Blue cheese and plum soft ice cream (TGRWT #18)

Pastry chef Aidan Brooks has posted the invitation to join in on episode #18 of "They go really well together" (TGRWT). The idea is that foods with one or more flavour compounds in common will taste well in combination; the concept of flavour pairing. This month's ingredients are plum and blue cheese.

I've found that simple dishes such as milk shakes, smoothies and ice cream (this post) provide excellent matrixes for testing flavour pairings. Things are kept simple allowing for the pure flavours to come out, not being swamped by lot of (distracting) flavours from other ingredients. As such, milk and/or cream pose a good base. So this time, I went for a very simple straightforward recipe for soft serve ice cream. At the same time, it gave me the opportunity to test our new Bamix immersion blender (a common blender or smoothie machine will probably work well too).

Chicken, rose & rice flavour match (TGRWT #16)

Markus at Supernova Condensate has posted the invitation to join in on episode #16 of "They go really well together" (TGRWT). The idea is that foods with one or more flavour compounds in common will taste well in combination; the concept of flavour pairing. This months ingredients are chicken and rose.

I like to keep things rather simple flavourwise so that the flavours are allowed to come forth, the combinations becoming more evident. I've read that risotto is a real challenge, being many a cook's "nightmare". I suppose it's my ignorance that made me try making...

"Approximate-sous-vide" soy sauce marinated chicken breasts with chicken/rose risotto and sweet chilli tomato salsa

The risotto and tomato salsa was based on a modified recipe found at egg.no (English translation). The foodpairing scheme for rose indicates that rose should match well with tomato (strong correlation) and soy sauce (weak correlation), in addition to a weak correlation with chicken. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any asparagus, as this is also indicated to be a good match with rose and might go well with the risotto and chicken. I simply went for green peas and asparagus beans.

Ingredients (four persons)
4 Chicken breast fillets
Soy sauce, sweet + salt

100 ml sweet chilli sauce
2 tomatoes

1 onion, finely chopped
300 ml rice suitable for risotto
1/2 t saffron
2 T white wine vinegar + 50 ml water
1 l chicken stock
3 T butter (had only margarine, unfortunately)
75 ml grated parmesan (actually grana padano)
1 T rose water
basil leaves (garnish)

Directions
The chicken fillets was slashed and left in soy sauce to marinate for 8 hours (two fillets with sweet soy sauce and two in salt). The fillets were put in plastic bags and immersed in a pot with water, cooked "approximately-sous-vide" (65-69 °C) for 2 hours. They were fried quickly just before serving.

The salsa was made simply by chopping tomatoes and mixing with the chilli sauce (didn't bother skinning the tomatoes, since much of the umami flavour sits is in the skin and seeds :).

I won't give a detailed description of how the risotto was made. I simply followed a typical risotto procedure found in most standard cookbooks. The rose water was stirred in at the end of the process. I wanted just a hint of rose, and combining saffron and rose might give a distinctive Persian touch to the risotto. At least, that was the idea, and I didn't want the rose to dominate as it easily will if it's not used with care.

Verdict
I'd say that the chicken vs. rose combination worked well, rather despite than because of the dish as a whole. I felt that several things didn't really work out great:

• the chicken was good but not great, mostly due to the marinating (it'd probably been better plain than marinated, as my son commented)
• the risotto was somewhat on the tart side. I guess I should have spent that extra money on white wine rather than using cheap vinegar (or been lighter on the vinegar). Also, I felt it was a little heavy on parmesan
  

That said, I felt that the rose did not dominate, probably because of the strong parmesan flavour (before adding parmesan, I thought it was heavy on rose, but not afterwards). The rose and chicken blended well together, and still after the meal I could in some way imagine/"visualise" the two flavours lingering together. It's strange, but I can't say the chicken and rose flavour resemble each other, but in some way they're definitely related. However, I really missed the asparagus...

An appropriate Norwegian name for this dish might be "Ros og ris", a phrase for giving feedback/response; "praise & smack".

Matching cold smoked salmon & dark chocolate (TGRWT #15)

The ingredients to match in round no. 15 of "They go really well together" are cold smoked salmon and dark chocolate, and the round is hosted by Mex Mix. I thought I'd give it a go, and ended up with smoked salmon-goat's cheese-chocolate ganache-tortilla roll-ups/wraps.

I've attended "They go really well together" a few times now, and a description of what this flavour pairing relay is really about is given in the previous posts.

