Banana tarts recipe

The thinnest of tarts. It is worth rolling the pastry as finely as you can. Try placing the pastry on the baking sheet before adding the bananas. It makes life much easier than transferring them fully laden.

Makes 4

butter 40g
puff pastry 125g
bananas 2
icing sugar 2 tbsp
maple syrup 4 tbsp

For the cardamom cream:
green cardamom pods 10
double cream 250ml
icing sugar 1 tbsp
vanilla extract

Set the oven at 220C/gas mark 8. Place a baking sheet in the oven to heat up.

Melt the butter in a small pan, remove from the heat and set aside. Roll out the pastry very thinly, then cut out 4 discs about 12cm in diameter. Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Peel the bananas and slice thinly, then place in a single, slightly overlapping layer on each disc. Brush the bananas and the rims of the pastry with the butter then dust generously with the icing sugar.

Place the baking sheet on the heated sheet in the oven and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven then trickle the maple syrup over the bananas and return to the oven for 5 minutes until the pastry is deep golden brown and the fruit is sticky and glistening.

Meanwhile, make the cream. Crack open the cardamom pods and extract the dark seeds, then crush to a powder using a spice mill or pestle and mortar. You need 2 tsp of the ground spice. Pour the cream into a cold mixing bowl and add the icing sugar, ground cardamom and a couple of drops of vanilla extract. Beat till thick, stopping once the cream will hold its shape on the whisk.

Peter Gunn's berry, praline and coconut yoghurt dessert recipe

It may be the picture of simplicity but with a few delicate additions, Peter Gunn, the chef and owner of Melbourne’s Ides restaurant, gives this dessert the fine-dining treatment.

Fresh and dried berries with coconut yoghurt, strawberry syrup and anise praline

50g blueberries, randomly cut
50g blackberries, randomly cut
25g strawberries, randomly cut
10g dried blueberries
200g coconut yoghurt
Macadamia oil
Chrysanthemums
Mint flowers
Sea salt

Praline
1 cup caster sugar
¼ cup water
2g star anise (or store-bought star anise powder)

Place the star anise into a pan and toast until fragrant.

Using a spice grinder, grind to a powder. This could be substituted for store-bought anise powder, toasted in a pan until fragrant.

Place 1 cup of caster sugar in a clean, heavy-based pan.

Add ¼ cup of water and set over medium heat. Resist the urge to stir and instead swirl and gently shake the pan back and forth to distribute the liquid and make sure the sugar melts evenly. Stirring the sugar causes recrystallisation and clumps to form, which is not desirable.

Once the sugar has melted into caramel and browned slightly, add the anise powder and remove from heat.

Immediately pour on to a tray lined with baking paper and leave to set as a hard sheet.

Once hard, crush down with a grinder or mortar and pestle until crumbly

Strawberry syrup
25g strawberries
1 tbsp caster sugar

In a bowl, mix together the cut strawberries with caster sugar. Allow to macerate for around 30 minutes.

Once macerated, use the back of a spoon or your hands to further break down the strawberries to a pulp.

Pass the pulp through a muslin cloth into another bowl; the result will be a vibrant strawberry syrup.

To serve

Whisk the yoghurt and sugar together.

Pick chrysanthemums and mint flowers.

Spoon yoghurt into bottom of a bowl and cover liberally with fresh berry mixture, sprinkle with dried blueberries and flowers. Dress with macadamia oil and strawberry coulis. Finally, crumble over the praline and finish with a light sprinkle of sea salt.

Simon Hopkinson’s chicken, garlic and parsley broth

A visit to my local farmer’s market in west London is my favourite start to the weekend. For what seems like an endless season, the vegetable stall offers huge heads of fresh garlic: pale green with long stems and a strong aroma. The French girl, who forever charms, also sells parsley, both curly (rare these days) and flat-leaf, as well as other noteworthy vegetables and fruit. Four heads of garlic and a huge parsley bunch cost me £4. I then take two steps to the adjacent chicken and egg purveyor, pick up three or four chicken carcasses and some giblets, and spend even less. A broth of these simple ingredients is already simmering in my happy head.

Enough for several servings
chicken carcasses 3-4 (or 8 wings), roughly chopped (if you have some giblets, add these, too)
garlic 2 heads of fresh or purple-skinned Provence, cut in half horizontally
parsley 1 large bunch, leaves picked, stalks roughly chopped
salt 2 tsp
bay leaves 2
lemon zest 3-4 strips
chilli flakes ½ tsp
white wine 2 glasses
water 2 litres, or enough to cover the ingredients by about 5cm
olive oil 3 tbsp

Put the carcasses (or wings) in a large pot that has a lid and add the garlic, parsley stalks, salt, bay leaves, lemon zest, chilli flakes, white wine and water. Bring up to a simmer and skim off any scum from the surface. Allow to blip and murmur over a very low heat, covered, for about an hour and a half; you can also do this in a low oven. After about 40 minutes of cooking, carefully lift out the garlic on to a plate using a slotted spoon, and cool. Continue to simmer the broth for the remaining time.

Remove the lid and strain the broth using a colander into a large bowl, discarding the solids. Allow the broth to settle for about 10 minutes, then remove any surface fat using 3-4 sheets of kitchen paper. Now strain the broth again through a fine sieve back into the (wiped clean) original pan.

Take the cooled heads of garlic and ease out the soft cloves from their sodden skins. Tip these into a small food processor, add the olive oil, parsley leaves and a spoonful or two of the broth. Process until smooth. Return to the broth, stir and reheat without boiling, then decant into a warmed soup bowl.

Serve with some large baked sourdough croutons, which will soften and swell in the broth while retaining a pleasing texture until the final spoonful. This recipe makes more than one serving; there isn’t much point in making a smaller quantity. But I can live on this for days – it keeps well in the fridge for at least five days.