Tim Anderson’s Miso Banana Tartlets

Welcome to City Harvest Cooking with Tim Anderson

City Harvest Cooking is a series where guest chefs and cooks join City Harvest in its London food rescue warehouse to create amazing dishes from surplus food. It’s all about being resourceful and getting creative with whatever might be in City Harvest’s food redistribution depot on the day of cooking. The beauty of food redistribution is its unpredictability, although having a network of fresh produce suppliers means that we often see seasonal goods come through our depot doors.

The fifth chef in our first series of City Harvest Cooking is American-British cook, writer and winner of  2011’s MasterChef competition, Tim Anderson.

Tim’s cooking is primarily informed by his American heritage and his love for regional Japanese food, but it also draws on a personal history of worldwide culinary tourism and a keen interest in food science. A leading voice in the UK on Japanese gastronomy, Tim was the founder of the Japanese soul food restaurant Nanban in Brixton and is the author of five cookbooks on Japanese cuisine: Nanban: Japanese Soul Food, JapanEasy, Tokyo Stories, Vegan JapanEasy, and Your Home Izakaya.

This series of recipes for City Harvest Cooking, however, is inspired by his latest book: Microwave Meals. Tim shows us how microwave cooking is so much more than baked beans and reheating leftovers. Using the microwave is a quick and energy-efficient way to cook, saving time and money. Check out his top microwave tips here. 

Ingredients  (makes 24 tartlets)

Prep time: 10 mins, cooking time: 5 mins, total 15 mins.

• Pre-prepared mini pastry cases / tartlet cases 
• 2-3 Quality Street ‘toffee pennies’ or a toffee/caramel of choice
• 1 heaped tsp Biscoff paste 
• 2-3 ripe bananas
• 1 heaped tsp Clearspring Brown Rice Miso Paste
• 250g ricotta cheese
• 1 handful fresh raspberries

Garnish:

• Fresh raspberries
• Kellog’s Special K dried cereal 

Equipment:

• Standard microwave
• Microwaveable bowl (large enough for all the ingredients – here we use a large Pyrex mixing bowl)
• Whisk or fork (a whisk is easier) 

Method

1. Place the toffees and spoonful of Biscoff paste into a microwaveable bowl and blast on full power in microwave for 30 secs – 1 min until melted.
2. Remove from the microwave and stir gently to combine the melted ingredients. 
3. Remove your ripe bananas from their skins and slice them.kWhish 1 heaped teaspoon of Brown Rice Miso paste into the toffee mixture. Whisk until all 3 ingredients are blended together.
4. Tip the banana slices into the microwaveable bowl with the toffee mixture. 
5. Stir all of the elements together to fully coat the banana in the toffee mix. 
6. This will then need 2 minutes of cooking in the microwave until the bananas have softened and slightly caramelised with the sweet ingredients.
7. While this is cooking, in a separate bowl, drain any excess liquid from your ricotta and whisk until it is light and fluffy.
8. Add a handful of washed, fresh raspberries into the whipped ricotta and start to gently mash them with the whisk. You want the ricotta to be flecked with bits of raspberry, maintaining some of the fruit’s texture.
9. Once the banana mixture is ready, use a teaspoon to fill the pre-prepared pastry tartlet cases with the miso banana mixture. 
10. Allow these to cool to room temperature or colder before topping each tartlet with a dollop of the raspberry ricotta mix.
11. To each tart, add a fresh raspberry and Special K flake for garnish and enjoy 

Check out Tim’s latest book, Microwave Meals, now.