Cold smoked salmon wraps are quite popular starter or hors d'oeuvres in Norway, and is commonly made with spreadable goat's cheese. I thought this simple dish with its rather uncomplicated flavour might serve as a good basis for evaluating the salmon-chocolate combination. I wanted the chocolate to be spreadable and therefore made some ganache.

Some of the salmon here in Norway is made using juniper-flavoured smoke. Even though I could not find any match between smoked salmon and juniper berries on the foodpairing web site, this is an "accepted good combination". So I thought using juniper-flavoured cheese and chocolate might add a nice touch (although juniper berries of course are not equal to juniper smoke).

Basic chocolate ganache:
- 100 g dark chocolate (Odense 55%), chopped
- 100 ml double cream
- dried juniper berries, five chopped

The double cream was heated to the boil, the juniper berries were added and let to infuse for a couple of minutes. Chopped chocolate was added while stirring until fully melted. Left to cool, first in room temperature and then in the fridge for 1-2 hrs.

Smoked salmon-goat's cheese-chocolate ganache-tortilla roll-ups:
- Soft wheat flour tortilla
- Spreadable goat's cheese (chevre would probably work as well)
- Smoked salmon
- Rocket/argula

- Balsamic vinegar or lemon juice
- (gin)

The salmon was sliced thinly and brushed with gin and left in the fridge for 3-4 hrs (this made no noticeable difference, save your gin). Goat's cheese, ganache, salmon slices and rocket was spread on the tortilla. The tortillas were rolled and served with either balsamic vinegar or lemon juice for some acidity.

For cheese, I tried two different flavoured varieties: dill and juniper. Both worked, but I'd say that dill was a notch better, as juniper flavoured cheese together with juniper flavoured ganache and rocked gave a slightly too bitter overall experience.

Verdict:
There was no real crash in this dish. However, the salmon and chocolate didn't go up into a higher unity either. The roll-ups do just as well without the chocolate, and in my opinion this means that the chocolate is redundant. The juniper in the ganache was ok, adding a slight bitterness together with the rocket. The acid (balsamic vinegar or lemon juice on the side) was necessary to balance the flavours.

Two different cheese-to-ganache ratios were tested, depending on the area covered by cheese/ganache on the tortilla. Ca. 60:40 cheese:ganache resulted in the chocolate flavour dominating the cheese (but not the salmon). Using less ganache (ca. 80:20 cheese:choc) resulted in just a hint of chocolate.

By the way...
when first seeing this month's combination, my thoughts went to the wonderful comic character Gaston Lagaffe created by ingenious Belgian André Franquin (in Norway, Gaston goes by the name Viggo). Among Gaston's numerous distinctive features is his inherent need for experimenting with explosives and food, and often you wouldn't notice the difference. His favourite office-made dish is chocolate glazed herring (fresh or as kippers). To most of Gaston's readers, this probably sounds like a horrific combination, and I guess that was Franquin's motive. Such an irony then, that Franquin's countrymen at foodpairing.be now indicate that sardines and cocoa/chocolate might indeed be a good match!

Facsimile from a Norwegian Gaston album. Copyright probably the publisher Semic (Egmont), but believed being covered by fair use.

TGRWT #13 roundup: caraway and cocoa

It's time to sum up the entered dishes for They go really well together #13. From the entries, it seems like caraway and cocoa/chocolate indeed do go well together.

However, for starters it should be mentioned that this combination has been discussed on khymos at several instances already. Also, I was made aware of the fact that pumpernickel contains both of these, see discussion and links at Medellitin.

What fascinates me with this month's entries is that you can literally build a whole multi-course meal on caraway and cocoa (in order of submission):

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Caraway cocoa chili
by Brian at The Food Geek
[...] the chili turned out great, [...]all the flavors were balanced quite well. I could certainly taste the caraway, [...] and it definitely adds a new note to the chili. Probably some sesame would have rounded it out nicely.

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Caraway chocolate cake
by M
[...] mixed 150 gram self raising flour, 1 tablespoon cocoa, 1 teaspoon caraway fruits, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 150 gram brown sugar, 75 gram walnuts, 75 gram pine nuts, 75 gram raisins and 75 gram chopped chocolate. I added 300 gram Turkish yoghurt, mixed everything gentle but thoroughly, spooned the mixture into a silicon cake pan and baked the cake in a preheated oven, 170 degrees Celsius, for about 75 minutes.

