• 8 tbsp butter (about 110g), at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, separated
• 2 cup all purpose flour (or 1 cup all purpose, 1 cup whole wheat)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 large overripe bananas, mashed to hell
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped and pan roasted

1. Preheat the oven to 175C.
2. Separate the eggs, and beat the whites to soft peaks.
3. Cream together butter and sugar until it’s pale and fluffy. Beat in the yolks.
4. Sift in the flour and baking soda. Add the salt and mix well.
5. Fold in the bananas, vanilla and walnuts.
6. Fold in the egg whites.
7. Butter a small bread tin and add the mixture. We usually pour the mix into tiny bread tins and make 2 small loaves.
8. Bake for 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of your tin. A knife should come out clean when it’s done.
9. Cool for 10 minutes in the tin and then let on a cooling rack.

Peeled to Mission of Burma – Vs.

• 3 tbsp butter, plus a bit to spread on each pancake
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 egg, separated
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• Enough maple syrup to swim in

1. Before you get carried away, melt the butter and set it aside to cool. You don’t want to mix in molten butter and have it curdle your eggs.
2. Into a large bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. Separate the egg. Vigorously beat the whites until you get soft peaks. Set aside. This step is the key to unlocking the gates of special pancake heaven.
4. Add the milk and egg yolk to the flour mixture. Mix enough to combine all of the ingredients. If you’re keen, use a whisk to prevent any floury clumps from forming.
5. Pour in the butter while mixing and combine.
6. Using a spatula, fold in the egg whites.
7. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes.
8. Heat a small nonstick frying pan over a medium-low heat. Don’t add any additional fat to the pan – the butter in the pancake mix will keep things from sticking and create an even colouring. Once the pan is hot, use a ladle to portion out 1 pancake. The ladle we use holds about 150ml of batter.
9. Leave the pancake to cook for a minute or two on each side. You’ll know when to flip it when you see small, uniform bubbles appear across the surface of the batter. The pancakes should be a rich, golden brown on each side.
10. Once a pancake has cooked, place it on a serving plate and spread with a thin coating of butter.
11. Once you have a stack of two pancakes, douse in maple syrup or jam and indulge.

This recipe makes 4 pancakes – enough to make 2 people very fat and happy.

Flipped to Yo La Tengo – Painful

• 4 smallish beetroots
• 2 tbsp tahini
• The zest from 1 unwaxed lemon
• The juice from that very same lemon
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• about 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp parsley, roughly chopped
• 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Wash the beets and place them in a medium sauce pan. Cover the beets with ample cold water. Bring to a simmer a leave it the hell alone for an hour or so. They’re done once a sharp knife can easily poke through the sweet, sweet beetflesh.
2. Zest the lemon and set aside.
3. While the beets are cooking, make the dressing. In a small bowl combine the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Add enough water to give the dressing a creamy but runny consistency. This depends on your tahini, but it’ll likely be around 2 tablespoons. We use this same dressing for almost every salad we eat.
4. Drain the beets and let them cool. Sure, you can run them under some cold water for a bit or shock them in an ice batch. Trim, peel and quarter the beets. Wash your hands, you look a mess.
5. Place the beets in a big bowl. Add the lemon zest, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Mix it up. Drizzle on the dressing and garnish with parsley. Don’t mix it after adding the dressing, unless you want hilariously pink dressing.

Beat to Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today.

• About 10 plum or other medium sized tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic, smashed
• 1 small bunch of basil, whole
• 1 tsp chile pepper flakes
• salt and pepper to taste
• A pinch of sugar

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a vigorous boil. While it’s heating up, get an ice bath set up in a large bowl.
2. Once the water is at a boil, plop the tomatoes in for 30-45 seconds until the skins just begin to break. Remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon, dumping them straight into the ice bath.
3. Peel the tomatoes and then chop them in half. Remove most of the seed pods, but don’t dispose of them.
4. Place the discarded seeds into a sieve. Sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt to draw out the moisture and place over a bowl.
5. While the seedy bits are draining, put the tomatoes into a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Before they get too hot, crush the tomatoes in your fists like you’re some kind of unforgiving tomato king. Sure, you could use a potato masher, but this way is so much more cathartic. Add a pinch of salt and sugar. Keep the mix simmering.
6. Meanwhile, add the oil, garlic, basil and chile pepper flakes to a cold, large frying pan over a low flame. Watch this carefully – you don’t want this oil infusion to start sizzling. Just before the oil starts popping, turn the heat off and let it sit for 10 minutes or so while tomatoes continue to simmer.
7. Once the tomatoes have broken down, add in the liquid you’ve extracted from the seed pods and simmer for another 10 minutes or so. Taste and season.
8. Decant the oil infusion directly into the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes or until the sauce is fully emulsified.

