Last weekend, I invited S and his fiancée to a home-cooked meal. As S was prescribed Khichadi, I had to make that but also made a Banoffee Pie. This was R’s special request.

Now, most Mumbaikars prefer eating out especially since there is a fancy new eatery opening up almost every day in every part of the city.

But I prefer the old fashioned way of entertaining where you went to someone’s home, sat around the table and had a relaxed conversation.

Besides, I didn’t think it worthwhile spending money to eat  Khichadi ! This is my all-time comfort food and the comfort food of all bad tummies. It was also a staple in my life while growing up and the mere mention of its name brings forth memories of its soft, squishy consistency drowning in aromatic home-made ghee.

This humble dish is definitely NOT on the menu of most restaurants especially not the fancy ones.  Even if you tout it as a lightly spiced easy to digest rice and lentil porridge, it still doesn’t fancy it up!

And since S had been particularly been prescribed khichadi by his doctor as part of his treatment, I thought it best to have them at home.

Since R volunteered to get a salad, I decided to complement it with a light roast chicken lemon in butter sauce,  a wholesome macaroni, and fresh vegetable casserole, a Banoffee Pie specially requested for by R.

I first heard about a Banoffee Pie a few years ago and if truth be told, didn’t like it the first time I had it.

I mean, what kind of a name is Banoffee to begin with?

Banana+Toffee= Banoffee

This typically British dessert was first made popular in the early 1970s by Nigel Mackenzie of the Hungry Monk, an iconic restaurant in the UK. It has since then become a popular dessert and despite its exotic-sounding name, Banoffee Pie is surprisingly easy to make.

 

Easy as Pie

Now Bananas are not particularly a favourite of mine, especially they are considered the most plebian of fruit. But today’s prices of Rs. per dozen are slowly inching them out of the reach of the common man.

However, ordering a pie is even more outrageous and I decided to make it myself.

While the regular Indian Green Bananas have now become rare,  the ubiquitous yellow Cavendish Banana does just fine.

What is important is that the banana should be ripe and firm, not soft, squishy and overripe.

I went through the recipes I found on YouTube ( my latest recipe source) and combined the recipe by Carnation and Sally’s Baking Addiction, to come up with my own.

The Ingredients are very simple.

For the crust :

• 250 g of Marie Digestive Biscuits
• 100 g unsalted butter ( melted)
• 75 g castor sugar

For the caramel toffee

• 75 g Butter
• 75 g Demerara sugar
• 1 tin of condensed milk

For the topping

• 500 ml fresh cream
• 2 ripe bananas

So now that you’ve got all your ingredients together you can start by making the pie crust.

♦ Combine the biscuits, sugar and melted butter in a food processor or blender to make a mixture that resembles bread crumbs.

♦ Tightly pack the biscuit mix onto a pie tin and press into place with the back of a measuring cup or spoon. Bake in a hot oven ( 180º C) for 15 minutes. This ensures that the pie crust doesn’t crumble.

♦ Allow the pie crust to cool completely and refrigerate for an hour or more so that it firms up.

In the meanwhile, you can get down to making the Caramel toffee or Dulce de Leche.

♦Pour the contents of the condensed milk into a thick-bottomed bowl. Add the butter and sugar and allow to come to the boil, stirring all the time.

♦Lower the heat and keep on heat till the mixture thickens.

♦Take off heat and allow to cool.

♦When completely cool, pour over pie crust.

If you plan on making the pie ahead of time, you can stop at this stage. Else, go ahead with the last stage.

♦To finish, whip the cream and sugar till it forms stiff peaks. Take care not to curdle the cream.

♦Place banana slices cut into roundels on the toffee layer. Top off with whipped cream.

♦Drizzle Hershey’s chocolate syrup or sprinkle chocolate shavings for decoration.

Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Tip : This pie tastes even better when made two days in advance!

So now isn’t it easy? If you try out this recipe do let me know how it turns out.

Ciao

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Yesterday I got a notification from WordPress that I had spent 10 years hosting with them. I thought I should mark this event with something new. Rather, I should say, something old.

Food is one of my passions and I had started #FlavoursomeTuesdays , a blog hop that flopped.

But I still miss writing about food and sharing recipes, so I thought of starting a new initiative called #ThursdayPotluck.

If you have a recipe or foodie anecdote to share, do ping me so that I can visit your post!