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Caraway cocoa egg cream
by Rob at The Curious Blogquat
I was able to get the caraway flavor to stick with the chocolate [...] The chocolate is already subdued in an egg cream due to the seltzer, so it was nicely balanced with the caraway. We both enjoyed the drink and found it to be a nice pairing. [...] Interestingly I wouldn't do this combination again, but only because its a bit too "normal" for my liking. It was too good together, and not enough "wow" factor.

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Chocolate cookies with caraway
by Martin at Khymos
In the stripped down version with only cocoa, caraway and some bitter lemon peel there you first notice the cocoa, then there is an aftertaste of caraway. I like caraway, so I was very pleased with the result. [...] Anyhow I think the 10:1 ratio of cocoa to caraway worked very fine. [...] With all the other spices present I wasn’t able to single out the caraway flavor, but it (probably) added to the overall complexity. I really recommend the recipe - even if you decide to omit caraway!

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Chocolate-caraway mousse/caraway caramel tree surrounded by coconut water gelee pond, white chocolate-caraway-rye bread puree and dehydrated chocolate mousse rock (!)
by Larry at tri-2-cook
I like the flavor combo. It's not a powerful statement and it wasn't particularly easy to keep the caraway at the top of the flavor profile with the chocolate but they really do "go well together". Fun stuff.

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Chocolate - caraway - peanut - Kumquat dessert
by Sølve at strezzafoods
I was quite happy with the result. A rich creamy dessert, and the caraway brought a spicy dimension that was both new but also very harmonious. The kumquat added much needed acid and bitterness. All in all a very different and amusing dessert, almost savory with nuts, spice, bitter chocolate and salt.

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Beignets with Duck, caraway-chocolate and juniper sauce
by Alessio (alessiofangano [at] msn.com)

For 15 beignets:
15 Beignets
245 g Duck breast
40 g dark chocolate (60%)
1 tsp Caraway
100 g Butter
60 ml Red Wine like Shiraz
5 Juniper berries
½ tbsp Sugar
0.5 g Guar gum

Put the red wine with the juniper berries in a small saucepan and reduce over low heat with the lid on. When reduced of half, add the sugar and let simmer for some minutes. Strain trough a fine sieve and add guar gum while still warm. Brown butter on a skillet over medium fire. Strain and reserve. Grind caraway seeds in a mortar or spice grinder. Melt chocolate, caraway powder and 1 tsp of brown butter over a bain marie. Pour it on a shallow container so that the chocolate layer will be around 4mm thick. Let cool down at room temperature, unmold and cut into cubes. Refrigerate until ready to use. Take away the skin from the duck breast. Cut the meat in small dices. Render the duck skin in a warm skillet under a weight, drained the excess fat from time to time. Put the brown butter on a pan and when well warm, sauté rapidly the duck dices. Mix duck and chocolate dices in a bowl. Open in two the beignets, put in the lower part some of the duck chocolate mixture. Spoon over a teaspoon of the red wine sauce. Grind over some black pepper and close with the upper part and serve.

Verdict: When eating the beignet, the first aroma to be perceived is that of the juniper. The crunchiness of the beignet is followed by the juiciness of the duck meat and the barely melting chocolate with its caraway notes. In the whole the dish works very well, the tricky part is in the lightness of the beignet. The flavors come out very harmoniously and fulfilling. Chocolate and caraway are a perfect combination especially with red meat or game.

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Chocolate sauerkraut
by Ole Eivind at Helt naturlig
As the sauce coated the cabbage shreds, the initial taste was very chocolatey with a nice caraway aftertaste. I could clearly taste that the two ingredients go really well together. The texture wasn't too bad either, but I wouldn't call the dish a success. The cabbage itself didn't work well, and for a dish consisting of little more, having the cabbage work against you can't be described as much other than a failure. It was an interesting failure however [...]

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Almond-caraway coated chocolate truffles
by yours truly at fooducation
Firstly, a burst of crunchy, salt, roasted almonds followed by rich, dark chocolate. Second, while the chocolate melts and the cocoa flavour still dominates, the caraway comes through and lingers on together with the chocolate. [...] the chocolate and caraway work very well together.

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Some comments on caraway aroma and flavour pairing with cocoa
Interestingly (at least to those of us with chemistry-oriented brains), the compound responsible for the intrinsic caraway aroma is (S)-carvone. The other stereoisomer, (R)-carvone, has a spearmint aroma. A striking example of the effect of chirality/handedness in chemistry: the two compounds are identical apart from the fact that they're mirror images, resulting in very different aromas.

