“To confine your use of miso to just soup would be to miss out on a multitude of exciting gastronomic opportunities – one of the best of which would have to be the miso butterscotch that goes with Jikoni’s famous banana cake. This dessert has such a cult following that certain die-harders will call ahead to make sure we have a portion saved for them,” says chef and food writer, Ravinder Bhogal.
“The banana cake is based on the idea of a sticky toffee pudding, although it is much less dense. Then there’s that dizzyingly luxurious miso butterscotch with its compelling mix of sweet and salty flavours. To top it all off, we have the ‘nostalgia in a bowl’ of Ovaltine kulfi, a condensed milk ice cream that has an almost chewy texture. And if that wasn’t enough to make you fall in love with this dessert, making it is a piece of cake!”
Banana cake with miso butterscotch and Ovaltine kulfi
Equipment
- Large bowl
- Bowl
- 24cm square cake tin
- Blender or food processor
- Skewer
- Saucepan
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp black tea leaves
- 200 ml boiling water
- 200 g pitted dates
- 110 g unsalted butter
- 350 g dark muscovado sugar
- 1 tbsp treacle
- 1 tbsp date syrup
- 400 g self-raising flour
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
- 200 g peeled bananas
For the kulfi
- 50 g Ovaltine
- 450 g condensed milk
- 300 ml double cream
For the butterscotch
- 500 ml double cream
- 175 g demerara sugar
- 175 g unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 60 g white miso
Method
- The kulfi will take at least six hours to set, so make it ahead of time. In a large bowl, mix the Ovaltine into the condensed milk until there are no lumps. In a separate bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks, then fold it into the condensed milk mixture. Pour the kulfi into a tub and freeze until set. It really is as simple as that!
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C/Gas Mark 5. Line a 24cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
- Put the tea leaves in a heatproof jug or bowl, pour over the boiling water and allow to infuse for a minute. Strain the tea, discarding the tea leaves, then soak the dates in the hot tea for 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth. Stir in the treacle and date syrup, followed by the flour, and mix well. Mix the eggs in one at a time.
- Tip the soaked dates and tea into a blender or food processor, along with the vanilla extract, and blitz to a puree. Add the bicarbonate of soda and pulse briefly, then add to the bowl and mix thoroughly.
- Wipe out the blender, add the bananas and blend until smooth, then add to the cake batter and stir in well. Pour into the tin and bake for one hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
- Meanwhile, to make the butterscotch, put the cream in a saucepan over low heat. Add the sugar, butter and golden syrup and whisk until the sugar has dissolved and the butter has melted. Finally whisk in the miso, then remove from the heat.
- Turn the cake out on to a wire rack and leave to cool a little. To serve, cut into 12 portions, then serve warm with the hot miso butterscotch and the Ovaltine kulfi.
Nutrition
Jikoni: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes From An Immigrant Kitchen by Ravinder Bhogal, photography by Kristin Perers, is published by Bloomsbury.
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