One of my favourite meals on the planet is a spaghetti pomodoro made with this sauce. Cook the spaghetti 2 minutes less than directed and then finish the pasta in a pan with the sauce and few splashes of the water you cooked the noodles in. You don’t want the pasta downing in sauce, just well coated.

Reduced to Wild Nothing – Gemini.

• 4-5 small tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 red pepper, trimmed
• 1 red chile pepper
• 3 small cloves of garlic, unpeeled
• 1 medium carrot, cut in half lengthwise
• 2 spring onions, trimmed
• Juice from 1/2 lime

1. Get the broiler going. In the meantime, get your prep on.
2. Arrange all of the veg in a medium baking dish. Just before you pop it under the broiler, give everything a nice coating of vegetable oil.
3. You want everything to have a nice char, especially the tomatoes and peppers. This usually takes about 10 minutes or so to achieve, but keep an eye on the proceedings.
4. Remove the dish from the oven. Trim the top off the chile and remove the garlic from its skin.
5. Pop everything into the food processor and blend until smooth. Add the lime juice and season to taste.

Mix it up with some cilantro, if that’s your thing. Sometimes that’s my thing too. This goodness keeps for few days in the Frigidaire.

Blended to Avi Buffalo – Avi Buffalo.

Use whatever combination of seeds, nuts and dried fruits strike you. This latest batch had sultanas and pumpkin seeds, but for the longest time my favourite was a simple combo of almonds and oats.

Beyond the goodness that is fresh-from-the-oven granola, the big secret here is salt. A nice flaky sea salt really makes things special. I put about 1 healthy teaspoon of salt for each cup of oats.

• 1 part white flour (optional, but helps make nice clumps)
• 2 part rolled oats
• 1-2 parts goodies – nuts, seeds, dried fruits, whatever
• (Flaky sea) salt to taste
• enough honey or maple syrup to lightly coat everything
• enough oil (extra virgin) or fat (butter) to lightly coat everything

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170C / 325F
2. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Leave out anything you don’t want to brown in the oven, like coconut or some dried fruits. Add those for the last few minutes of toasting action – or just stir them in afterwards.
3. Drizzle the wet ingredients over the dry ones and mix well.
4. Pour out the mix onto a large baking sheet and spread evenly.
5. Bake, turning them every 5 minutes of so, until the oats turn a golden brown. They might feel a little wet to the touch, but they’ll crisp up in the air.

Toasted to Volcano Choir – Unmap

There are infinite variants of the mighty masoor dal. This just happens to be the one we made last night. Experiment. It’s very difficult to ruin.

• 1 cup red lentils
• 4 cups light vegetable broth
• 1.5 teaspoons cumin seed
• 1 teaspoon mustard seed
• 1 clove garlic, smashed
• 2 cm piece of ginger, halved
• 1/4 teaspoon of chile powder or to taste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tablespoon of fat: oil, ghee, butter, whathaveyou
• salt to taste

1. Rinse the dal with a few charges of cold water and set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over a medium-high flame. When the oil’s nearly smoking add the garlic, cumin and mustard seeds. The cumin seed should pop on impact. Keep this moving for about a minute, careful not to let the cumin seed burn.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan and bring it to a simmer.
4. Cook over low heat for about 45 minutes, or until it’s at a consistency you’re more than happy to eat. Stir occasionally. The water tends to separate from the lentils and you could get in a bad way if you’re not mindful.
5. Serve over a nice basmati rice, like Majula’s wonderful zucchini rice.

Dal making music: Mount Eerie – Wind’s Poem.

• About 1 tablespoon tahini
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon or lime
• Enough water
• 1/2 garlic clove, crushed to smithereens
• Salt, pepper, and herbs to taste

1. Add the tahini and citrus juice to a small bowl. Whisk them together until things get all pasty.
2. Slowly add water about 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing as you go. You want it to pour easily, but not become watery. If things get too damp, add a tiny bit of tahini to the mix. A little tahini goes a long way.
3. Mix in the garlic, seasoning, and herbs to taste.
4. C’est tout!

Dressed with Atlas Sound – Logos.

Frittatas tick not only the 30 minute checkbox, but also the “crap, that produce is about to turn – better make something pronto” box. Presenting a fine Frankenstein of a frittata that came out of one such evening: the asparagus, tomato, stilton, and marscapone frittata!

