Try your hand at making mouth-watering dishes using Fairtrade ingredients.

Why not use Fairtrade products in your recipes?  Below are some recipes donated to the Fairtrade Foundation to try out using a diverse array of ingredients from Fairtrade fruits to nuts and spices.

More recipes, including many savoury recipes, can be found in the Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook, published by DK .

Banana Fritters with Bitter Chocolate Sauce by Gary Rhodes

Serves 4.
Ingredients
300ml (10floz) sweet cider
100g (4oz) plain flour plus a little extra for coating
25g (1oz) Fairtrade caster sugar
4 Fairtrade bananas, peeled
vegetable oil for deep frying

Bitter chocolate sauce ingredients
300g (10oz) Fairtrade bitter dark chocolate, chopped
150g (5oz) unsalted butter
75ml (3fl oz) double cream

Method
To make the fritter batter, mix the cider, flour and sugar together. Cut each of the bananas horizontally into 4 lengths and lightly four each piece. Dip them in the batter and deep fry in hot oil for about 5 minutes until golden and crispy. Drain well.
To make the sauce, place all of the ingredients together in a bowl over simmering water until the chocolate has completely melted. This sauce must be served warm.
To serve, place the fritters on a plate and pour the chocolate sauce next to them. Alternatively serve the chocolate sauce separately and decorate the fritters with a sprig of mint.

Golden Sunrise Pancake Suprise by Ainsley Harriott

Ingredients
50g/2oz unsalted butter
50g/2oz light muscavado sugar
50g/2oz pecan nuts
Half a Fairtrade pineapple cut into slices
2 large ripe Fairtrade bananas
2 tbsp dark rum or Malibu
25g/1oz Fairtrade raisins

For the pancakes
100g/4oz plain flour
pinch of salt
1 egg
300ml/1/2 pint milk
sunflower oil, for frying
icing sugar, to dust
single cream, to serve

Method

• To make the pancakes, sift the flour and salt into a bowl and make a well in the centre.
• Add the egg and whisk well with a balloon whisk. Gradually beat in the milk to make a smooth batter. Cover and leave to stand for 20 minutes if time allows.
• Heat a large frying pan and brush with a little of the oil. Pour in just enough batter to thinly coat the base of the pan. Cook for 1 minute until golden brown. Turn or toss and cook for another 30 seconds or so until golden. Layer up the cooked pancakes between squares of greased paper and keep warm while cooking the remainder.
• Place the butter and sugar in a large frying pan, stirring until well combined. Add the pecan nuts and sauté for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved.
• Cut each pineapple slice into quarters and cut the bananas into thick slices on the diagonal. Add to the pan, tossing to coat. Cook for another 3 minutes or so until the fruit is lightly caramelised, stirring constantly.
• Pour in the Rum or Malibu, add the raisins and allow the alcohol to cook off. Remove form the heat. Spoon some of the fruit mixture on to each pancake and fold up. Arrange two filled pancakes on each serving plate. Dust with icing sugar and drizzle around a little of the cream. Serve at once.

If you would like to reproduce any of the recipes, please acknowledge the individual if listed.

Mango & Avocado Salad with Sticky Balsamic Vinegar

Serves 4

Ingredients
Generous handful of pine nuts
Olive oil for toasting
2 small Fairtrade avocados (not too ripe)
3 small or medium, ripe Fairtrade mangoes
1 ripe Fairtrade lime
Good quality balsamic vinegar

Method

• Mix the pine nuts with a little olive oil and place in the oven on a baking tray to toast for five minutes, or until nicely golden.
• Meanwhile, peel the avocados and mangoes and slice them lengthways into generous pieces. Mix and arrange them on a plate – but avoid damaging the delicate fruit.
• Add a generous squeeze of lime juice, a drizzle of the stickiest balsamic vinegar you can get your hands on, and scatter the toasted pine nuts on the top.

This recipe is reproduced with the kind permission of Joanne Harris.

Why not try this recipe that won the recent Banana Cake Competition during Fairtrade Fortnight

Oolooloo Banana Cake

(Good Housekeeping c 1970)

100g / 4oz butter

100g / 4oz caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

3 ripe bananas, mashed

175g /7oz SR flour, sifted with

½ teaspn bicarb

1 tbspn or more milk

Icing 175g / 7oz icing sugar

2 teaspns lemon juice

hot water to give coating consistency

Oven temperature 150 C or mark 1-2

Grease an 8-9-inch straight sided sandwich tin. Cream butter and sugar, gradually adding beaten egg then banana. Fold in sifted flour and add milk to give a soft dropping consistency.

Turn into the tin and bake for an hour or so.

Cool a little in tin then on a rack.

Coat with glace icing.