Caramelised banana and eggs

I made this on a whim, for breakfast. One morning recently I had lightly fried eggs, on their own. I poured the remaining butter in the pan over them, and my partner, seeing the plate swimming in golden liquid, asked if I was having syrup on my eggs. That sounds naughty, I thought, but it's not a bad idea!

I caramelised some slices of banana in butter and a dash of maple syrup. Broke in a couple of eggs and let them cook slowly. Poured over all the butter and syrup, and a dash of cream. It was delicious - although when you don't eat much sweet stuff, it's amazing how phenomenally sweet a slice of fried banana can be. Not something to be indulged in on a daily basis, perhaps - though I used only half a small banana and maybe 5grams of syrup, so in actual fact it's not too terribly high on the carbs anyway.

Saffron cod

Very simple: a few sliced new potatoes, a tomato, plenty of butter, a couple of lemon wedges, water, white wine, salt, pepper and a pinch of saffron. Cook over a low heat until the potatoes are nearly done, then add cod fillets and cook for another 8-10 minutes. Take the fish out, if need be, to reduce the remaining liquid to a sauce. More butter.

I've often thought this would work well with chicken, too, but have never got round to trying it.

Date and walnut cheesecake

I'm quite a late convert to cheesecake. I grew up the the 1970s, when cheesecake usually meant an unholy amalgam of Philadelphia and Dream Topping, extruded onto a base of mumbled Rich Tea biscuits, chilled to death and served in sticky, unpleasantly cheesy, oversweetened bricks with the texture of soft bubblegum. It was years before I realised there even was such a thing as baked cheesecake.

Another great thing about cheesecake is that it's very easy to make gluten free, it's generally not too heavy on the sugar (and if you're making it yourself, you can put in as little sugar as you like), and it's high in lovely butterfat.

This version ended up quite a bit higher in total sugar than I'd usually make because of the dates, but even so it compares very favourably to the average dessert. The date and walnut was an experiment; it was a birthday cake for my partner, who's rather keen on old-school date and walnut cake.

Ingredients were 100g walnuts, about 150g dates, about 40g sugar, 250g each mascarpone and ricotta, 25g butter, 3 eggs, vanilla extract, and a dash of rum. (I soaked the walnuts in salt water for several hours to lessen the lectins, then dried them off in a cool oven).

Some time beforehand, put about half the dates to soak in the rum. Blitz the walnuts, the un-rummed half of the dates, butter and half the sugar in the food processor to a fine sticky gravel, press into the base of a 12-inch springform cake tin and give it about half an hour at 150C. Blitz the rum-soaked dates with a couple of dollops of the ricotta and enough water to make a thin paste, and set aside. Mix the remaining ricotta, mascarpone, remaining sugar, vanilla and egg yolks into a smooth cream. Whip the egg whites until relatively stiff, then fold into the cream mixture. Finally, fold in the date liquor - the aim is marbling, rather than blended, which didn't exactly work out for me. Tip the whole lot into the tin over the base, and bake at 150C for about 90 minutes.

Divided into 12, that works out about 230cal, 20g fat, 15g carb per portion.

Liver

The latest in my ongoing campaign to wean myself onto offal, starting at the shallow end with liver. Last time, it was lamb's liver, and I can't honestly say I enjoyed it. I tried it again, reasoning that if I blended it into a paté with various other things it would make the flavour a bit less aggressive. I was wrong. The other flavours - onion, garlic, pepper, a ton of dill - just seemed to somehow intensify the liver taste, rather than camouflage it. I got through the stuff, a couple of spoonfuls at a time over a few days at lunchtime, but it was an exercise in determination.

Nevertheless, after a couple of weeks off, it was time for round three. This time it was venison liver. I reasoned that since I don't like lamb that much (that's also something I'm working on), maybe lamb liver was a bad place to start. I let the slices sit in lemon juice for several hours before I cooked it, which allegedly softens the flavour. I fried it briefly - about 90 seconds each side in a hot, cast iron pan, then left it to sit off the heat for five minutes to finish under its own steam. Had it with onion fried with sage and pepper, and some strips of fried pancetta.

It was actually pretty nice. I almost enjoyed it. There were moments, when I wasn't thinking about it too much, when I really did enjoy it. Success!

Fried salad

Summer lunch is generally salad. Several days of dismal weather, though, began to wear down the most determined optimism. I could have made a soup, but I'd already begun assembling the salad ingredients when I found myself rebelling against the thought of eating something cold. So I just chucked the stuff - peppers, courgettes, tomatoes, red onion - into the pan with some olive oil. Right at the end I added shredded lettuce. Topped with some fried halloumi.

Breadless tuna melt

When making gluten free versions of things, something that quite quickly becomes clear is that it's usually what comes with the gluten that's what you really want. Like with pizza on a plate - the toppings are the star of the show. In the case of a tuna melt, the hot tuna with a base of onions and cheese soaking into it.

I put a layer of onion in the pan, piled on the tuna, mashed it out flat into a patty shape, fresh dill because I happened to have some, and a layer of sliced cheddar on top. It sat on a low heat for a few minutes until the cheese had melted. I scooped it onto a salad. It didn't hold together very well, but that was ok.