When Life Hands You Brown Bananas....

 I've been in something of a doldrum for the last few weeks (months?). Even the promise of spring and roadmaps to freedom aren't really shifting my mood.

A side effect for me of low mood is a general feeling of Meh regarding all cooking and eating properly. These are the times the risky 'Biscuits for Tea' option rears its head - never a good plan for those of us who have to keep an eye on blood sugar balancing. I had been grinding along with assemblage food (sandwiches, stuff from the deli counter in pasta, crisps and crackers and .... biscuits) but I'm trying to force myself to cook.

And to deal with the inevitable side effect of actually cooking - the dreaded washing up (sooooooo over washing up. Meh). I've just about wrangled the house back into a state of clean (Meh also leads to a lack of hoovering, cleaning and tidying crap away). I'm still ignoring the overgrown mess that is the garden and, over Easter, managed some truly exceptional displacement sewing activities that meant I had NO TIME to mow the lawn in my week of 'end of year' leave #confinedcrafting FTW. I'm probably now ready to take on more washing up than a cereal bowl and a breadknife.

So I decided to deal with another of the consequences of Food Meh. I'm not a fan of food waste, but I have been guilty recently of buying ingredients & stuff to cook and then just...not cooking it. Leaving it in the fridge, watching the Use By dates fly past. Terrible things have happened with my Fruit of Good Intentions. I did rescue a very brown banana and a couple of nectarines that were seconds from exploding into pomanders of mould and mush by chopping them up and sticking them in the freezer, thus deferring the actual eating until I was in a better frame of mind. I also had a small pile of very elderly apples that did not inspire me to eat them.

First up - emergency Apple Butter. I actually do this a lot with elderly eating apples.

Apple butter in progress, nearly ready for mushifying

Chop 'em up, don't bother to peel but toss the core bits. Throw them in the slow cooker. Add some spices (I just chucked in a tablespoon of my winter/pumpkin spice mix). Stick it on low for the day. Once everything is cooked down and caramelised (anywhere from 6-8 hours) you need to blend it down. Any peel just disappears. Of course I absolutely DO NOT advocate using a hand stick blender to mushify things in the slow cooker while it's still hot. That would not pass any sort of valid risk assessment. You should (definitely) let things cool down, transfer to a safe container and blend via the method of your choice, then return it to the slow cooker. Cough.

Yeah - I always do it in the slow cooker. I don't even turn the slow cooker off. Just never take the stick blender out of the apple mush while it's actually still whizzing. Scalding hot apple butter splashes are dangerous. You have been warned. 

I then turn it to high for about an hour (leaving the lid askew) to reduce a bit, then let it cool and stick it in a clean jar in the fridge where it will be OK for a couple of weeks. Good for adding to yoghurt, spreading on toast, adding to meat dishes, plonking on porridge. You could probably freeze it too.

But back to bananas. Of course last year proved Banana Bread is always an option, or muffins or microwave mug cakes. However, all of these were beyond me so I opted for 'bung it in the freezer and do something later' and what I did when later came was Banana Fake Ice Cream.

There are a load of vegan banana based ice cream fake out recipes out there. All require pre-frozen bananas and a food processor of some kind. I'd thrown the banana bits and (unpeeled) nectarine chunks in the same freezer bag. I also couldn't face getting out the (actually quite small and easy to handle) food processor right now, so I decided to discover whether I could make iced dessert for one with the mini-chopper attachment of my stick blender. Turns out you can, but it takes a bit longer and requires more poking down and pushing of chunks nearer the blades. It felt like it took ages but looking at the time stamp on the photos it took about 10 minutes, all told. I do have a pretty good motor on my stick blender, mind.

Anyway - take your chunks of frozen banana (plus any other fruit additions - this was 1 medium banana and 2 nectarines), chuck it in the processor. I then add a few good tablespoons of greek yoghurt. This is not necessary really if you have the banana in there and makes it Not Vegan (obvs), but I don't care. I prefer the mouth feel with yoghurt. It's a touch closer to real ice cream.

Then start blending. If you're using a mini-chopper stop frequently to poke the large chunks floating at the top down into the mix towards the blade. Things will look pointless, then sort of breadcrumby, then suddenly it all turns into a smoothish frozen creamy sludge. To harden it up spoon it into a box and chuck it back in the freezer for a few hours or longer. I did this with half of the results (I got enough for two sensible portions). The rest I ate in its soft set form immediately. And I called it dinner.

Ingredients and equipment 

Chunks loaded

half chunks half mush

Grainy and uncreamy

Getting there

Definitely creamy

Ice cream achieved