised onion, crumbled goats cheese and finally the pinenuts. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until serving. Just before serving drizzle over dressing and enjoy with grilled meat or on it’s own.

Tips:
- Lightly toast pine nuts in a dry pan over a medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally until toasted and fragrant.
- Store left over caramelised onion in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.
- For quick week night dinners, double the quantities and store everything in the fridge, then assemble each night.

Summer, where are you? It’s now mid November, and I’m starting to get tired of the constant grey skies and rain!

Although it’s not exactly raining today and the sun is ‘partly’ out, I’m sure that others living in Sydney and the east coast of Australia will agree that this Spring has been one of the wettest in memory! I’m well and truly ready for hot sunny days, sand caught between my toes, the smell of barbecued steaks and fresh yummy salads.

Mum’s basic potato salad is a perfect BBQ accompaniment. It can be jazzed up by adding a couple of dollops of  homemade mayonnaise or, a couple of chopped boiled eggs.

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Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 medium (700g) brushed potatoes, washed, peeled and cut into rough 3cm pieces
Sea salt
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
1 small carrot, peeled and sliced into thin ribbons using a speed peeler (can also be grated)
1/4 of small Spanish onion, thinly sliced lengthways
1/3 cup of loosely packed flat leaf parsley, roughly torn or chopped

Method
1) Place potatoes in a medium pan, cover with cold water and place over high heat. Just before the water comes to the boil add salt and continue to boil for 12-15 minutes until the potatoes are just cooked through.

2) Meanwhile, combine olive oil, vinegar, sea salt and black pepper in a small bowl and whisk to emulsify.

3) When cooked, drain potatoes in a colander and place in large bowl. While still warm add carrot, onion and pour over dressing, gently toss to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Allow potatoes to cool slightly before scattering over parsley. Serve while warm or at room temperature with grilled fish, meat, or on their own.

Tips:
- If available try using red-skinned Desiree potatoes, their creamy, yellow flesh is prefect for potato salad.
- Add 3 heaped tablespoons of good quality homemade mayonnaise and refrigerate before serving, see recipe for Homemade Mayonnaise
- Add one or two hard boiled eggs that are roughly chopped or quartered.

I’m always on the lookout for a cheaters version of my beloved Macedonia favourites. Although nothing beats the taste of fresh homemade pastry sheets, I rarely have half a day to make the sheets from scratch. So when I stumbled across the super thin wheat wraps made by Mountain Bread, I knew I was onto something BIG!!

Mum often makes her cheats zelnik with fresh lavash, a thin and soft Middle Eastern flatbread. It makes for a quick substitute, although the texture is nothing like zelnik, and unless you add a good measure of water to help soak the bread, the final result is too dry.

I made this cheats zelnik with softened leek, but you can try other classic fillings like spinach and cheese, tomatoey onion, or sugary apple and walnut.

Making cheats zelnik

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Recipe

Serves 8

Ingredients
1/2 cup (125ml) vegetable oil (e.g. canola or rice bran oil)
2 large leeks, white and light green part chopped, dark green outer leaves discarded
Sea salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon mild paprika
1 x 200g packet Mountain Bread Wheat Wraps (if not available use another thin wheat based bread)

Method
1) Heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan over low-medium heat, add leek and sprinkle with salt to taste, gently fry until leek has collapsed but not browned (10 minutes). Once cooked remove from heat and allow to cool.

2) Preheat oven to 180°C and brush a medium rectangular baking tray with oil. If necessary cut bread length to fit into tray snugly.

3) Place 1 sheet of bread in the the tray and evenly scatter leek. Brush another piece of bread with oil and place on top, scatter with leek and repeat with remaining bread and leek. To finish brush top layer with oil.

4) Bake for 15 minutes, then turn oven down to 160°C and bake for further 10-15 minutes, or until lightly golden.

5) Serve while warm or at room temperature as meze or a light meal with yoghurt or buttermilk.

Tips:
- Try other traditional zelnik fillngs like spinach and cheese, tomaty onion, potato and leek.

