Banana & Peanut Butter Smoothie

Like a lot of food bloggers (and certainly a lot of Scots) I like to start my day with a pint. Luckily for my liver, it's usually a pint of banana and peanut smoothie.

Bananas are probably one of my few textural phobias. I don't mind when they are ripe, but if they are over or under ripe they set my teeth on edge. Just thinking about that starchy mushy stuff is making me shudder.

Despite this, I can't bear to throw them out, and there's only so much banana bread you can make. Instead, I blend them up with milk and peanut butter to make a rather delicious smoothie. (Prepare yourself for some of the dullest photos I have ever published.)

Banana & Peanut Butter Smoothie

While this is a bit of a fatty combo, it does make for a pretty healthy start for the day. The banana is one of the 5 a day, plus it's a great source of potassium. The peanut butter has lots of vitamins and minerals, including selenium. One of the few interesting facts I still remember from my dissertation is that low selenium consumption in a population can be linked to the prevalence of HIV within that population. As I am not really a big consumer of dairy products, I also like having the milk in there, it's probably the only calcium I get.

The banana's sweetness really comes out in this drink, but it's balanced by the saltiness of the peanut butter. Putting it through the blender makes it very foamy, which adds a creamy richness that shouldn't really be there with semi-skimmed.

Mmm, foamy.

Banana & Peanut Butter Smoothie
Makes 1 pint/550ml

1 banana
1 generous tbsp of smooth peanut butter
350ml milk

Put everything in a blender and mix thoroughly.

For an extra twist, add ice cubes or chop and freeze the banana before blending.

Hot Spiced Mead - A Winter Warmer Cocktail

Although the German market in Edinburgh disappeared long ago, the Highland market was around until New Year. When we visited on New Year's Day, we all had sore throats from the partying the night before, as well as sore heads. After some tasty burgers from Well Hung & Tender, we found a stall selling hot mead, which we hoped would be soothing as well as restorative.

It was indeed both, and quizzed the girl behind the counter for the ingredients. Mead, wine, honey, sugar, apple juice and spices were in there, but she wasn't sure of the quantities.

I'd forgotten about it until the other day, when perusing the alcoholic offerings of the local deli in search of something to cheer me up in the darkest days of January. Some mead was purchased, quickly spiced, heated and drunk.

Cinnamon, cloves, star anise, mace.

I left out the apple juice, but reduced the alcohol content by gently simmering the drink for a minute or so before serving. I used a similar selection of spices to that of mulled wine - cinnamon, cloves, star anise and mace. Without the apple juice, I substituted a good squeeze of lemon to make it a bit fruitier. Annoyingly, it was only after I finished drinking that I thought I should have put a shot of Cointreau in there to get a zesty edge to the flavour.

Hot Spiced Mead

Hot Spiced Mead
Serves 1 - but can be easily multiplied to make more, you don't need to add more spices unless you are making more than 4-5 portions.

2.5 ladles of mead
1.5 ladles of white wine
0.3 ladles of sugar
1tbsp honey
good squeeze of lemon juice
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
1 blade mace

Place everything in a saucepan, and stir to dissolve the sugar and honey. Simmer the liquid gently for 30 secs to soften the alcoholic impact (but don't boil it all off!) and serve.

Festive Cocktail - Elderflower Martini

Although the Edinburgh fringe doesn't start officially until the 7th August, the city is already in full festival mode. Many shows are doing previews, and I'm off to a couple tonight. I've also got tickets for shows for the next few days, my mission this year is to go to at least one show a day!

A big problem with the Fringe is that there is just so much to see. I've had a programme guide for a couple of weeks, and picked up Fest magazine too, but I am still none the wiser about what I want to see.

While contemplating the hefty tome that is the full Fringe listings, I've often been sipping on an elderflower martini. I first tried this drink at the bar where my flatmate works. I think it was a special, as I haven't seen it there since. Although I know a proper martini shouldn't have a non-alcoholic mixer as it's main component, I can't quite remember what this was called in the bar, and googling doesn't bring up a similar recipe. I'd watched the barman quite closely as he'd made the drink, so although I can't remember the name, I can still guess at the recipe!

You will need these ingredients

Elderflower Martini - per person:
25ml sweet vermouth
25ml elderflower cordial
125ml cloudy apple juice

Put everything in a cocktail shaker, with plenty of ice cubes. Shake it up until the outside of the shaker gets cold and misty.

Cold and Misty

Strain the drink in to a glass and enjoy! It's not particularly alcoholic, so it's refreshing while still having a bit of a kick. I am a massive fan of gin and other "aromatic" type drinks, so I loved the floral flavour of the elderflower mixed with the herby tones of the vermouth.

Time to study the options!

There's a couple of other summer drinks I've been drinking a lot lately, so watch out for those recipes soon...

Click here for more Martini information -