(S)-carvone is also an important aroma component in dill seeds, and caraway is suggested to function as substitute for dill aroma (R. Zawirska-Wojtasiak: "Oils obtained from caraway and dill seeds are almost identical in composition").

(S)-carvone (left) has caraway aroma whereas (R)-carvone on the right smells of spearmint

Aroma components in caraway
Surprisingly, I could not find any literature reports on aroma components in caraway, but The Good Scents Company has listed aroma components for both caraway and chocolate/cocoa:

Aroma components in caraway
(S)-carvone
(Z)-carvone-5,6-oxide
(E)-carveol
(Z)-carveol
cuminyl alcohol
4-isopropyl-2-cyclohexenone
isobutyl angelate
3-hepten-2-one

Also, Flavornet has information on flavour components in caraway, only including carvone and carveol isomers, though. Compared to chocolate and cocoa, caraway seems to be a relatively uncomplicated mixture of aromatic substances. Is this possibly due to roasting of the cocoa beans resulting in very complex mixtures of aroma substances in these (from Maillard reactions etc.)?

I was quite surprised when I didn't find any direct matches between caraway and cocoa/chocolate. Maybe are any common substances in low concentrations? A caraway+cocoa google cross-search at The good Scents company returns a lot of hits, but none(?) with natural occurrence in both ingredients. The matches are mostly in the "odor and/or flavor blends with" category. This is of course uplifting, but gives no definite answers in terms of common components. If anyone can come up with such matches, I'd be happy to have a comment.

Finally, I can't resist taking a somewhat amusing detour by the 1927 Nature article Fluctuations in Affective Reactions to the Odour of Caraway Oil by J. H. Kenneth:

"Fluctuations in the affective reactions to caraway oil claimed attention [...the preference being] higher after lunch than that before. In the case of camphor, rosemary oil, menthol, sassafras oil, fennel oil, and a few other odours, no consistent fluctuations of this nature wore [sic] observed."

So, according to Nature, it's not indifferent what time of day you have your caraway. The paper also includes a plot of preference of caraway odour vs. time of day and moon phases :)

Almond-caraway coated chocolate truffles

As a part of "They go really well together no. 13" (TGRWT #13), I wanted to try on making chocolate truffles. This was a first-timer for me, but I must (not very humbly) say that this time I had a lucky strike.

I think this might be the first time I've made something that gives me that experience you get when you go to a restaurant and they serve something you've never tasted before which leaves you both happy and amazed at the same time. Maybe for the first time, I felt that I'd produced such an experience. It's somewhat like the first time I was able to ride my bike without the support wheels.

Being a rookie in the field of confectionery, Shirley O'Corriher was my crutch (Cookwise, I haven't got around to buying Bakewise, yet). For basis recipe for chocolate truffles, I chose the "Smoothest-Ever Truffles" which worked well. Since I had already made salty almonds and caraway schnaps for Christmas, the table was laid.

Ingredients
5 egg yolks
300 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa, tried two different with similar results)
170 g milk chocolate ("lys kokesjokolade")
60 ml heavy cream
50 g butter (salted)
60 ml caraway schnaps
260 g salty almonds
13 g caraway seeds

Directions
1. Almonds were chopped in food processor and mixed with caraway seeds
2. Chocolate was finely chopped in food processor
3. Cream and egg yolks were heated gently in a pan, stirring constantly until slightly thickened. Butter added and stirred over low heat until melted. Chocolate added and stirred over low heat until melted. Stirred in the caraway schnaps
4. Left to cool in the pan (4-10 °C for a few hours or overnight)
5. Scooped up and made ca. 2-3 cm (1 in) diameter rough spheres. Rolled the spheres in my hands (warm hands make them melt slightly on the surface, helping ground almonds to stick)
6. Rolled in the ground almonds/caraway-mixture and left to cool


The experience
Firstly, a burst of crunchy, salt, roasted almonds followed by rich, dark chocolate. Second, while the chocolate melts and the cocoa flavour still dominates, the caraway comes through and lingers on together with the chocolate. Balance and contrast at the same time, both in flavour and texture, taking me through various phases of experience. Also, the chocolate and caraway work very well together.

