Just spent a nice long weekend at the The Cormorant Hotel in Fowey, Cornwall with Pheebs. This is actually the hotel in which we got engaged at so it was quite nice to return to the scene of the crime so to speak. The view from any hotel room, the food and wine quality were just as good as I remembered. We even returned back to the Lost Gardens of Heligan which whilst is still a magical place, wasn’t quite as vibrant as it was in spring. Still, it was a very pleasant weekend away with my wife.

Serves 4
Preparation Time: 16 mins
Cooking Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:
8oz basmati rice (Ruth cooks hers first and then adds to the meat)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
8oz minced lamb or beef
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground or fresh coriander
1 1/4 pt veg stock
4 1/2oz dried apricots sliced (optional)
2 courgettes, chopped
2 tbs chopped fresh mint

Method:

Cook rice until tender and set asside. Heat oil in large shallow pan and cook the onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Turn up the heat, add the mince and fry until it browns. Add the spices, pour over some stock and simmer for 2/3 mins until the stock has gone. Stir in cooked rice, apricots + courgettes, remaining stock and bring to boil. Cover and cook over low heat until everything is well mixed and absorbed (around 10/15 mins). Season to taste, stir in chopped mint and serve.

Yep, time to bake a cake and not waste the 4 bananas I had left after camping with the boys last weekend. For this partitular version I used the following ingredients:

4 bananas, squished.
3 beaten and battered eggs
6 oz sugar
8 oz plain flour
1 teaspoon soda bicarbonate
1 teaspoon salt
4 oz melted butter

Butter the cake tin (using the butter wrapper!) and then lob the bananas into a blending machine to really squish them! For those of you who prefer larger lumps of banana then don’t squish so much! Add, the eggs, sugar and butter in the blending machine until you get a nice paste. In another bowel sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt together. Add the banana paste together and mix well using a spoon (or hands if you like……no really!). Pour into the cake tin. If using the round ring cake mould, bake for 40 minutes at 180C. I used a loaf pan which cook about 50 minutes at 180C. Test the middle of the cake to check if it’s cooked before removing from the oven……

….eat when cold with a nice cup of tea!