You’re probably wondering, who is Bill? Bill Granger of-course, the hugely successful self-taught cook, restaurateur and food writer. I’m a fan of Bill’s simple, home-style cooking, I especially love his recipe for Hazelnut and Fig Cake from his book Holiday.

Friends and family well know that I regularly make this cake during summer and early Autumn, while fresh figs are still available. The beautiful combination of sweet honey, gently caramelised figs and hazelnuts makes for a memorable rustic treat that you’ll wish you could eat all year round.

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Recipe

Serves 8

Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
75g (3/4 cup) plain flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 free-range or organic eggs, lightly beaten
100g (1/2 cup) ground hazelnuts
50g (1/3 cup) hazelnuts, chopped into small pieces
8-10 fresh figs (not too ripe), halved
2 tablespoons honey

Method
1) Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cream the butter and the sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric hand-held mixer until pale and fluffy (3-5 minutes).

2) Sift together the flour and baking powder. Use a large metal spoon to fold the flour and eggs alternately into the creamed mixture. Fold in the ground hazelnuts and then the chopped hazelnuts.

3) Grease a 20cm/8-inch cake tin and line with baking paper, leaving the paper hanging over the sides to help you lift out the cake. Spoon the mixture into the tin. Arrange the figs, cut side up, in a neat layer on top of the cake. Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer poked in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

4) Leave to rest in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out. Drizzle honey over the top of the cake just before serving.

Tip: Bill suggests serving the cake with lightly whipped cream but I prefer it with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

Thanks to the popularity of 5 Minute Tiramisu, here’s another super-quick 5 minute recipe.

Seeing I still have an abundance of fresh figs from my parents fruitful fig tree, I thought I’d share one of my favourite ways to enjoy this ancient fruit.

Some prefer figs raw, but in my opinion the best way to enjoy them is cooked, as it only takes a few minutes for the flesh to collapse and caramelise into heavenly goodness.

Although this salad looks fancy, you can almost prepare it with your eyes closed. It’s simply a matter of assembly, however the secret to it tasting amazing is using top quality extra virgin olive oil, balsamic and goats cheese. Adding toasted walnuts/pine nuts is optional and takes a few extra minutes, but if you’re out to impress it’s well worth it!

Serve as an entree or as a main with duck or chicken.

Process

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Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients
8 figs, halved
20g butter
100g packet rocket leaves, washed and dried
1/4 Spanish onion, thinly sliced length-ways
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
80g soft goat’s cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup lightly toasted walnuts or pine nuts (optional)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
1) Pop a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. While the pan is heating prepare figs, rocket and onion. Season figs (cut-side) with salt and pepper.

2) In a large serving platter or 4 individual plates arrange rocket and scatter over onion slices.

3) Your pan should now be hot enough, add butter and a glug of olive oil, it should bubble slightly, swoosh around to cover the pan, place figs cut side down, shake the pan to evenly distribute the oil and cook for 1-2 minutes, carefully turn over and cook for 30 seconds. Remove figs from pan and evenly arrange on rocket, drizzling over the remaining cooking juices from the pan. Drizzle over olive oil (2-3 teaspoons per serving), balsamic vinegar (1 teaspoon per serving) and season with pepper and a small amount of salt.

4) Crumble over cheese and scatter with pre-prepared walnuts/pine nuts (optional).

5) Serve immediately as an entree or alongside duck or chicken as a main.

Tip: Lightly toast pine nuts or walnut halves in a dry pan over a medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally until toasted and fragrant.

Sometimes in life it’s the simplest recipes that are often the tastiest. I’m really not sure about the origin of smoothies. Perhaps they’re inspired by tropical mocktails. All I know is that this banana smoothie makes the ultimate summer breakfast.

Although I love a good health shake, with yoghurt and honey, occasionally I enjoy a more indulgent smoothie with lots of ice cream, the consistency of a yummy thick shake. You only need 3 ingredients and the secret here is a pinch of ground cinnamon.

