Celeriac schnitzel

The Mammal was away recently on two separate trips, visiting friends and family. This brought, of course, the inestimable advantage of having lovely meals served up by charming hosts. This particular dish is one of those ones that sound rather improbable until actually tried: the trick here is to make sure that the celeriac is cooked until nice and soft, so that it becomes beautifully tender and sweet. When trying to reconstruct it without the recipe, we found it difficult to get the right level of sweetness using the pan alone (our hostess clearly had magic powers), so experimented by adding an extra stage of baking beforehand. This worked a treat.

Serves 2–6, depending on the size of the celeriac and on whether it is the main ingredient or a side helping.
Cooking and prep time: about 1h all told

Ingredients
1 large-ish celeriac
2 eggs, beaten
flour
breadcrumbs, seasoned with salt and pepper
oil for frying

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

Peel the celeriac, and cut into rounds about half a centimeter thick. (It might actually be easier to cut he rounds first and then peel). Put the rounds on a tray and bake in the oven for 20–30 minutes.

Let the baked rounds cool slightly; dip in flour, then in beaten egg, and finally in breadcrumbs. Heat oil in a frying pan, and fry in batches until breadcrumbs are golden.

Serve with boiled veg, mash, salad or whatever takes your fancy.

Banana bread

[02.025.01]
Preparation / Cooking time: about 1h 50m all told

This recipe was provided years ago by one of the Mammal's mothers; in the fullness of time, she managed to lose her copy so here you are, Ma—banana bread once more! Despite the name, it's actually really a cake rather than a bread, and is the ideal way to deal with those squishy, black bananas that you meant to eat but never got around to. According to the recipe, it tastes better if left for a day or two but it usually doesn't last long enough to enable a comparison to be made.

As usual, we have reduced the amount of sugar used, showing the original amount in square brackets: you would need a pretty sweet tooth to use the full amount, given the sweetness of the ripe bananas. There are three optional ingredients—raisins, glacé cherries, and walnuts: from the Mammal's point of view, it really benefits only from the inclusion of the walnuts.

One word of warning: though very straightforward, this is one of those cakes where you have to keep an eagle eye on the time, as the outside burns very quickly after even five minutes too long in the oven. If your oven tends to be a bit on the enthusiastic side, have a quick check 15 minutes before it is due to come out and keep a close eye on it thereafter.

Ingredients
8oz flour
1 tsp baking powder
half level tsp salt
4oz cold butter
4[6]oz caster sugar
*4oz sultanas / raisins [optional]
* 1oz chopped walnuts [optional]
*4oz chopped glacé cherries [optional]
2 eggs
1 lb very ripe bananas

9.5" x 5.5" baking tin

Method
– Pre-heat oven to Gas 4, 180°C, 375°F
– Sieve flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl
– Rub in butter
– Add sugar (and sultanas/raisins, walnuts, and cherries if required)
– Mash bananas with a fork
– Add eggs to bananas
– Mix the banana–egg mush well into the other ingredients
– Pour / spoon mixture into lined and greased baking tin
– Put in the centre of the oven and bake for 1h 30m

Turn out onto a wire tray to cool.

Ginger snaps (MC's recipe)

Here is the original Be Ro recipe for ginger snaps, comments in italics update from the 1970s to the 21st century:

225 g (8 oz) Be-Ro Self Raising Flour
pinch salt
1 x 5 ml spoon (1 tsp) ground ginger (I use 1 tbsp)
100 g (4 oz) caster sugar (I use brown sugar)
75 g (3 oz) margarine (I use butter)
100 g (4 oz) golden syrup (flour your scales, then the syrup doesn't stick so badly)
1 medium egg, beaten (free range)


I also add some chopped crystallised ginger and add a cheeky little bit on top.