Baked Bananas in cream, chocolate sauce and 'licor de Ananaz'.

“The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie; And a thousand thousand slimy things, Lived on; and so did I”.  Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner.

Darling Husband cooked lemon roast chicken with roasted parsnips (which deserves it own entry).  However, he baked in the Aga from the ‘cooking with an Aga’ book baked bananas (The Aga Bible, Amy Willcock).  They come out looking very unattractive, and 5 year old daughter initially dismissed her plate and asked for a ‘raw’ one from the fruit bowl.  However, she soon changed her mind when the chocolate sauce appeared and I mashed it all together (minus the liquor of course) for my 3 year old son.  After confirming the bananas were indeed ‘dead’ (a current food concern of his – it was fish on Friday night), he tucked in with such silent enthusiasm that daughter decided this must be too good a thing to miss out on and tried some.  Silence then all round. I was surprised that husband cooked fruit as this is something he is in principle, opposed too.  He scoffed at the 70’s favourite of baked grapefruit that we were once served as a starter a few years ago, so I thought this was sacrilege.  The use of novelty booze left over from a foreign holiday many years ago added nothing to the dish.  But that is one of the things an Aga does – it’s always on status gets you baking everything.

Sardine Pate

“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” – The more it changes the more it is the same thing:  Jean Karr, Les Guêpes, 1849.

My Mother thinks I’m cruel serving little kids cold sardines when they come round to my house for lunch, but my daughter and her friends seem to love it and will eat this by the spoonful. My son is less enthusiastic, but usually eats a little. It really must be served chilled, so ideally, make a little ahead of time or put the tinned sardines in the fridge.  Seasonable at any time!

Blend a whole tin of sardines (in tomato sauce or just oil) in a food processor and add variations of the following; olive oil, lemon juice, fresh tomatos, cream cheese (or natural yogurt).  The sardines without the fresh tomato/ tomato sauce look a little grey (and to my mind unappetizing), but some friend’s kids prefer this if they’ve an anti-tomato thing going on.  (I’ve left out the dairy before too, for a lactose intolerance 3 year old).  I like a little texture to my pate, but the kids seem to like it smooth.  We serve either on toast (can be grilled topped with fresh tomatoes), or in individual pots with toast fingers or that toddler favourite; the bread stick. 

Elizabeth David refers to a version of this recipe twice in “An Omelette & a Glass of Wine” as Sardine Butter with versions given using the same amount of sardines as butter; a “scant ounce of butter” and also adding cayenne pepper.  She clearly took her sardines very seriously as she spent time touring French sardine-canning factories as research.