The experience is different whether I let it melt in the mouth or if I chew it. Melting in the mouth gives a stepwise flavour experience since the caraway takes some time to come through. Chewing results in all the flavours coming out at the same time.

Comments
The size of the balls seem to make a difference. Too small, and all the tastes come out at once, and the amount of salt/almond/caraway is somewhat overpowering. Making them ca. 2-3 cm (1 in) diameter gives a creamy interior and a somewhat crunchy exterior which, to me, gives the best result.

The caraway schnaps does not seem to cut through the chocolate on its own, but gives that extra bite. I tried covering with cocoa powder rather than the almond/caraway mixture, resulting in no discernible caraway flavour. Hence, the caraway schnaps on its own does not give sufficient caraway flavour.

The amount of salt and caraway is of course a matter of taste preference. Some might want to reduce the amount of salt (i.e. use more lightly salted almonds), and caraway (less caraway vs. chopped almonds). To me the given amounts work well, though.

Reference
O’Corriher, S.: Cookwise. New York: William Morrow 1997.

TGRWT #13: caraway and cocoa/chocolate

"They go really well together" round no. 13 is hereby announced. In taking on the task of hosting this somewhat sinister-sounding round, I thought a whiff of Christmas might be a proper safeguard, announcing caraway and cocoa/chocolate as flavour partners.

For newcomers: TGRWT (They Go Really Well Together) is a monthly(?) open invitation to come up with dishes that combine certain given ingredients that are supposed to match well. The hypothesis is that foods containing one or more common major volatile compound will work well in combination. The result of this might thus be a range of new and, sometimes unlikely, good combinations of ingredients. For further introductions to the topic, see the foodpairing web site and the introduction to the topic at khymos.


This is how you can participate in TGRWT #13:

1. Prepare a dish that combines chocolate and caraway. You can either
use an existing recipe (if there is any) or come up with your own.

2. Take a picture of the dish and write an entry in your blog by
January 1st with TGRWT #13 in the title. Readers will be particularly
interested in how the flavour pairing worked out, so make an attempt
at describing the taste and aroma and whether you liked it or not.

3. A round-up will be posted here (with pictures). Please send an
email to erik_at_fooducation.org with the following details: Your
name, URL of blog, URL of the TGRWT #13 post and a picture for your
entry in the round-up. If you don't have a blog, email me your name,
location, recipe and a brief description of how it worked out and I'll
be glad to include it in the final round-up.

Late addition: deadline 31. December

I'll have a look in the literature, and in the round-up I hope to be able to say something about what makes these two ingredients match, at least according to the favour pairing hypothesis.

Chanterelle + Apricot (TGRWT #12)

The "They go really well together" relay rolls on, and it's time for #12 - matching chanterelle and apricot. Host for this round is Tri2Cook. I've been rather reluctant to try on mushrooms in cooking, but there has to be a first time for everything. So, I strayed into the kingdom of fungi.

Since we had bought a lamb earlier this autumn and had planned on a dinner (literally) on parts of this for some time, I thought this might be a good opportunity. At a wedding dinner many years ago, we were served a wonderful creamed chanterelle side dish with some meat that I now have forgotten (but the chanterelles etched into my memory). We were going to be eight at the table, of which two were children.

The meal

• Oven-roasted lamb shoulders (rosemary, thyme, cellery, carrots, onion, salt, pepper)
  
• Creamed chanterelles with apricots
• Mashed potatoes & carrots (mixed)
• Brussels sprouts and green peas
  
  
• Blue cheese (Royal blue, rather mild)
• Sugared ("sweet-pickled") pumpkin
• Lingonberry jam/jelly (Scandinavian replacement for cranberry jelly)
  

Creamed chanterelles with apricot

• canned chanterelles, 3 tins each containing 110 g mushrooms
• 7-8 dried apricots
• 150-200 ml double cream
• 150 ml skimmed milk or water
  
• 1-2 T butter
• thyme, salt, pepper

The day in beforehand, apricots were chopped in small squares and soaked in the double cream. The mixture was warmed in the microwave until lukewarm and then left to infuse in the fridge overnight, resulting in a yellow apricot-flavoured cream, in which time it had almost solidified. Thinned with skimmed milk and some water until fluid.

The chanterelles were drained, rinsed in cold water and dried on a paper towel. The stock was reduced (very salty as the canning stock was salted). The chanterelles were lightly fried in butter, apricot-cream (with the apricot bits) and spice was added and brought to a light boil. Thickened with corn flour and some of the reduced stock was added.

