The Pre-Christmas Skinner Dinner

This meal is as pretty as a picture…. or three pictures. It’s easy to prepare and nearly everything can be done in advance… the only time you need to leave your table companions is to put the shish kebabs under a very hot grill for a few minutes.

Method:

1. Heat your grill to High. 2. Take one wooden kebab stick for each person, wet it well and then thread alternate pieces of the following, until it’s almost full: tomato, onion, a hard cheese (I like to use Halloumi); mushroom and sweet red pepper. Then brush with a barbecue sauce (home-made, or a good ready-made one such as “Tiptree”, or an Indian chutney).

3. Put the filled sticks on to a wire rack and grill for a couple of minutes, then turn two or three times until done (about 6-8 minutes).

4. Serve with rice and salad.

Note:

The recipe in the photo, of course, is for a vegetarian shish kebab, which is shown at the bottom of the picture. The other two have added chunks of Lounza, which works beautifully!

Method:

l. Preheat oven to 190C. 2. Butter a rectangular loaf tin. 3. In a good sized bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 4. Add eggs, and beat well. 5. Gradually add the bananas, coffee, yogurt and cinnamon. 6. In another bowl, mix together flour and salt. 7. Add to the butter mixture, and whisk everything together well. 8. Stir in nuts, and pour the mixture into your baking tin. It should make a 23 by 12 cm tin-full plus a few “spare” buns. Never full your cake or bread tins all the way up, so that there is room for the mixture to rise. 9. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a thin knife or toothpick inserted comes out clean. 10. Let rest in tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a rack to cool. 11. Make the glaze, by whisking the water and icing sugar to make a spreadable paste. Use coffee instead of water if you wish. When the cake is cool, spoon and spread the icing over. Serve with whipped cream. Deeee-licious!