• 5 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon marscapone
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• a small bunch of asparagus, trimmed
• a few small tomatoes, quartered
• a few ounces of stilton or similarly stinky cheese
• a pinch of garlic granules
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C, 400F.
2. Par-cook the asparagus in a steamer for a few minutes. You’ll want to vary this depending on the girth of your little green wonders – skinny ones will only need 1-2 minutes. They’ll still have quite a crunch to them. Shock the asparagus in some icy water. Dry them on a towel and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, marscapone, and garlic granules. Season to taste. The marscapone shouldn’t completely emulsify. Deep breath: move on.
4. Heat some olive oil in an oven-friendly pan. Add the onions and dash of salt. Sautee the onions until they’re translucent.
5. Add the egg mixture to the pan. Arrange the asparagus, tomatoes, and crumbled stilton into something pleasant to look at. Once the bottom of the egg mixture starts to set, transfer the pan from the heat of the stove to the heat of the oven. It doesn’t take long for the magic to start happening. The frittata will start to rise and then brown. It should only take 5 minutes or so, but it’ll depend on the size of your pan, so keep an eye and nose out.

Sure, it’s fantastic straight out of the oven, but it’s also tasty anywhere between piping hot and room temperature. A friendly suggestion: serve it with a salad of greens and apples (which work tiny miracles with the stilton).

Whisked to School of Seven Bells – Alpinisms

So sure, it’s always time for chili, but in winter the dish takes on a whole new life and becomes a weekly staple. I started documenting my chili attempts about a year ago, and I’ve settled on a foundation that I’m really happy with. It’s easily extensible, like any good piece of recipe software, and not too fussy. There’s nothing technically complicated here – just a bunch of ingredients. It’s all timing and patience.

This chili serves 2 comfortably, but why not make a double batch and enjoy the miracle of leftovers. Leftover chili is one of the wonders of the culinary world, only improving in flavor on the second day. You could be really crafty and make this potion the night before.

For roux:
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons white flour

For chili:

• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon chile powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 can whole plum tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup tasty red wine
• 2 teaspoons mole paste
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 cups cooked kidney beans, preferably home-cooked
• 2 cups cooked chick peas, preferable home-cooked
• Salt, pepper to taste

1. Make the roux, foo’. In a small saucepan, add the oil and flour over low heat. Whisk continually for for 5-10 minutes until you have a nice, golden brown, heavenly smelling roux. It’ll turn from brown to black very quickly – so be careful. Take the roux off the heat and set it aside. You won’t need it again for a few hours. If you want to skip this step all together, fine. You can always add some corn starch, arrowroot or flour at the end. The roux just adds this really wonderful nutty richness to the whole affair.
2. In a large saucepan, heat up a bit of oil over medium-high heat and add the onion. Keep the onion going for about 10 minutes until it starts to caramelize. Add the garlic and move things around until the garlic is blond – it should just take a minutes or two.
3. Add all of the spices, except the oregano, to the pan and sauté for a few seconds.
4. Add the canned tomatoes and crush them almost to oblivion – I like to leave a few chunks. Some chili traditionalist snobs eschew tomatoes entirely, but I really love the depth (and umami) they add – especially in the absence of any meat.
5. Add the oregano, broth, wine, honey, and mole paste. If you don’t have mole paste, that’s OK. Just skip it. You’ll miss some of the bitterness and sweetness it imparts, but you’ll only have yourself to blame.
6. Don’t forget to season at this point, but this amazing concoction is going to cook down for a few hours, so don’t add too much salt yet.
7. Now for some patience. Turn the heat down to low and get the hell out of the kitchen, returning occasionally give things a good stir and taste. My favorite version of this chili simmers away for about 4 hours. If you don’t have a ton of time, cut the amount of liquid by half. But there’s not a lot of effort involved at this point. Just restraint.
8. Once things have stewed for a bit – usually about 1 and a half to 2 hours – add the beans. Taste again and adjust for seasoning. Continue cooking for a while. Feel free to get substitute happy – this chili works with pretty much any bean in any quantity.
9. The consistency of the chili will start to change – you want it to be pretty thick, but the roux will add additional thickness. About 20 minutes before the chili’s done, stir in the roux.
10. Take the chili off the heat and let it rest for 10 minutes or so before serving. You could eat it all in one sitting, and that would be great. But this devilish brew only gets better as it sits overnight.

For some extra starch action, we sometimes serve this chili over rice or better yet some of Nat’s cornbread. I like mine garnished with some cheddar, or if I’m in a mood, some fresh coriander and a bit of diced onion.

Stewed to Jonny Greenwood – Bodysong