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Recipe

Serves 1

Ingredients
1 large banana, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups (375ml) cold milk
1-2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
Pinch of ground cinnamon

Method
1) Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve immediately with an extra dusting of cinnamon.

Tip:
If you’re feeling really indulgent hold the cinnamon and replace with a dusting of cocoa/drinking chocolate.

I’ve always wanted to make a traditional Christmas pudding from scratch, but for obvious reasons, puddings are not one of my families specialties.

You can imagine my excitement when I received an ‘authentic’ pudding recipe from a friend – a recipe which has been in the family for several generations. Word is that Grandma Bess (born in 1915) was given the recipe from her grandmother, who picked it up at the Royal Easter show all those years ago.

Like so many old favourites, grandma would never measure anything and just throw it all in and every year it would come out perfect. It must have been the “brandy for pudding, brandy for grandma” method that ensured it was so.

What I love most about Christmas and this recipe is the focus on family. Once all the ingredients are mixed in the bowl, everyone in the family takes it in turns to stir and make a wish. On Christmas day, silver coins from yesteryear are boiled to sterilise, then small incisions are made all over the pudding and the coins are inserted for the kids to find, care of the Sugar Plum Fairy. (As silver coins are no longer in production, the kids have to swap them at the end for today’s currency and the silver coins are squirreled away until next year.)

This recipe makes one pudding, which depending on your preference can be served hot of cold (you’ll find instructions for both). I love the hot pudding because it’s a real showstopper – the pudding is placed on the table while hot brandy which has been lit is poured over the warm pudding.

Note: Pudding is best made 1 month prior to serving, store in fridge.

All ingredients should be room temperature

Tie paper or foil tightly with string

Stand for 10 minutes before turning out on a plate

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Recipe…………………………….

Makes 1 large pudding

Ingredients
Pudding
250g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
250g (2½ cups) brown sugar
4 organic or free-range eggs, room temperature
130g (2½ cups) fresh breadcrumbs (grate day-old white bread)
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 teaspoons mixed spice
250g raisins
250g sultanas
250g currants
400ml brandy or rum, plus extra 100ml for hot pudding

Hard sauce (make on Christmas morning)
125g unsalted butter, softened
215g (1½ cups) sifted icing sugar
2 tablespoons brandy or rum

Method
1) In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (I use an electric hand mixer). Then gradually beat in eggs.
2) In a separate bowl, mix flour, breadcrumbs and spice together.
3) In a separate bowl, mix fruit and stir in a full wine glass (200ml) of brandy or rum.
4) Add dry ingredients and fruit mix alternately to butter mixture. Stir until combined.
5) Grease a 2 litre pudding basin and line base with a circle of greased baking paper or foil (to ensure pudding does not stick when turning out). Pour pudding mixture into basin and top with another circle of baking paper or foil. Place lid of basin over this or cover with 2 layers of baking paper and/or foil and tie with string. Allow to stand for 24 hours.
6) To cook, place pudding basin in a large saucepan with a wire rack or tea towel lining the base. Fill with water, ensure a good 3cm of the basin rim is not under water. Cover and simmer, topping up water when necessary.
Cold pudding: Boil for 9 hours. Before storing, pour another wine glass (200ml) of brandy or rum over the pudding. Cool in the bowl, cover and refrigerate.
Hot pudding: Boil for 6 hours. Before storing, pour another wine glass (200ml) of brandy or rum over the pudding. Cool in the bowl, cover and refrigerate. On Christmas day, reheat in a large saucepan of simmering water for 3 hours. Stand for 10 minutes before turning out on a plate. When serving the hot pudding, place pudding on the table. In a small saucepan, heat half a glass of brandy until it is very hot. Carry saucepan over to pudding and light, then pour the flaming liquid over the pudding.
7) For hard sauce, cream softened butter with icing sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in brandy or rum and refrigerate until it becomes hard.
8) Serve pudding with hard sauce, cream, custard or ice cream.

Tip: I make fresh breadcrumbs in a food processor. Remove the crusts from white day-old bread slices, cut into cubes and process until finely chopped. Any leftovers can be frozen and used when required.