Lamb shoulders
The day in beforehand, two shoulders from a small free-range lamb (12 kg after slaughtering) were rubbed with a mixture of thyme, rosemary and ground black pepper. Slashed and half garlic cloves inserted. Left to marinate overnight. Next day rubbed with salt and placed in cooking bag. Added one onion cut in four, 3-4 coarsly chopped carrots and a one coarsly chopped cellery. Left in 110-120 °C oven for 4.5 hrs. Since the meat was home-slaughtered free-range, I turned down the idea of a sous-vide approach and went for meat cooked to the brink of disintegration (interior temperature was 100 °C for 1.5-2 hrs).

Gravy
The juice from the lamb shoulders was used as base for a standard gravy made with corn flour, adding the rest of the reduced chanterelle stock.

Verdict
The lamb was great, cooked greens and mashed potatoes/carrots don't need further comments. Two shoulders from such a small lamb was sufficient, but not too much for eight people.

The creamed chanterelles/apricots (chanterots, maybe?) were good, but by no means exceptional. I realise that my lack of formal food education might play a role here, combined with my lack of experience with cooking mushrooms in general. The creamed chanterelles were based on a recipe, but felt somewhat insipid and lacked some sort of freshness. It was almost like chanterelles and apricots were too similar (doubly insipid, in a way). Adding blue cheese made a difference, however, cutting through the rather bland, mildly sweet taste. Maybe the "chanterots" lacked acid, or perhaps a little soy sauce? Or was lamb not the perfect match? Pork or turkey might work even better with this one.

A few thoughts on the pairings in this meal
In planning the meal, I browsed through the main ingredients over at the food pairing site. Starting with the main flavour contributors lamb, thyme, rosemary, garlic and apricots. There were no separate scheme for chanterelle, but one might maybe use mushroom, or...? Not surprising, several matches came up, resulting in the inclusion of blue cheese on-the-side as well as choosing carrots as part of the vegetables. I wanted to add chopped almonds as well, but unfortunately I forgot. The resulting food pairing scheme of the ingredients used is shown below (created using the free CmapTools mind map software).

Erik

Banana and clove milkshake (TGRWT #11)

Martin at khymos.org has posted another invitation to join in on "They go really well together" (TGRWT). The idea is that foods with one or more flavour compounds in common will taste well in combination; the concept of flavour pairing. This is my first attempt to participate, and the focus is what might be work together with kids (i.e. in a school situation).

My first idea was to keep things very simple, and don't add too many ingredients. That way, the flavour pairing experience might also be easier to perceive and evaluate.

Banana and clove milkshake
200 ml milk
500 ml vanilla ice cream
1 banana
4 or 10 whole cloves, each cut in two (for more efficient extraction)

Simmer milk with cloves for five minutes, cool to room temperature. Remove the cloves, cut banana in pieces. Run milk, banana and ice cream in a blender. Serve.

Result: using 10 cloves gives a milk shake with a marked, but not dominant, clove flavour. Using 3-4 cloves gives a milk shake with just a hint of clove flavour. Hence, the latter left me with the question: "there is something different about this, but I cannot really put my finger on it". Quite fascinating. In my opinion, banana milk shake is on the brink to being insipid. The cloves made a difference, adding another note to the drink. Conclusion: I find the banana-clove combination to be successful.

Chocolate stuffed banana
1 banana
3-4 squares milk chocolate (preferably chopped hazelnut-type)
6-7 whole cloves
optional: ice cream and berries/fruit to serve

Cut each banana lengthways, through the skin, making sure you don't cut all the way through the bottom layer of skin. Distribute the cloves by piercing/inserting them along the length of the banana on both (in)sides. Place chocolate squares in the cut of the banana, wrap in aluminium foil and cook for 15-20 minutes at 225 °C (or on barbecue for ca. 10 min). To serve, unwrap the bananas and place them on serving plates, skin and all.

Result: A typical barbecue or hiking dessert, rather heavy on the sweet side. I thought maybe the cloves would make a difference. The cloves did not cut through the heavy, cloying feeling. However, it added a layer of complexity and variation as the different spoonfuls tasted somewhat differently (one spoon had clove flavour, the other hadn't). Serving together with ice cream and slightly tart berries (i.e. redcurrants) compensates for some of the heaviness.

Finally, adding cloves to banana bread would be an interesting variation of this recipe. I've not tried this, however.

Erik